Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 2545

Critic's Notes
I’m Sick of Waiting for TV Shows to Get Good
By Brian Moylan, Gawker.com - Feb. 6, 2012

Last night while taking refuge from the Super Bowl I tuned into the second episode of Luck, HBO's new horse racing show. I fell asleep, just as I did during the first episode. Yes, I know this is supposed to be a "slow burn," but how long am I supposed to wait before feeling the heat?

Luck has all the hallmarks of a prestige project: It was created by Deadwood mastermind David Milch, it stars dramatic heavyweights Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte, the pilot was directed by Hollywood's Michael Mann, and it has already been renewed for a second season after a healthy three million people tuned in for the first episode. Like so many of television's recent critical darlings, Luck—with its Dickensian world of intricate webs woven by the rich and poor festering around a California horse racing track—seems like it will take some time to get into. But now, after falling asleep during both of its episodes, I'm wondering if I really want to stick around.

That's the problem with these slow burn shows, especially ones with fancy pedigrees backed by highbrow channels like HBO or AMC. We can't imagine how they could not be good, so we keep watching, episode after boring episode, all the while waiting for some amazing payoff. And sometimes, like a skilled horse coming from behind, it pays off. But remember: For every The Wire there is a Treme, and for every Mad Men there is a The Killing.

Thanks to shows like The Wire and Mad Men, two of the best series in recent memory, we've been lead to believe that shows with a deliberate pace will be rewarding. We're told that if we keep drinking the gross medicine, we'll eventually be the better for it. As we get deeper into the creators' complicated universe, the plotting becomes more intricate and the characters more complete, and the show improves. In most cases, that rule is generally true. But on the flip side, it took me two entire seasons to see that the cacophony of storylines on Treme would never come together to make beautiful music. It took 13 long weeks of The Killing to realize that there was no real answer to all of our questions about who killed stupid Rosie Larson. Sometimes slow isn't good. Sometimes slow is just drab.

My attention span is getting shorter and shorter. I gave The Comeback a chance when that aired and ended up loving it, but I jumped ship after the second episode of Enlightened. Yes, for every show like Game of Thrones, Deadwood, and Homeland (which, yes, I finally watched), there has been Boardwalk Empire, John from Cincinnati, or Ringer (which, yes, I am still watching). I'm not sure what to think.

Not every show has to take so much time to build. Breaking Bad, thanks to the audacity of its premise, was great right out of the gate. It's gotten better over time (though potentially a little too baroque in its last season), but I was hooked from the first episode. Then again, I was hooked on Lost and Battlestar Galactica for years before being destructively disappointed in their outcomes.

Strangely enough, I think Lost and Glee have more to do with my shortened attention span for prestige television than anything. Many people were drawn into these shows starting with the pilots. They were left foaming at the mouth for any news about upcoming episodes and speculating on what the future could hold; so rabidly devoted that it might have even ruined a few lives. Lost gave us the sense that if we just stuck with it, everything would be explained in time. It never would. Glee made us think that we had found something new and original that would be great for seasons and seasons. It spiraled out of control after only one year and continues to sputter on, a mocking shell of what it once was.

I've learned my lesson. Now, before investing so much time into getting into a show, I want a promise that I'm not wasting my time and effort. I need to have some glimmer, some little iota of hope that the people who are running this whole thing aren't going to take the space I've reserved for them in my DVR for granted. So far, Luck, I'm not getting any of that. After two episodes (and two naps), I'm pulling the trigger. It's off to the glue factory with you.

http://gawker.com/5882685/im-sick-of...ws-to-get-good

Who cares about your impatient attention span. That's like saying Moby Dick was about a whale--- and it was too long. I loved last night's episode. This show gets my heart pounding like the best of them. Sure, it's not for everyone- that's part of the reason it's so great. And anyone who has to take "refuge" from last nights unforgettable sporting event obviously is not in the demo for Luck.

TV/Business Notes
Disney's ABC, Univision Mull News-Channel Launch
By Arian Campo-Flores and Sam Schechner, Wall Street Journal - Feb. 7, 2012

Walt Disney Co. and Univision Communications Inc. are in talks to create a new 24-hour cable-news channel that will broadcast in English, in an effort to keep pace with changing demographics among U.S. Hispanics and reach a new audience of English speakers, people familiar with the negotiations said.

The new channel would plunge Disney's ABC News more directly into the fractious cable-news wars, competing alongside Time Warner Inc's CNN, News Corp.'s Fox News and Comcast Corp.'s MSNBC.

And it would mark a big strategic shift for Univision, which since its beginnings five decades ago has been defined by its Spanish-language broadcasts,

If a deal is done, the companies' goal is to get the networka joint venture based in Miami, where Univision has studiosup and running before the November elections, the people said.

The people cautioned that the deal still isn't done and could still unravel.

Discussions about the proposed venture have been underway for more than half a year, largely spearheaded on the Disney side by ABC News President Ben Sherwood and on the Univision side by Univision Networks President Cesar Conde, the people familiar with the negotiations said.

A spokesman for the Disney-ABC Television Group declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Univision declined to comment.

For both Disney and Univision, the proposed venture would be a bet that consumer spending by U.S. Hispanics will keep growing faster than the rest of the population.

It is also a recognition that U.S.-born Hispanics, who often speak English more than Spanish, are now fueling Hispanic population growth more than Spanish-speaking immigrants.

