Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 2532

One thread says The Mentalist is airing a repeat from Sept. while another from the LA Times says tonight's show is new. Anyone know which is correct?

Interesting, I wonder how Netflix feels about having their name link to some portable BD player for sale on e-bay.

Thats probably true since in Star Wars the galaxy was a mess and there was a rebellion going on. In Star Trek the Federation was in good shape.

I love both Star Wars and Star Trek. I also love Indiana Jones.

I checked my Time Warner Cable system guide and CBS.com. It's a repeat, but maybe a new episode was scheduled until recently and that's the info that made it to the L.A. Times' office before it was changed. "Big Bang" and "Rob" are new tonight; "Person of Interest" and "Mentalist" are repeats.

Obituary
R.I.P. James Farentino, prolific TV actor
By Sean O'Neal, AVClub.com - Jan. 25, 2012

The Associated Press is reporting the death of prolific character actor James Farentino, a familiar face across four decades of movies and TV shows such as The Final Countdown, Melrose Place, and ER, and an actor whose tumultuous private life was almost as well known as his on-screen work. Farentino died of heart failure at the age of 73.

Farentino worked primarily in television, beginning by parlaying his Universal Studios contract (he was one of the last to be signed in Universal's contract player era) into steady work on 60s television shows such as The Defenders, 77 Sunset Strip, Route 66, The Reporter, Ben Casey, The Fugitive, and Ironside. He turned up in two episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hourplaying a supporting role in the Sydney Pollack-directed Black Curtain, and in the later Death Scene, playing an auto mechanic who woos the daughter (Vera Miles) of a famous film director (John Carradine)and later starred in two episodes of Night Gallery, first as a man who suspects that his wife's aunt might be a witch, and later as a photographer haunted by The Girl With The Hungry Eyes.

Numerous attempts were made to launch series with Farentino in leading roles, but they all proved to be short-lived: Immediately after Farentino starred as one of the two young attorneys recruited to aid Burl Ives on NBC's The Bold Ones: The Lawyers, the network cast him as a well-heeled private eye who charges the titular Cool Million to take a case; it lasted only four episodes. In 1984, he starred alongside Dana Carvey and the late Bubba Smith as one of the lead officers in a special ops team centered around a technologically advanced helicopter code-named Blue Thunder; it lasted 11 episodes. And his oddly parallel forays into sitcoms named for their leading ladiesthe Mary Tyler Moore-starring Mary and the Julie Andrews-starring Julieboth suffered from poor reception and were quickly canceled (in Mary's case, at the request of Moore herself).

Farentino fared better in guest-starring roles, often as a shady character who turned up to cause problems for the regular castas the doctor who toyed with Pamela Sue Martin's affections on Dynasty, or the shady Mr. Beck on Melrose Place, or as George Clooney's estranged father on ER. He was also a prolific and successful actor in TV movies and miniseries, most notably garnering an Emmy nomination for his role as Simon Peter among the all-star cast of Jesus Of Nazareth.

His other major awards nod came in 1967 with a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer, which he won for his performance as the smooth-talking best friend to a sensitive Brian Bedford in The Pad And How To Use It. While his feature work never really lived up to that promise, he did star opposite a well-received Patty Duke in the otherwise corny teen drama Me, Natalie, as a sheriff investigating a series of horrible murders in the HBO horror favorite Dead And Buried, and he had a memorable role in the sci-fi thriller The Final Countdown, starring with Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen as a Naval officer whose amateur historian skills come in handy when the U.S.S. Nimitz is mysteriously time-warped to Pearl Harbor, hours before the Japanese attack.

Off-screen, Farentino was a familiar tabloid presence for his multiple marriages: He was a four-time divorcee, and even reunited with one of his ex-wives, Michele Lee, to play an abusive husband in the TV movie When No One Would Listen. But as much as that raised eyebrows, it was nothing compared to what happened with Frank Sinatra's youngest daughter Tina, whom Farentino pleaded no contest to stalking in 1994 after five years of a very public, very rocky relationship. Farentino was sentenced to three years of probation plus psychiatric and alcohol counseling, and the stigma derailed the later years of his career, leaving Farentino ostracized.

