Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 2565

TV Notes
Monday’s Highlights
By Los Angeles Times' 'Show Tracker' Blog - Feb. 26, 2011

[ALL TIMES LISTED ARE PACIFIC TIME]

SERIES

The Voice: Blind auditions wrap up with this new episode of the singing competition (8 p.m. NBC).

The Bachelor: Ben and the final three bachelorettes head to Switzerland for exotic dates in this new episode (8 p.m. ABC).

2 Broke Girls: In this new episode, Max accompanies Caroline on a visit to her dad behind bars. Garrett Morris, Matthew Moy, Jonathan Kite and Jennifer Coolidge also star in this new episode (8:30 p.m. CBS).

Hart of Dixie: George (Scott Porter) is named Bluebell’s man of the year, and Brick (Tim Matheson) isn’t happy in this new episode (9 p.m. KTLA).

In Performance at the White House: Taraji P. Henson hosts this celebration of the blues. Performers include Troy “Trombone” Shorty Andrews and Jeff Beck (9 p.m. KOCE).

American Masters: The new episode “Cab Calloway: Sketches” uses performance clips and animation to profile the legendary jazz artist who was one of the first black musicians to tour the segregationist South and who was a regular performer at Harlem’s famed Cotton Club (10 p.m. KOCE).

Lost Girl: While pretending to purge evil spirits from a home where a murder-suicide occurred, Kenzi (Ksenia Solo) is bitten by an Under Fae creature that resembles a giant spider in this new episode (10 p.m. Syfy).

SPECIALS

Academy Awards Red Carpet Fashion Wrap: A discussion of fashion from the Oscars (8 p.m. TV Guide).

Fashion Police: This special episode recalls Academy Awards fashion do’s and don’ts (10 p.m. E!).

MOVIES

Frenemies: Three sets of friends deal with the ups and downs of their ever-changing relationships in this 2012 TV movie (8:30 p.m. Disney).

SPORTS

Hockey: The New Jersey Devils visit the New York Rangers (4:30 p.m. NBCSP); the Kings visit the Nashville Predators (5 p.m. FSN); the Ducks visit the Colorado Avalanche (6 p.m. FS Prime).

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

TV Review
Academy Awards telecast and host Billy Crystal lean heavily on nostalgia
Timewarp quality leads to a not-so-wonderful night for Oscar
By Alan Sepinwall, HitFix.com - Feb. 27, 2012

Of the nine films nominated for Best Picture at this year's Academy Awards, only "The Descendants" was set entirely in present-day America. About half of "Midnight in Paris" was, but that entire movie was about how much better things were in the good old days. And the other nominees were period pieces ranging from the turn of the millennium back to the 1920s.

It was a year where the Oscars had little interest in what was happening in the world today, and an Oscar telecast that had very little interest in what's happening in the movies today. It was a telecast that, over and over and over again, wanted to remind people of how much they used to love going to the movies — especially back in the days when the big winners were also box office hits that most of the viewing audience had seen. We got one montage after another whose only theme seemed to be "Movies: weren't they just swell when you were growing up?"

The nostalgia ran right through to the choice of host Billy Crystal, doing the same act he'd done 8 times previously, trying desperately to recapture the good feelings he got 20 years ago when Jack Palance did those one-armed push-ups. At one point, he even trotted out his old Sammy Davis Jr. impression from "Saturday Night Live," not recognizing that the reaction to blackface is a bit different a quarter century later.

But all that those grabs to past movie and Oscar glory couldn't disguise a lifeless show featuring a bunch of pre-ordained winners and Crystal looking repeatedly surprised that his jokes were dying.

It's understandable that Oscar producer Brian Grazer might have grabbed for the tried-and-true when Brett Ratner was forced out over some homophobic remarks and his handpicked host Eddie Murphy used this as an excuse to bail. There wasn't a lot of time, and the Oscars were already coming off of an embarrassing attempt to go the other way and pander to the youth demographic with a bored James Franco and a flop-sweaty Anne Hathaway as co-hosts.