Even so, the proposed news channel is a gamble that its owners can find room to expand in the cable-TV business. Already, pay-TV providers are complaining about growing costs to license channels, and the number of consumers signing up for TV service has sputtered after decades of continuous growth.

Disney's potential involvement may give the venture some valuable bargaining power. Disney also owns most of ESPN, one of the most valuable cable channels on the dial.

In one structure under consideration, Disney would be responsible for both advertising sales and distribution, so it could use the heft from its ESPN franchise to help sell the new channel to cable operators, people familiar with the negotiations said.

But that logic might take a while to pay off in this case. Disney has recently completed several long-term deals with major operators like Comcast, which could give it less leverage to push distribution of a new network not already included in those deals.

The effort to reach an agreement for a new channel comes as Univisionlong the most-watched Spanish-language U.S. channel, and the fifth most-watched channel of any language in prime-timefaces increased competition for the growing ranks of Hispanic viewers.

Rival Telemundo, controlled by Comcast, has been investing heavily in new content. Meanwhile, Wall Street Journal owner News Corp. has partnered with a Colombian TV company to create a new broadcast channel named MundoFox.

Univision had previously said it planned to launch three new cable channels this year, including a news channel.

But talks to partner with Disney to make an English-speaking news channel are in part an effort to outflank Univision's existing Spanish-language competitors.

On one hand, the channel will open Univision to the larger universe of non-Hispanic viewers. Univision also sees English-dominant Hispanics as a new opportunity, one of the people familiar with the negotiations said.

"Their lives are in English," that person said of English-dominant Hispanics. "They want to see culturally relevant news they can't find anywhere else."

The same thinking prompted Univision's decision in recent weeks to start making English subtitles available for its popular soap operas known as telenovelas.

Univision's news division has also been dabbling in English. A Tumblr website launched last year features articles and videos in English. And a new English-language news website is scheduled to be launched in March.

Univision and ABC News have already collaborated on election polling, and some of their reporters are contributing to both networks.

ABC News, like other broadcast-news divisions, has previously considered partnering with a cable outlet, in part to help cut costs and boost revenue.

ABC News, for instance, long held on-and-off talks about partnering with Bloomberg LP, which runs a financial-news channel. CBS Corp.'s CBS News has at times had talks with CNN.

The benefit of such deals is that they allow broadcast-based news divisions to share the expensive load of news gathering. They also help by tapping into monthly subscription fees as an additional revenue source for the news divisions, which are largely supported by advertising revenue.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...238640514.html

TV Review
'The River' (ABC)
Rescuers, Cameras and Guide Are Jittery
By Mike Hale, The New York Times - Feb. 7, 2012

The River, ABC's deadly serious and profoundly silly new spook show, is a horror hybrid, an escapee from Dr. Moreau's island of television beasts.

The overarching story, about a ragtag rescue expedition chugging up the Amazon basin and encountering spirits both visible and invisible while gleaning hints about a larger, more earth-shaking mystery, is heavily redolent of a former ABC series, Lost. Reinforcing the similarity are rustling treetops, antiquated gravestones and Hawaiian locations.

But The River counts at least four veterans of the Paranormal Activity movies among its writers and producers, and like those films, it's presented as second-hand found footage, though in a kind of halfhearted way. (There are plenty of shots that couldn't have been taken by anyone we see on screen, unless he or she is hiding a helicopter.) When the show wants to scare us, it deploys the shock tactics of those films and their ilk: grainy video, jumpy editing and action filmed so darkly and chaotically as to be incomprehensible.

Through the two episodes being shown on Tuesday night, the mixture of Lost storytelling and Paranormal style is neither intriguing nor particularly scary, and it doesn't help that there's hardly a glimmer of humor. As directed by the filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra (Unknown, Orphan), the episodes at least look good, when you can see what's going on.

The plot involves the host of a long-running television nature show (Bruce Greenwood) who has disappeared on a Brazilian expedition. His wife (Leslie Hope of 24) and son (Joe Anderson) go looking for him with a crew of jungle-adventure types: the grim weapons expert, the rich jerk and the frightened guide who knows that the local spirits are about to declare open season on gringos.

The first episode sets this all up with astonishing speed, and before it's half over, dry spirits are busting out of soul traps and munching on extraneous cameramen. (The expedition is being filmed for a reality show and, conveniently, the missing man's boat is a floating TV studio.) The second episode moves from the predictable to the goofy, with dolls falling out of trees and dragonflies crawling into mouths.

Mr. Greenwood, seen in home movies and footage from his character's TV show, is convincing as a Steve Irwin-like adventurer and family man. The rest of the cast members are stuck playing ciphers and stereotypes in the central story, and they are saddled with dialogue like You should feel guilty, because you were the magic in his life and The further we go up the Boiúna, the further physics breaks down.

The River is the second new show in two nights, after Smash, and the third this season (after Terra Nova) to bear the imprimatur of Steven Spielberg as executive producer. Add those to his films War Horse and The Adventures of Tintin, released within a week of each other in December, and there may be a lesson about spreading yourself too thin.

THE RIVER
ABC, Tuesday nights at 9, Eastern and Pacific times; 8, Central time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/ar...ref=television

From the referenced article:


Interesting choice of words... I guess that message didn’t take.

My guess is that if the fines exceed the amount she received for the performance, she will let the NFL sue and milk that for all the publicity it’s worth. And hers is the kind of publicity the NFL does NOT need.