Although the roles on Melrose Place and ER helped, Farentino often expressed bitterness about the lack of jobs he was offered and the quality of films he was reduced to doing after the Sinatra incidentsuch as the Zalman King erotic thriller Women Of The Night, his last feature role. Farentino's final credit would end up being the 2006 TV movie Drive/II, although he made headlines again in 2010 after being arrested on suspicion of battery while trying to physically remove an unidentified man from his home. Sadly, it would prove to be the last time anyone would hear of James Farentino, a solid actor who always did solid work, but who never quite got the opportunity to be a major star.

[CLICK LINK BELOW FOR VIDEO CLIPS OF JAMES FARENTINO'S WORK]

http://www.avclub.com/articles/rip-j...v-actor,68240/

TV Notes
At last, fat chefs shedding the pounds
Food Network comes up with a twist on weight loss shows
By Louisa Ada Seltzer, Media Life Magazine - Jan. 26, 2012

It had seemed every possible take on the weight-loss reality genre has been tried before, from celebs to the morbidly obese competing to shed pounds.

But Food Network has managed to find another angle.

Tonight at 10 p.m. the network premieres "Fat Chef," in which a dozen chefs attempt to lose weight and develop a healthier relationship with food, a real challenge when they have to work with the stuff every single day.

Along with the weekly show, Food Network is offering complimentary healthy recipe ideas on the show's web site.

Though there have been a plethora of weight-loss programs launched since NBC's "The Biggest Loser" became a hit in 2004, viewers don't seem to be losing their appetite for them.

ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition" was the second-highest-rated new show last summer, averaging a 2.2 Nielsen rating in adults 18-49, matching the average for the now-fading "Loser" last fall on NBC.

This strong interest in weight loss reality shows is no surprise considering one-third of the U.S. adult population is obese. Many people draw inspiration from the glut of weight-loss programs to make over their own lives.

If "Fat Chef" becomes a hit for Food Network, which averaged 572,000 18-49s in primetime last year, it will undoubtedly be back for a second season, but it will have a long time to go before it matches "Loser," which is now in season 13.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...the-pounds.asp

TV Review
Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte head to the track in HBO's 'Luck'
David Milch/Michael Mann drama brings the world of horseracing to life
By Alan Sepinwall, HitFix.com - Jan. 25, 2012

One of the great things about art, if you're good at what you do and few in TV history have been better at it than David Milch and Michael Mann, the chief writer and director, respectively, behind HBO's horseracing drama "Luck" is that you can use your art to take something you care deeply about and make other people care deeply too, even if they never expected to.

I have no sentimental attachment to horseracing and could only vaguely follow many of the show's early storylines about Pick Six line-ups and claiming races. Yet I became caught up in the world of the track, and the passions of the people who gravitate towards it, thanks to the artistry of Milch ("Deadwood," "NYPD Blue"), Mann ("Miami Vice," "Crime Story") and their many gifted collaborators, including a cast headed by Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte.

"Luck" (which begins its 9-episode season Sunday at 9 p.m. on HBO) is a show about a sport that has seen far, far better days. The Santa Anita racetrack where most of the action takes place is usually 3/4 empty. The people who hang around the track trainers and vets, gamblers and owners, reporters and jockeys all can tell that they should probably be plying their trade somewhere else, and yet there is nowhere else they would rather be.

(Some mild spoilers follow, but most of them refer to the show's first episode, which HBO aired as a sneak preview in mid-December and will be airing again on Sunday night.)

Hoffman plays Chester "Ace" Bernstein, legendary fixer who has just emerged from a prison stretch determined to get revenge on the men who robbed him of three years of his life, but only inasmuch as his scheme doesn't interfere with Pint of Plain, the beautiful, gentle horse he bought to race at Santa Anita.

Because Ace is on parole, he's not legally allowed to own a horse, and we learn that he engineered an elaborate, costly ruse so that his driver/bodyguard Gus Demitriou (Dennis Farina, who was discovered by Mann for "Thief" and later fronted "Crime Story") could buy Pint of Plain for him. And the longer "Luck" goes on, the more obvious it becomes that most of the people hanging around Santa Anita have contorted themselves in some irrational way to get there and stay there.