Look, both NBC and the NFL can be shocked -- SHOCKED -- all the way to bank with the ratings from this year’s half time show. Smartest thing they could do would be to let the whole matter drop as quietly as possible.

Alas, the Las Vegas odds on that happening are probably rather long...

It's not up to them to let this go away. There are others involved who seem more interested in riding this train to the last stop.

I watched the halftime show twice and missed it both times. lol It was probably because I was commenting on that song being in the set. MIA was a nobody before this and will be again in about 24 hours. Just another classless performer who could learn a lot from how Madonna handled herself. Be professional and play to your audience in an appropriate manner is that so tough to do?

I actually enjoyed the show more than I thought I would. Wished she had pick one of her early hits for nostalgia reasons.

TV Notes
Tuesday's Highlights: 'Glee' on Fox
By Los Angeles Times' 'Show Tracker' Blog - Feb. 6, 2012

[ALL TIMES LISTED ARE PACIFIC TIME]

THE SPANSIH TEACHER (Ricky Martin) lends his voice and energy to the club in a new episode of Glee, at 8 p.m. on Fox. With Heather Morris and Harry Shum Jr.

SERIES

NCIS: An encounter with a gunman during his morning coffee stop has Gibbs (Mark Harmon) questioning the choices he's made in his life in the 200th episode of the hit series that features the returns of Ralph Waite as Gibbs' father, Darby Stanchfield as his late first wife and Muse Watson as his murdered mentor (8 p.m. CBS).

The River: In this new series, the disappearance of a wildlife expert (Bruce Greenwood) who spent decades traveling the world with his wife and son sends his family and former crew members TV cameras in tow on a terrifying journey into the Amazon to find him. Leslie Hope also stars (9 p.m. ABC).

The Real Housewives of Orange County: The unscripted series returns for a new season (9 p.m. Bravo).

Dirty Jobs: Mike helps to erect a radio communications tower, marking the milestone of a dirty job in each of the 50 states (9 p.m. Discovery).

Doomsday Preppers: This new series profiles people who have devoted their lives to preparing for biblical apocalypse, financial meltdown, natural disaster or all of the above (9 and 10 p.m. National Geographic).

Unforgettable: Carrie (Poppy Montgomery) is taunted by a serial killer who knows about her memory as he continues to rack up victims in this new episode. Jane Curtin joins the cast as a medical examiner (10 p.m. CBS).

Parenthood: As Zoe's (Rosa Salazar) behavior has Joel and Julia (Sam Jaeger, Erika Christensen) questioning their adoption agreement, attending an engagement party gets Mark and Sarah (Jason Ritter, Lauren Graham) talking about babies in this new episode (10 p.m. NBC).

Justified: A prison escape puts Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) on the trail of two of his old adversaries in this new episode (10 p.m. FX).

White Collar: Neal (Matt Bomer) is assigned to work with his ex-girlfriend Sara (Hilarie Burton) on the case of a valuable violin that's gone missing. Beau Bridges and Debra Monk guest star in this new episode (10 p.m. USA).

SPORTS

Pro hockey: The L.A. Kings visit the Tampa Bay Lightning (4:30 p.m. NBCSP).

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/show...ee-on-fox.html

Business Notes
MGM Closes $500 Million Revolving Credit Facility to Retire Debt, Expand Film and TV Projects
By Alex Ben Block, The Hollywood Reporter - Feb. 6, 2012

Officially ending it's bankruptcy, the new management at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has closed a $500 million revolving credit facility, it was announced Monday by co-CEO's and co-chairmen Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum.

A year ago MGM was in bankruptcy and to receive this oversubscribed facility just one year later is proof positive that through careful and efficient business decisions, we have earned the faith of the financial community, said Barber and Birnbaum in a statement.

The credit facility will be used to retire debt and to develop the film and TV businesses. That will include films being made under a partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment, including 21 Jump Steet, the next James Bond movie Skyfall; The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again (in partnership with Warrner Bros.) and GI Joe: Retaliation (with Paramount Pictures).

Other movies in development include remakes of Robocop, Carrie, Poltergiest and Teen Wolf, along with Punk Farm and Vikings.

The new credit facility is in place of a term loan and smaller revolving credit that MGM received when it went through a pre-packaged bankruptcy that involved the exchange of more than $4 billion in debt for equity valued at about $2 billion. At the time the bankruptcy closed in early December, Barber and Birnbaum officially took charge.

The restructuring of MGM was a long process that began in May 2009 when Moelis & Co., an investment bank was hired to advice management. In August 2009 CEO Harry Sloan was replaced by Stephen Cooper, who was billed as a turnaround expert.

At the time MGM was having problems meeting $300 million in annual interest payments. Moelis had to work out the bankruptcy with more than 140 creditors. The closing of the deal Monday will trigger a payment of over $9 million to Moelis.

The new loan was led by JP Morgan Chase, which reportedly put up $75 million of the new credit facility. The rest came from Deutsche Bank, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Royal Bank of Canada, SunTrust Bank, Wells Fargo, CIT Bank, Union Bank, City National Bank and OneWest Bank.

The success of this financing further validates investor confidence in the management team and their ability to execute on its business strategy. Market demand was significantly greater than the $500MM issuance, which is a clear indication that the bank market continues to strengthen for the entertainment sector, said John Miller, Vice Chairman, JPMorgan Chase.

Co-leadership in this highly attractive financing is Deutsche Bank's endorsement and continuing support of an exceptionally strong management team led by two true industry experts, Gary and Roger, and the supportive leadership of an exceptional Board. The over-performance in the past year allowed for this improved financing, said Brian Mulligan, Vice Chairman, Deutsche Bank.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...-credit-287409

TV Notes
HBO's 'Luck' investigated for treatment of horses
By Greg Braxton, Los Angeles Times' 'Show Tracker' Blog - Feb. 6, 2012

HBO's "Luck," which examines the world of thoroughbred racing and betting, has been investigated due to charges of mistreatment of horses.

The New York Observer reported that the show came under scrutiny after reports that two horses broke their legs during production and had to be euthanized. The pilot of the series, which premiered last month, contains a scene in which a horse breaks its leg during a race and has to be put to sleep.

The network told the Observer that the horse filmed in that race in the pilot was not actually harmed, but another horse in that episode was euthanized after its leg fractured. The other horse death occured during the filming of the seventh episode.

The American Humane Assn.'s usual seal of approval declaring that "No animals were harmed" did not appear during the pilot or another later episode, the Observer said. Those two episodes just contained the statement that the "American Humane Association monitored the animal action."

The Observer reported that the humane association has restored certification to the series after HBO worked with the association to develop additional safety measures. Those protocols included the hiring of an additional veterinarian and radiology of the legs of all horses used in production."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/show...of-horses.html

Off topic comments edited and deleted.

If the FCC gets involved, it will be in the news for years like the Janet Jackson incident. That just got resolved last month. It happened in 2004. And the Pats were in that game, just squeaking by my Carolina Panthers 32-29 with the game being decided with the last possession. (Patriots were favored by 6 in that game. Didn't happen.) Trouble just follows the Pats, doesn't it?!

Even Wuhl admits he has no proof if the version he tells is true, but it makes a great story! Still have that one and "Assume the Position II" on TiVo. Just funny stuff all around! PRINT THE LEGEND!

I figured one of the big reasons the NFL was hiring these graybeards [insert your Madonna joke here_____] to do the SB halftime show these days was that they were supposed to be relatively safe and "mature" - they would know better than to do something stupid. And I think that was actually the case with Madonna, who's trying to resurrect a dormant career and reinvent herself yet again. Her mistake was in asking a younger, more volatile performer to join her in an attempt to make her act more palatable to the younger set raised on hip-hop. Oops.

TV Notes
TV is taking viewers to strange new worlds
By Bill Keveney, USA Today - Feb. 7, 2012

TV is getting crowded with mysterious otherworlds.

They range from a parallel fairty-tale land on ABC's Once Upon a Time to a prison tableau of the past on Fox's Alcatraz, a monster world hidden to most on NBC's Grimm and a prehistoric jungle on Fox's Terra Nova. Upcoming shows feature a paranormal Amazon on ABC's The River (premiering tonight, 9 ET/PT) and a man living in two worlds on NBC's Awake, due March 1.

"It feels as though there certainly is a preponderance of shows that are a little bit outside the box. Part of it is certain notions get into the zeitgeist," ABC drama development chief Channing Dungey says. "Right now, there is a lot of tension and anxiety in the world. There are a lot of economic challenges, and people are looking for ways to escape."

MORE: 'River' rafts into scary waters
REVIEW: Ride 'The River' if fright floats your boat

Once (12.1 million viewers) and Alcatraz (9.7 million) have performed well, especially in attracting advertiser-coveted young adults, and Grimm (6.2 million), though lower, has grown in young adults compared with NBC's performance last year in a difficult Friday time slot. Terra Nova (10.1 million) helped improve Fox's fall showing.

Science-fiction elements, which are found in many of these shows, have moved beyond niche TV realms, says Jorge Garcia, a star of Alcatraz and Lost, which created its own mysterious world. "There has been a trend toward more mainstream science-fiction television in the past six years or so, with Lost coming on and shows that have had good runs, like Battlestar Galactica and The Walking Dead."

Technological advances also have allowed shows to have high-quality special effects on budget and on time, Dungey says. "It has broadened our horizons."

Lost's mass popularity inspired numerous shows that have tapped into other worlds in recent years, raising the question of which might be "the next Lost." Edward Kitsis, who created Once with fellow Lost alum Adam Horowitz, says such a show probably doesn't exist.

"I don't think there will ever be a new Lost, just like there will never be another Seinfeld. Whatever the new Lost may be will be something completely different," he says. "Modern Family is fantastic right now. But I wouldn't say it's the new Seinfeld. I would say it's its own successful story."

Generally, these shows mix a self-contained element in each episode, such as a police case in Alcatraz, Grimm or Awake, with a longer serial arc to please casual and commited viewers alike. Both Acatraz executive producer Jennifer Johnson and River executive producer Zack Estrin cite The X-Files' mix of story-of-the-week and deeper mythology as a template.

"Every week there's an element of the procedural. For loyal viewers, they'll always have a certain amount of serialized elements. We think each episode is both things," Johnson says.

In the case of Alcatraz, alternate worlds feature different visual styles. "It evokes the differing emotions of each place (and) makes very clear when you're going between the two worlds," executive producer Daniel Pyne says.