When a quartet of degenerate gamblers led by expert handicapper Jerry (Jason Gedrick) and his dyspeptic friend Marcus (Kevin Dunn) wins big one day, they pour their cash into subsidizing a lifestyle that barely acknowledges the world away from the track. Former Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Ronnie (played by real-life champion jockey Gary Stevens, who continues on the promise he showed as an actor in "Seabiscuit") has turned to booze and painkillers to deal with the countless injuries and heartaches of his profession, but he can't walk away.

Neither can Walter Smith (Nolte), an aging trainer still tortured by the death of one of his horses, and who has now poured his entire mind, body and soul into getting its son, Gettin' Up Morning, ready to race. Nolte gets to deliver a number of riveting speeches to the horse (as we saw on "Deadwood," Milch is fond of characters monologuing to animals, objects and/or people that can't talk back), and he gives himself over so physically to the role that it appears on a number of occasions that Walter may keel over dead in an instant if things go poorly for his prize animal.

It's a race involving that horse in the show's fourth episode that brings the series together. Like a lot of HBO dramas including the all-time great ones like "Deadwood," "The Wire" and "The Sopranos" "Luck" takes a few hours to establish its world, characters and rules, and there are some stumbles in the early chapters.(*) But when Gettin' Up Morning races in front of the small crowd, "Luck" and its love of this dirty, obsolete, addictive world comes to life. The writing, direction, editing and acting all come together to paint a beautiful picture of why these people don't want to leave, and why you should stay there, too.

(*) In particular, there's another trainer, Turo Escalante, played by John Ortiz, whose paranoia and deliberately obtuse manner of speech makes some of the plot in the early episodes especially hard to decipher, even for those who might speak fluent Milch.

Television is generally known as a writers' medium, but in this case, the magic feels at least 50/50 between words and pictures. Mann directed the pilot, and does a remarkable job of capturing both what's alien about the horses (the close-ups of their eyes frequently make them look insane, when in fact they're just being horses) but also what seems so human and understandable about them. (Hoffman has a romantic storyline opposite Joan Allen, but it's clear that Ace is never more in love nor at peace than when he's around Pint of Plain.) Later episodes were directed by an impressive lineup (Phillip Noyce, for instance, directs that pivotal fourth episode) who continue the visual template established by Mann, particularly in the race scenes. There's at least one race per episode, and they should get repetitive after a while, particularly since most revolve around one of three horses, but Mann and company put you right into the middle of the action, and each race is hypnotic in one way or another.(**)

(**) From time to time, I'll talk about The "Studio 60" Problem, where a show keeps telling you someone or something is incredible, when what the viewer can see suggests mediocrity at best. The races on "Luck" the one in episode 4 in particular do not suffer from this problem. They play with every bit the drama and energy that's reflected on the faces of the characters watching from the stands.

Hoffman is the big name, and gives an impressively buttoned-down performance. (Ace trusts no one but Gus, and perhaps likes no one but the horse, and therefore plays it tight with the rest of the world.) But even though most of the A-list talent also including Farina, Allen and Michael Gambon as a delightfully profane mobster is collected in Ace's corner of the series, that storyline feels largely separate from the rest of the action. There are different groups at the track who largely stick to themselves the gamblers with each other, the jockeys with stammering agent Joey (Richard Kind), Escalante with patient horse doctor Jo (Jill Hennessy) but all ultimately seem connected to one another, where Ace only becomes a part of the world when he sets his revenge campaign aside for a bit to swoon over Pint of Plain. It's not a bad show he's in; just a different one.

Because Hoffman and Farina are off to one side, and because Nolte's best scenes tend to feature just Walter and Gettin' Up Morning, the heart of the show unexpectedly belongs to Gedrick and Dunn, who are tremendous. All of the characters are in some ways avatars for Milch's obsessions and addictions, but those two (and Ritchie Coster and Ian Hart as their more simple-minded pals) stand out as the most human, vulnerable and empathetic. Jerry deludes himself into believing that his skill at picking the ponies somehow extends to all forms of gambling, and goes on long self-destructive poker benders, while the way Marcus bends his self-loathing into a sarcastic suit of armor will be familiar to any Andy Sipowicz fan.