No matter what kind of world is created, it is secondary to the characters, Once's Horowitz says. "In terms of going to other worlds, if you can create characters who are grounded and relatable, you'll follow them everywhere."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/televis...lds/52991622/1

Business Notes
TV Sports & Money: Super Bowl Starts Watershed Year
By Patrick Hipes, Deadline.com - Feb. 7, 2012

Sports television couldn't have gotten off to a better start to the year than last night's Super Bowl. NBC had the game, the most-watched event in TV history. A total of 111.3 million viewers tuned in to see the team from the nation's largest media market win the championship in the nation's most popular sport. As if anyone needed further proof, the New York Giants' victory over the New England Patriots is the latest example of how important live sports is to broadcasters and the advertising industry that pays their bills. The leagues and the networks that show them know this better than ever, and watching how each exploits and benefits from this reality will make for a fun spectator sport in 2012 as they go head-to-head with the carriers who are increasingly blanching at the increasingly high fees sports-rich networks can and plan to command. In the middle and up for grabs is the biggest slice of what ZenithOptimedia estimates is $61.9 billion in expected TV ad spend this year, led by anticipation for the London Summer Olympics. Here's a scorecard of the players to watch:

The NFL

If the Super Bowl isn't enough, the most powerful sports league flexed its muscle in December by inking a broadcast rights deal with NBC, CBS and Fox for a combined $27.5 billion over nine years a whopping 63% increase over the previous contract. (ESPN and the NFL Network have a separate contract for cable.) The deal comes just in time for the networks and affiliates' retransmission consent negotiations with cable and satellite providers and sets up a showdown over those fees - Miller Taback analyst David Joyce crunched the numbers and found that for all media partners to break even on the new contract, the average pay TV subscriber would have to pay an extra $11.23 a month, up $6.87 from the previous contract that ends after next season. It will be a serious fight. Congress and the Federal Communications Commission need to throw a flag, because rules and regulations shouldn't force consumers to bear the burden of broadcasters' profligate spending, which will surely enrich NFL owners and players just as much as it will impoverish all pay-TV subscribers, particularly those who will never watch an NFL game, American Cable Association CEO Matthew Polka said after the deal was announced. The new contract, struck in December, came after a labor lockout that threatened the start of the season and centered on how owners and players would split its revenue, including lucrative TV rights. In effect, the potential loss of games only proved how valuable the NFL is, much like the NBA's own labor stoppage, which trimmed the season but it quickly re-upped with key advertisers and sponsors.

The Olympics

NBC bet big on the Olympics in June on the backs of new owner Comcast, blowing out rivals' bids with a $4.38 billion move for a comprehensive rights deal through the 2020 Games. We'll begin to figure out how smart that was right away: the network is prepping the London Summer Olympics for July and August. The all-in for Olympics programming is part of a bigger play by Comcast, which is setting itself up to compete with the likes of ESPN and Turner in the sports realm by rebranding its niche Versus channel the NBC Sports Network. Visions of ESPN's $4.69-per-customer carriage fee are spurring the move Versus took in $122.6 million in ad revenue last year, according to SNL Kagan, while ESPN took in $1.48 billion in ad sales and $5.27 billion in affiliate revenue. It's a long-term play for sure, but Olympics coverage will plant NBC Sports Network's flag in a bunch of new homes this summer, as eventually will new deals signed last year with the NHL (10 years, $2 billion; ESPN and Turner were in the race for that deal) and to a lesser extent Major League Soccer (three years, about $30 million). NBCUniversal and Comcast aren't the only ones gunning for ESPN. Fox Sports in October beat out the sports giant for English-language rights to the next soccer World Cup contract in 2018 and 2022, in bidding that also saw NBCUniversal-owned Telemundo claim Spanish-language rights from Univision. Fox Sports and cable sibling FX also inked a multiyear deal with UFC, the mixed-martial arts league.

The Dodgers

Yes it's one team from a league that no longer can claim it is America's favorite pasttime. But how the ongoing sale of the Major League Baseball franchise plays out could result in a template for how these big sports deals go down in the future. Outgoing Dodgers owner Frank McCourt says his team could sell for as much as $1.5 billion, and the next TV rights deal could be worth $3 billion. In that scenario, why wouldn't a network buy the team and sell itself the rights? Before the Dodgers auction started, Time Warner Cable and Fox Sports parent News Corp were thought to be thinking the same thing (TWC would want the team to add to its two new regional Lakers networks, and Fox Sports has the current rights deal through next year and its parent already owned the team once before). Neither apparently have advanced or even participated the bidding process, but one intriguing name did: a group led by Leo Hindery, who founded the New York Yankees' regional sports network YES. YES makes the Yankees tons of money for the same reason ESPN makes tons of money: exclusive live sports content. If Hindery gets the Dodgers (eight groups are left in the auction), expect a Dodgers version of YES as well as other potential partners crunching numbers with other franchises. Otherwise, expect TWC or Fox Sports to strike a deal with any other new owner.

Small Networks vs. Big Cable

If the Dodgers spawn their own version of YES, it will continue a trend already playing out elsewhere. In college sports, the Longhorn Network launched last year with University of Texas football and basketball games, and the seven-network Pac-12 Network is prepping for its debut in August. In wrestling, the WWE channel is launching this year with programming including its marquee, cash-generating pay-per-view events. The question is, will cable providers agree to the higher carriage fees these new networks will demand? Time Warner Cable and Cablevision still refuse to carry NFL Network in a dispute that been in play since the network launched in 2003. In addition, plan on more drag-out fights over how cablers must treat niche sports networks like Tennis Channel (it won the right to be on Comcast's tier despite alongside similar channels owned by the cabler) and how they can be distributed (New York regional channels MSG and MSG+ recently gave up a fight to keep the Cablevision-owned networks off of rival Verizon FiOS).

http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/supe...ar-for-sports/

TV Notes
Dance Drama From 'Gilmore Girls' Creator Gets Series Order at ABC Family
By Lesley Goldberg, The Hollywood Reporter's 'Live Feed' Blog - Feb. 6, 2012

Amy Sherman-Palladino has all the right moves for ABC Family.

THR has confirmed that the youth-skewing cable network is moving forward with a drama pilot from the Gilmore Girls creator set in the world of dance.

Titled Bunheads, Sutton Foster stars in the project as Michelle, a Las Vegas showgirl who marries a man on a whim and moves to his sleepy coastal town where she winds up working alongside her new mother-in-law at her dance school.

ABC Family ordered the drama pilot in September, with Sherman-Palladino noting that the project hits close to home. "I spent 20 years of my life with my hair in a bun. I was supposed to be a dancer, she said at the time. My mother was a dancer. Her greatest heartbreak was when I got on Roseanne. So, while writing this will never equal playing Rumpelteazer in a bus and truck tour of Cats,' it does let me to tip my hat to a really special time in my life."

Bunheadswas one of four projects -- two dramas and two comedies -- ordered to pilots. The network last week picked up comedy Baby Daddy, a half-hour from The Nine Lives of Chloe King executive producer Dan Berendsen that revolves around Ben, a twentysomething who becomes a father overnight after his ex-girlfriend leaves their daughter on his doorstep. Chelsea Kane and Tahj Mowry star.

A formal announcement is expected to come from the network later this week as to the fate of the remaining pilots, Intercept and Village People.

Bunheadsand Baby Daddy join other scripted fare on the network including Secret Life of the American Teenager, Pretty Little Liars, Switched at Birth, The Lying Game, Make It Or Break It and Jane By Design.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/liv...-family-287481

TV Review
Don't Get Fooled Again? ABC's 'The River' Makes One Feel 'Lost' Anew
By Ed Bark, TVWorthWatching.com

Whatever the lessons of Lost, they seem lost on ABC.

Because here comes another otherworldly, string-along drama series whose humans are at the mercy of mysterious unseen forces that include a demon spirit reminiscent of "The Smoke Monster."

It's also filmed in Hawaii, as was Lost. CBS goes to the island for lushly appointed, but otherwise straight-ahead cop shows on the order of Magnum, P.I. and the network's past and current Hawaii Five-0. ABC goes for the murk...

The River, launching on Tuesday, Feb. 7, at 9 p.m. ET with back-to-back hours, is replete with the jittery, grainy hand-held camera visions you'd expect from its principal executive producer, Paranormal Activity director Oren Peli. His playground is the Amazon, where explorer/TV host Emmet Cole (Bruce Greenwood) has gone missing and been declared dead.

Cole's TV series, "The Undiscovered Country," ran for 22 years. His tagline, "There's magic out there," apparently became as popular as "Is that your final answer?"

The guy loved snakes and reptiles, but wasn't much of a people person. His son, Lincoln (Joe Anderson), now a medical student, became estranged from dad after he missed too many birthdays and other milestone events. And his wife, Tess (Leslie Hope), had a stateside affair while hubby jaunted about on his good ship Magus.

Six months after he goes missing, though, Emmet's location "beacon" begins relaying signals. Tess instantly becomes intent on finding him alive. And his old network and producer, the uniquely named Clark Quietly (Paul Blackthorne), are happy to pay all expenses as long as the cameras keep rolling. And Lincoln comes along, too, in the interests of heightening the drama.

Oh no he won't.

Oh yes he will.

Let's meet the rest of the crew. Lena Landry (Eloise Mumford) is a comely young blonde who was Lincoln's best friend when they were kids. She then became Emmet's principal assistant while her likewise missing dad served as top cameraman.

Lena know things. Such as this: "He knew what he was doing out there, that he'd be inviting in darkness."

The Captain on this new excursion is a guy named Kurt Brynildson (Thomas Kretschmann), who apparently has some ulterior motives. There's also key crew member Emilio Valnzuela (Daniel Zacapa), whose teenage daughter, Jahel (Paulina Gaitan), used to have a "ghost friend." She now knows, somehow, that evil apparitions are on the prowl and very bloodthirsty.

Snippy Lincoln Cole may have a bug up his ass at times, but Jahel swallows a big bug whole while asleep in Tuesday's Hour 2. This enables her to talk like Emmet and tell his wife in his voice, "You need to let me go. They have me, Tess."

All the while, the cameras keep going crazy, whether on the decayed ship Magus or in the bush during a very weird search for Emmet that mostly consumes Hour 2. Look for lots of hanging dolls on some sort of "spirit tree."

The producers of The River (among them the now ubiquitous Steven Spielberg) hope to make your flesh crawl on a weekly basis, while also peeling away layers of Emmet's disappearance. Co-executive producer Michael Green told TV writers in January that the series will have "longer-term horizontal arcs" while at the same time making each episode "its own horror movie."