The show isn't perfect, but is far closer to "Deadwood" than to Milch's last HBO series, the impenetrable (but occasionally fascinating) "John from Cincinnati," which mixed surfing with a complicated plot that was about (I think) angels coming to Earth to prepare us for the Second Coming. There's an element of the divine to "Luck" as well the horses generate their own dust clouds that, mixed with the evocative Santa Anita light, makes it look like each has his or her own halo and a sense that for these people, the track is itself a church, a place for them to turn when the rest of the world doesn't make sense, a place to channel their demons and try to feel whole, a place where life is still capable of wonder.

But the spiritual elements here are just subtext, and part of a vastly more coherent and cohesive narrative than anything Milch did on "John." I think Milch knew the story he wanted to tell with "John" but didn't know how to tell it in a way that the rest of us could see what was in his head. The world of the track is one he knows so intimately that "Luck" ran the risk of being too inside in a different way, a story by an expert accessible and interesting only to other experts. But it's clear and engaging and moving to this novice. I may still not understand all the details after 9 hours, but when the starting gate opens and the horses take off, I see what Walter and Ace and Marcus and the rest are seeing and with the talent assembled in front of and behind the camera, that's more than enough.

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-al...k-in-hbos-luck

TV/Legal Notes
HFPA was perceived as joke, former Dick Clark executive says
By Joe Flint, Los Angeles Times' 'Company Town' Blog - Jan. 25, 2012

The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., owner of the Golden Globe Awards, was "considered somewhat a joke," before Dick Clark Productions partnered with the association on the television show, a former top executive at the company testified Wednesday.

Fran LaMaina, the retired president and chief operating officer of Dick Clark Productions, said the perception of the HFPA was that of a "scandalous organization" whose "votes were bought" back in the early 1980s. LaMaina made his statements during the second day of a legal battle going on between HFPA and Dick Clark Productions in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles over who controls the TV rights to the annual awards show.

He was referring to a scandal in the late 1960s over how the HFPA selected winners for the Golden Globes that drove the show off of network television after the Federal Communications Commission said the association was misleading viewers. The show, which about a decade later reappeared on television, was ridiculed in the early 1980s for giving entertainer Pia Zadora an award.

"Dick Clark's reputation was the antithesis of the HFPA," LaMaina said. He added that Dick Clark and his production company would need to rebuild the Golden Globes to bring it some credibility. He was being questioned by attorney Marty Katz (of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP), who is representing Dick Clark Productions in the case.

The two sides are debating the meaning of a 1993 amendment to their partnership agreement, which is almost 30 years old. Dick Clark Productions, now owned by Red Zone Capital, a private equity firm headed by Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder, claims the amendment gives it the power to negotiate a new TV deal with NBC, the longtime home of the Globes, without HFPA approval.

"The contract says no such thing," said Daniel Petrocelli, the O'Melveny & Myers lawyer who is representing the HFPA, in his opening remarks on Tuesday. The HFPA wanted to shop the show to other networks to drive up the license fee.

The actions of Dick Clark Productions prevented "the rights from being sold to the highest bidder," Petrocelli said, adding that the suggestion that the HFPA would have signed an agreement that would allow that "defies common sense."

The HFPA has accused Dick Clark Productions, which is now headed by Mark Shapiro, a former top executive at ESPN with long ties to Snyder, of trying to steal control of the glitzy event at the Beverly Hilton hotel.

On Tuesday, Petrocelli questioned LaMaina and tried to suggest that the former top lieutenant to Dick Clark had misled the HFPA on the significance of the 1993 amendment.

"I don't think I misled the Hollywood Foreign Press," LaMaina said Tuesday, adding that explaining the amendment wasn't his job.

In his opening remarks, Katz suggested the reason for the trial is that there are factions of the HFPA who want to change the deal and have wanted out of the agreement since Dick Clark Productions was sold to Mosaic Media Group in 2004. Red Zone acquired DCP in 2007.

The trial is expected to last a few weeks, and other witnesses include Mark Shapiro and former NBC business affairs chief Marc Graboff.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ente...exec-says.html

TV Reviews
'Inside Comedy' (Showtime) and 'The Ruckus' (Comedy Central)
Take My Comedy Influences. Please.
By Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times - Jan. 26, 2012

If it wasn't a trend before, it certainly will become one on Thursday night with the premiere of Inside Comedy on Showtime. The business of being funny has spawned a cottage industry of comedians talking about the business of being funny.

But if you're more interested in jokes than in the stories behind them, Comedy Central also has a new offering on Thursday: Russell Simmons Presents The Ruckus. It features comics who generally haven't achieved the household-name status of those on the Showtime series, though some are well established. Together the shows make an illuminating if accidental pairing.

On Inside Comedy David Steinberg, a comic who has become a director, interviews famous funny folks like Robin Williams and Chris Rock about the art of comedy. Most of Mr. Steinberg's subjects started as stand-ups, though they have transcended the club circuit thanks to television and movies.

In the three episodes provided for review the show still seems to be tinkering with its format. One features only Larry David, which may be a bit more Larry David than is absolutely necessary. Another has Brad Garrett, Martin Short and Billy Crystal, and you end up feeling as if you didn't see enough of any of them.

It's the premiere that gets the balance right. It has Jerry Seinfeld and Don Rickles, comics of vastly different styles who make a surprisingly complementary pairing.

Mr. Rickles and his insult-comedy shtick have grown more irritating as he has aged, but he's nothing but engaging here: funny, knowledgeable and even a bit warmhearted. Mr. Seinfeld is getting a little overexposed in this capacity, having become a go-to guy when something needs to be said about comedy or comics. (See Encore's recent Jerry Lewis documentary; or Talking Funny, last year's HBO special; or Bill Cosby's Mark Twain Prize award ceremony, among other examples.) But he's insightful nonetheless.

There's nothing better for a comedian than being hemmed in, being closed off, shut out, not welcome; that's nutrition, he says, talking about the dangers of the fame and comfort level Seinfeld brought him. Acceptance is a very dangerous thing for comedians.

Mr. Seinfeld and Mr. Rickles are interviewed separately, and what makes the episode so satisfying is the way their interviews are spliced together and enhanced with clips. There is one particularly perfect example of this. Each man talks about performing in front of a president, and then we see footage from the performances. For Mr. Seinfeld the president is Barack Obama. For Mr. Rickles it's Ronald Reagan.

One thing is inescapable about the comics on Mr. Steinberg's roster: virtually all of them are white. The Ruckus could help correct that imbalance: the comics on the first two episodes of that show (as on Mr. Simmons's Def Comedy Jam series) are black, and they're all pretty good, though the show's host, J B Smoove who incidentally was on Mr. David's Curb Your Enthusiasm is mostly just annoying.

Watching their routines you could stir up a debate about whether black comics are really all that different from white comics: There are airplane jokes, dating jokes, jokes about gay people, jokes about childhood, jokes about sex. It might be revealing to sit some of Mr. Simmons's comics down with Mr. Steinberg, who is a somewhat lazy interviewer and often falls back on the question Who were your influences?

Kareem Green, the funniest of the three comics in the first episode of the Simmons show, might be especially interesting to hear on that question. He kills with a bit about the inner thoughts of sperm. Has he ever seen the hilarious sperm scene in Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*but Were Afraid to Ask)? He sure does cover a lot of the same territory. Maybe there is a universal funny.

INSIDE COMEDY
Showtime, Thursday nights at 11, Eastern and Pacific times; 10, Central time.

RUSSELL SIMMONS PRESENTS THE RUCKUS
Comedy Central, Thursday nights at 10 and 10:30, Eastern and Pacific times; 9 and 9:30, Central time.

http://tv.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/art...ref=television

TV Notes
HBO: Another day, another order for TV project set in Washington
By Lisa de Moraes, Washington Post - Jan. 24, 2012

HBO is seriously in love with Washington.

While the TV industry, by and large, gives Washington a miss and tries not to think about the ratings heartaches that were The Real Housewives of Washington and The Real World: D.C., among other shows, the premium cable network keeps gobbling up shows set in our fair city.

HBO just ordered a pilot for a comedy about a Jewish family living in Washington; the show is to be directed and executive-produced by Ben Stiller.

Stiller has cast his favorite actor himself in the lead role, and Alan Alda is tapped as a possible co-star.

The series hails from novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, who is among the show's executive producers. Foer is the guy who wrote the book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which got turned into that newly Oscar-nominated weeper starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock.

HBO promises that the new comedy will be politically, religiously, culturally, intellectually and sexually irreverent.