Yeah, they all say that, particularly where ABC is concerned. The River, also reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project, throws a lot of bodies around in its opening hours. And Joe Anderson's interesting portrayal of Lincoln Cole makes one hope he emerges reasonably intact at the end of however long The River lasts.

The guess here is that it won't be very long at all. Lost had a transfixing pilot episode, with the thrill of discovery palpable. But many fans -- not so much this one -- were let down by its magical, mystical, heaven-in-a handbasket finale. And it took six seasons to get there.

The River, in comparison, seems like stale tap water, unworthy of any prolonged big drink of time or effort. Somehow we just know it's not all going to hold together, despite its best-intended clarion call at the end of Hour 1. "Dad was onto something," says son Lincoln. "And you know what? There is magic out there. Let's go see it."

Or, as many will prefer -- let's not.

GRADE: C+

http://www.tvworthwatching.com/contr...abcs-the.shtml

TV Notes
Quiet Series Celebrates a Milestone Few Others Reach
By Brian Stelter, The New York Times - Feb. 7, 2012

Oh, the lament of a thriving television show executive. You’re responsible for a billion-dollar franchise that draws 20 million viewers a week. Yet you see much smaller shows suck up all the attention.

O.K., maybe other people are more deserving of sympathy. Still, it can be a struggle to get a quietly successful show noticed by the wider television world, which may explain why CBS has turned episode No. 200 of “NCIS” into a cause for celebration.

Its producers and publicists have been planning for this Tuesday’s milestone episode of this criminal drama since last spring. The studio that makes the show wheeled out a cake and held a ribbon-cutting on the set last month when the episode was being taped. And the network has been promoting the big round number in commercials and on Facebook in recognition that so few one-hour dramas ever make it this far.

“The fact that we hit this number at the same time that we’re No. 1 with viewers is extraordinary, and there isn’t a single person here who takes it for granted,” said Gary Glasberg, the executive producer and show runner who oversees each episode.

The episode on Tuesday is a kind of reward for longtime fans, bringing back some past characters for cameos and setting up some what-if scenarios for Leroy Jethro Gibbs, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service special agent Mark Harmon has played since the show’s inception, in the fall of 2003. “It’s all about the ripple effects of decisions and choices he has made throughout the years,” Mr. Glasberg said.

Nina Tassler, the president for entertainment for CBS, praised the producers for being “very mindful of the fans that have been there since the beginning” by revealing more about the characters bit by bit.

“NCIS” nowadays is “like a supernova,” she said, netting 22.7 million viewers for new episodes this season, up slightly from last season, which was its highest-rated to date. It has been the most-watched scripted television show in the United States since the 2009-10 season, when it surpassed “CSI,” another CBS franchise.

And yet it is also awfully unassuming. The series is shot in the canyons of Santa Clarita, Calif., north of Los Angeles, mostly out of sight and mind of Hollywood. It retains an unusually high number of its staff members each season. It meets its deadlines. “This is not a set where the size of your trailer is important,” said Mr. Harmon, who wasn’t about to name the sets where it is important.

The show had a humble beginning, with about 12 million viewers on average, middling by CBS standards at the time. “We were not good enough to be paid attention to and not bad enough to be canceled,” Mr. Harmon said.

As a spinoff of “JAG” — those letters stand for Judge Advocate General, a legal branch of the Navy — which ran between 1995 and 2005 and totaled 227 episodes, it was allowed to grow slowly, and it did, flouting most of the trends of network television. (Oddly, “JAG” itself did the same — it was canceled by NBC after one season, but revived by CBS and made into a hit show.)

“NCIS” was especially popular early on in other countries. “The international audience was ahead of us,” said David Stapf, the president of CBS Television Studios. In the United States 2008 is perceived to be its breakout year; that’s when the cable channel USA started showing repeats of the series, which rated exceptionally well. The producers believe that the cable reruns furthered the show’s popularity on CBS, too, since it has continued to grow since then.

Back in 2003, when it had its premiere, Mr. Stapf said, studio executives wondered if the writers would have enough material to go the distance, since the real NCIS only investigates crimes that affect the United States Navy and Marine Corps — a smaller scope than, say, a metropolitan police department’s. “But we quickly got over that,” he said.

The executives also worried at first about the humor interwoven into the drama’s plotlines. As Mr. Stapf put it, “Can people be joking when they’re standing over a dead body?” But the humor, he added, “also made the characters very real and very relatable.”

“This is their job,” he continued. “They stand over dead bodies every single day.”

While the dead bodies lent the show a procedural formula, the laughs helped to highlight the characters: both the boss, played by Mr. Harmon, and the agents who work for him. The characters and their relationships have become pivotal parts of the show.

Now there is also a spinoff, “NCIS: Los Angeles,” which is drawing about 18.4 million viewers on average this season, and there are regular marathons on USA.

“It’s not unusual for people to say to me, ‘Hey, all day yesterday, I was watching the marathon,’ ” Mr. Harmon said. “It makes me laugh. I’m like, ‘Get outside, do something!’ ” But he added, “It’s so important to realize the effects that the show has on people.”

For Mr. Glasberg there is a lesson embedded in “NCIS” about slow, steady character building. “You can give people a little bit, and it satiates them and leaves them wanting more,” he said.

This winter one of the lighting technicians came up to him and said: “ ‘Gunsmoke,’ right? We’re going for ‘Gunsmoke?’ ” That series lasted on television for 20 seasons and 635 episodes, albeit at a time in television history when viewers had far fewer choices than today.