Ben Stiller continues to be a major, multi-talented star because of his discerning ability to embrace creative and innovative projects whatever the medium. From major blockbuster motion pictures to small independent films, from Broadway to off-Broadway, the common thread is always the excellence of the material, said HBO's president of programming, Michael Lombardo, who apparently did not see last year's Tower Heist.

Speaking of Tower Heist, Stiller's co-star in that flick, Eddie Murphy, is the latest to be cast in HBO's ages-in-development biopic about former Washington mayor Marion Barry. (As long ago as 2002, the network announced and we reported that Chris Rock was going to executive-produce its biopic about the controversial politician and that Jamie Foxx would star.)

Those are just two of the latest Washington-based projects on HBO's dance card. Here are two more:

● Julia Louis-Dreyfus stars in HBO's new comedy series Veep, about the VPOTUS.

● Julianne Moore depicts former Alaska governor Sarah Palin in Game Change, HBO's upcoming film about the 2008 presidential race.

Just last May, HBO premiered its flick Too Big to Fail, based on Andrew Ross Sorkin's book Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System about the 2008 financial meltdown and the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

HBO's enthusiasm for Washington-set programming somehow survived the network's experience with the 2003 mostly improvised drama series K Street. On the bright side, the series about lobbyists and politicians in Washington starred John Slattery. But HBO cut ties to the show after fewer than a dozen episodes and we still wince when someone mentions the scenes featuring James Carville or Mary Matalin.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...LgMQ_blog.html

Tech/Business Notes
Netflix deal with Warner Bros. includes delay in queues
By Ben Fritz, Los Angeles Times' 'Company Town' Blog - Jan. 26, 2012



Under a new deal between the two companies, Netflix users won't just have to wait 56 days to rent Warner Bros. movies on DVD. They'll have to wait 28 days to add the movies to their queues.

As part of the Warner's continuing effort to boost its DVD, Blu-ray, and video-on-demand business, the studio's new deal with Netflix throws up a new roadblock for people willing to wait and get the movie as part of their monthly subscription.

Beginning Feb. 1, when the new agreement goes into effect, Netflix customers won't even be able to add Warner movies to their queues until four weeks after the DVDs go on sale, a knowledgeable person not authorized to speak publicly confirmed. They would then have to wait another four weeks until Netflix starts shipping the discs.

Under the companies' previous agreement, users could add discs to their queues even before they went on sale. Warner executives apparently believed that policy made it easier for consumers to wait, confident that the discs would arrive eventually.

But now when users search for Warner's "A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas," which goes on sale Feb. 7, the Netflix website simply says the movie is not available. Consumers will have wait until March 6 to add the film to their queues and until April 3 to get it in the mail.

Warner Bros. has been on the leading edge of a group of movie studios that have taken steps to encourage consumers to buy DVDs and Blu-ray discs or rent movies via video-on-demand, transactions that are far more profitable for the studios than rentals via Netflix or Redbox.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ente...in-queues.html

Hollywood never gets it. This is will NOT result in more people buying the H&K DVD. All it will do will result in more people downloading it illegally. In which case Hollywood gets NOTHING.

This sounds good to me.

More people forced to buy the Blu-ray instead of using ****ty Netflix streaming is a win for everyone who appreciates acceptable audio and video fidelity.

Netflix wants me to "Come back for only $7.99 a month" (for streaming). Think I'll pass.

I think you need to read the article more carefully. They're adding to the time Netflix must wait to offer disc (including BD) rentals, not just streaming. If you think people are going to run off and buy BD's at full retail shortly after release rather than rent them, or watch them digitally (legally or otherwise), your nuts.

What do 'his nuts' have to do with anything?

Business Notes
Time Warner Cable Announces $4B Share Repurchase And A Dividend Hike
By David Lieberman, Deadline.com - Jan. 26, 2012

This morning’s news could shift Time Warner Cable shares out of neutral. In addition to the stock buyback and 17% dividend increase, to 56 cents a share per quarter, the No. 2 cable company reported strong 4Q earnings based mostly on growing broadband sales. The company generated $564M in net income, up 43.9% vs the last quarter in 2010, on revenues of nearly $5B, up 4%. The revenue figure matched analyst expectations. Earnings excluding unusual items, at $1.39 a share, beat the $1.20 that the Street forecast.

Time Warner Cable also attracted more subs than many analysts anticipated, even though it lost 129,000 video customers dropping the total to 11.89M. That was offset by a 117,000 increase in broadband customers, to nearly 10M, and 37,000 additional phone customers, to 4.5M. The results follow a 12-month period during which Time Warner Cable shares only appreciated 2.7% — due in part to investor concerns that pay TV companies will be squeezed by rising programming costs and consumer cord cutting.

But CEO Glenn Britt says that he has “a full slate of strategic and operational initiatives planned for the year ahead, all designed to generate strong cash flow, enable future growth and provide attractive returns to shareholders.” He added that the stock repurchase and dividend increase illustrate that Time Warner Cable can provide investors with cash even as “we continue to invest in the long-term growth of our business.”

http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/time...re-repurchase/

* * * *

Business Notes
AT&T Reports 4Q Loss As It Recovers From T-Mobile Debacle

AT&T shares are down more than 2% in pre-market trading after it dumped a lot of bad news into a 4Q report that includes costs tied to the collapse of its $39B effort to acquire T-Mobile. The phone giant ended the period with a $6.7B net loss, down from a $1.1B profit in the same quarter last year, on revenues of $32.5B, up 3.6%.

The revenue figure slightly beat the $32B that analysts expected. But even after excluding several one-time expenses, including those tied to the T-Mobile deal, earnings would have come in at 42 cents a share — a penny shy of the 43 cents that the Street expected. AT&T had to report a $1.12 a share loss, though: T-Mobile cost $4.2B. The company also took a $6.3B charge for actuarial losses from its benefit plans, and a $2.9B asset impairment charge for its directory business. In addition to the unusual items, AT&T lost about 1.1M phone wireline customers to end the year with 39M. The news wasn’t all bleak. AT&T says that it added 208,000 U-verse video customers, bringing its total to 3.8M. It also was a record quarter for smartphone sales.

CEO Randall Stephenson says that AT&T starts the year “with the best visibility we’ve had in some time, and we’re well positioned to deliver solid results.” He added the magic words that shareholders of companies like his long to hear: “In short order, we will begin share repurchases to deliver significant value to our owners.”

http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/att-...obile-debacle/

The delay is on DVD by mail not on streaming content.

And on my PS3 that 1080 streaming content looks pretty darn good.

In my case, I dumped streaming and went to one disc at a time in all their silliness, then started a plan with Blockbuster.

I think a lot of people figured out what I did: Blockbuster simply sucks with their by mail service. I have yet to get a new release from them by mail, no matter how many open slots I have in my queue each Tuesday. So, I was forced to go to the nearby store to get them - often with no trouble.

The problem? My store is going away, making the one little thing that makes the service suck less go away for me. Now, I'll have to contend with available items at the top of my queue being skipped, glacially slow shipping and delayed check ins. So, I'm reducing my BB plan and have added a disc back to Netflix. I'm still not giving them any money for streaming that I almost never used due to its lack of content I care to see.

So, I haven't quite forgiven Netflix for making its disc renters feel like outcasts, but I've gotten new releases from them 2 weeks in a roll on Tuesday. Plus, I've gotten a few discs listed as Very Long Wait on BB.

Sure, BB apparently has made themselves immune to studio delays, but I don't give a rats behind if they don't send them to me. When Netflix has a delay and I can still get it sooner from them, that's a problem.

I'll keep my BB plan a bit longer to see what happens, but I'll knock it down to one disc art a time. At that rate, I should get at least one or two a month from them based on normal shipping speed.

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

Nielsen Overnights (18-49)
'Touch' posts season's second-best drama bow
New Kiefer Sutherland show averages a 3.9 in 18-49s
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Jan. 26, 2012

Fox's "American Idol" slid in its second Wednesday outing, but it did provide a solid lead-in for the new Kiefer Sutherland drama "Touch," whose sneak preview drew strong numbers.

"Touch" averaged a 3.9 adults 18-49 rating, according to Nielsen, becoming the second-highest-rated new drama premiere this season, behind ABC's "Once Upon a Time," which averaged a 4.0 in October.

"Touch" will officially premiere March 19.