Mr. Glasberg said he answered, “I’ll do my best.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/ar...ref=television

Are you sure? That girl looks caucasian.

I think 90 million of the 114 million viewers didn't see "the finger" from MIA (including me).. the media buzz made the remaining 90 to go see it on youtube.. so 90 million people go and wanted to see the gesture

Key word being spoof. But Nasim Pedrad is Iranian, and MIA is British, with parents originally from Sri Lanka.

I doubt this will have legs with the FCC. An exposed breast is one thing, but an obscured middle finger that barely anyone even noticed?

If the FCC does take it up, I hope that NBC/the NFL had contracts with all the performers saying that if they did anything like that, then the performer would need to cover any court costs/fines...

So, how did "The Voice" and "Smash" did on their Monday premieres?

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

Agreed, and I didn't notice it either during the show.

This didn't offend me in the least, but neither did the Janet Jackson malfunction.

Nielsen Overnights (18-49)
'Voice' draws NBC's best rating since 2007
Timeslot debut averages a 6.6 in 18-49s, the night's top show
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Feb. 7, 2012

NBC's midseason prospects are looking a lot rosier this morning.

The network's decision to air "The Voice" behind the Super Bowl paid off handsomely with the show growing 29 percent over last year's season debut in its regular Monday 8 to 10 p.m. timeslot last night.

"Voice" averaged a 6.6 adults 18-49 rating, according to Nielsen overnights, NBC's best average in that timeslot for non-sports programming since Feb. 16, 2004, and the network's top non-sports, non-special on any night in four and a half years, since September 2007.

"Voice" peaked with a 7.7 in its final half hour and grew from a 5.3 in its first half hour. It also became the first program this season to beat CBS's "Two and a Half Men" in its timeslot. "Men" averaged a season-low 4.2.

CBS's comedies all dropped between 7 and 11 percent from their most recent outings, too.

But "Voice" seemed to hurt Fox's lineup the most. "House" was off 17 percent from its most recent episode, and the new drama "Alcatraz" dropped 21 percent to a series-low 2.2.

"Voice's" big numbers boosted much-hyped lead-out "Smash" to a strong debut as well. The show averaged a 3.8 rating at 10 p.m.

It marked the highest rating for any drama this season in the 10 p.m. slot, and was the third-highest-rated drama bow this season, behind ABC's "Once Upon a Time" and Fox's "Touch."

It also marked NBC's best rating in the hour since an election special in November 2008.

One possible concern for NBC is that "Smash" declined 19 percent from its first to its second half hour, from a 4.2 to a 3.4. A second-half dropoff is never a good sign for a new show.

NBC was first for the night among 18-49s with a 5.7 average overnight rating and a 14 share, becoming the first network to beat CBS when it aired originals on a Monday this season.

CBS was second at 3.5/9, ABC third at 2.4/6, Fox fourth at 2.3/6, Univision fifth at 1.6/4, CW sixth at 0.6/1 and Telemundo 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. NBC led with a 5.7 for the first hour of "Voice," followed by CBS with a 4.1 for "How I Met Your Mother" (4.0) and "2 Broke Girls" (4.3). ABC was third with a 2.5 for "The Bachelor," Fox fourth with a 2.4 for "House," Univision fifth with a 1.7 for "Una Familia con Suerte" and CW and Telemundo tied for sixth at 0.6, CW for "Gossip Girl" and Telemundo for "Una Maid en Manhattan."

NBC extended its lead at 9 p.m. with a 7.5 for more "Voice," while CBS remained second with a 3.8 for "Men" (4.2) and "Mike & Molly" (3.4). ABC was third with a 2.7 for another hour of "Bachelor," Fox fourth with a 2.2 for "Alcatraz," Univision fifth with a 1.5 for "El Talisman," CW sixth with a 0.6 for "Hart of Dixie" and Telemundo seventh with a 0.5 for "Flor Salvaje."

At 10 p.m. NBC was first with a 3.8 for "Smash," with CBS second with a 2.7 for "Hawaii Five-0." ABC was third with a 2.0 for "Castle," Univision fourth with a 1.6 for "La Que No Podia Amar" and Telemundo fifth with a 0.4 for "Relaciones Peligrosas."

NBC also led the night among households with a 9.1 average overnight rating and a 14 share. CBS was second at 6.7/10, ABC third at 5.5/8, Fox fourth at 4.2/6, Univision fifth at 2.0/3, CW sixth at 1.0/2 and Telemundo seventh at 0.7/1.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...since-2007.asp

If there were no obscene words or gestures in the culture where M.I.A. was performing, she'd have done neither.

If some other word instead and some other gesture instead were obscene in that setting, then that's the word she'd have said and that's the gesture she'd have made, rather than saying "s__t" (I believe AVS Forum's software won't permit the actual word) and extending her middle finger.

Forget whether it was offensive; my question is whether anybody found it productive, and I'd expect not.  It got her some notoriety but I can't imagine that it improved her image nor that it will increase her fanbase, her sales, nor sympathy for her causes.

After all the hype and promotion 11.5 million viewers for Smash isn't really worth singing about.

Better than usual for an NBC show but it shows how far they've fallen. It's only a short drop to see that show hit 7 or 8 million viewers next week.

At least it was probably cheaper than Terra Nova! Right?

^^^ Wrong!