"Touch" retained 61 percent of "Idol's" audience, which may not sound impressive but according to Fox is the highest retention level ever for a drama debuting behind "Idol."

"Idol" was off 14 percent from last week's premiere, which drew a 7.4. Last week's premiere was two hours, while last night's show was only an hour. The 8 p.m. hour of "Idol" averaged a 7.0 last week.

Elsewhere last night, CBS's "CSI" hit a season high with a 3.3 at 10 p.m. for the farewell episode for original cast member Marg Helgenberger. The show was up 18 percent over last week.

Fox finished first for the night among 18-49s with a 5.2 average overnight rating and a 14 share. CBS was second at 2.9/8, Univision third at 1.7/4, ABC fourth at 1.5/4, NBC fifth at 1.3/4, Telemundo sixth at 0.7/2 and CW seventh at 0.5/1.

As a reminder, all ratings are based on live-plus-same-day DVR playback, which includes shows replayed before 3 a.m. the night before. Seven-day DVR data won't be available for several weeks. Forty-three percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

At 8 p.m. Fox led with a 6.4 for "Idol," while CBS and Univision tied for second at 1.7, CBS for a repeat of "Criminal Minds" and Univision for "La Que no Podia Amar." ABC was fourth with a 1.5 for repeats of "The Middle" and "Suburgatory," NBC fifth with a 1.4 for "Whitney" (1.4) and "Are You There Chelsea?" (1.4), Telemundo sixth with a 0.8 for "Una Maid en Manhattan" and CW seventh with a 0.7 for "One Tree Hill."

Fox was first again at 9 p.m. with a 3.9 for "Touch," while CBS took sole possession of second place with a 3.6 for a new "Criminal Minds." ABC was third with a 2.1 for repeats of "Modern Family" and "Happy Endings," Univision fourth with a 1.8 for the first hour of a soccer match between Mexico and Venezuela, NBC fifth with a 1.2 for a repeat of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," Telemundo sixth with a 0.7 for "Flor Salvaje" and CW seventh with a 0.3 for a repeat of "Remodeled."

CBS moved to first at 10 p.m. with the 3.3 for "CSI," followed by Univision with a 1.6 for its soccer match. NBC was third with a 1.4 for another "SVU" rerun, ABC fourth with a 0.9 for a repeat of "Revenge" and Telemundo fifth with a 0.7 for "Relaciones Peligrosas."

Fox was also first for the night among households with a 9.0 average overnight rating and a 14 share. CBS was second at 7.6/12, ABC third at 2.9/5, NBC fourth at 2.7/4, Univision fifth at 1.7/3, Telemundo sixth at 0.9/1 and CW seventh at 0.7/1.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...-drama-bow.asp

I also started with BB by mail when Netflix did the big price changes. Their mail times are definitely slower then Netflix, but the saving grace of the program was that you could trade in at a store and get another rental immediately.

Well my store closed this month. So I'm done with them. If I need to rent a disc I'll just hit one of the half dozen Redboxes around me.

the description of the episode is one that was shown early this season ..

Yeah I noticed that as well ..
I love this thread ....

I really like the heads up it gives me on planning my DVR choices

As will I , closed my account when they split the services & charged more ..
AND I don't miss either at all .... Redbox works just fine for me & I can control how I spend my cash .

Plus not have a monthly Auto charge to my bank account.

Is it JUST me Or am i like others who don't want automatic withdrawals from bank account anymore ??
I've moved back to writing checks & the secure feeling that I'm in control of my cash flow ,not my computer .

Craig Ferguson would say those are low hanging fruit !


L O L

It is a repeat. The Times gives the correct episode description, but fails to label it a repeat.

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/listings/20120105cbs04/

Sweeps starts next week.

They copy-pasted the article it seems from when the show aired.. i was scratching my head.. again Lisbon leaves? what the?

Every recurring bill I have, maybe a dozen or so, is by auto pay. I value my time quite a bit.

It is a real head-scratcher. People have gotten accustomed to easy access to content (legal or illegal), so what does WB do? Make the legal content that much harder to get. Geniuses.

Edit: Also, I usually queue up movies while they're still in theaters so I don't forget about them when they're finally released. This isn't going to help me remember them.

I do the same thing while titles are still in the theaters. The end result will be that I will watch less WB movies since I will forget about them.