At that point, Crystal seemed like practically the only choice — especially since Academy members have responded badly to other hosts who were funnier but more pointed in their comedy. Chris Rock, for instance, did a great bit tonight about racial typecasting in animated films, but you could tell it wasn't playing any better in the room than Rock did as host back in 2005, when his big sin was making fun of Jude Law. ("If you want Tom Cruise and all you can get is Jude Law, wait!")

The Oscars don't want edge. They don't want satire. They want something inoffensively pleasant, but really, they just want to celebrate their own awesomeness, and if the people watching at home happen to be entertained, that often feels like a happy accident.

Here, we opened with Hollywood's reigning voice of God himself, Morgan Freeman pontificating about how "All of us are mesmerized by the magic of the movies," and towards the end we had last year's winners Natalie Portman and Colin Firth wax endlessly rhapsodic about this year's acting nominees. And in between we got montage after montage after montage that, again, seemed to have no theme beyond, "Movies: Yay!"

Some of the montages were fun — I could have listened to Gabourey Sidibe go on about her love of "My Left Foot" for at least another half-hour (and possibly followed that with a 15-minute Reese Witherspoon dissertation on "Overboard") — but mainly they seemed there to distract viewers from a crop of little-seen nominees, and the inevitable dominance of "The Artist."

(The 17 other awards shows airing in the run-up to the Oscars has pretty much sucked all of the suspense out of the main event over the last few years, with rare exceptions like "Avatar" vs. "Hurt Locker." The only major award that was any surprise at all was Meryl Streep beating Viola Davis, which is A)only quasi-surprising, in that it's Meryl Streep winning, and B)frustrating, as Davis' win promised to be one of the more emotional moments of the night. Then again, the orchestra might have played her off-stage the way they did her "Help" co-star Octavia Spencer.)

Some of the presenters managed to briefly inject life into the telecast. Besides Rock, Sandra Bullock got laughs for speaking German while claiming to be addressing the people of China, Emma Stone and Ben Stiller did a successful bit in which she was too excited to be presenting her first award ever, and Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis were amusingly solemn while playing the cymbals as they presented the Best Original Song award. (And I'm admittedly biased as a "Community" fan, but my biggest laugh of the night came from Jim Rash, sharing the Best Adapted Screenplay award for "The Descendants," instantly mocking Angelina Jolie's weird leg-out pose.)

But many other bits died, and were greeted by incredulous laughter as they did so, like Jennifer Lopez and Cameron Diaz trying to present an award while their backs were turned to the camera, or Gwyneth Paltrow acting annoyed as Robert Downey Jr. pretended to be filming a documentary about presenting.

But no one seemed more surprised, early and often, by the lack of enthusiasm for his material than Billy Crystal. When he wasn't busy making fun of the suddenly nameless theater in which the ceremony was taking place, or joking about how old his material was skewing — or both ("Next year, this is gonna be the Flomax Theater!") — he was trying to recover from one bit or another that the crowd was unimpressed by. When there was little response to a piece of stagecraft, he shrugged and quipped, "This is why there's a buffet." When a joke died a little later, he cracked, "The band loved that."

And certain segments that went over huge in the room seemed baffling from a TV audience perspective. Grazer was so excited to get Cirque du Soleil in to perform, and the people in the theater ate it up, but even if the piece was in theory about the experience of going to the movies, it had so little to do with what it's actually like to go to the movies as to be besides the point. (None of the Cirque members started texting in mid-air, for instance.) For this, they didn't let us see a performance of "Man or Muppet"? For this, Octavia Spencer got played off?

(And the Cirque routine was yet another case of celebrating the great movies of yesteryear while trying to politely ignore the films of 2011.)

As I say every year, there are significant parts of the Oscar telecast about which nothing can be done. The winners are going to be largely predictable because of the Golden Globes, the SAG Awards, etc. The winners are, for the most part, going to recite boring laundry lists of their co-stars, managers, agents, dog walkers, etc., in lieu of making an actual speech. (Though we got a few good ones this year, including Christopher Plummer and "A Separation" director Asghar Farhadi.) And there's going to be a good chunk of awards that viewers simply aren't going to care about, no matter how they try to dress up and explain the importance of sound effects editing and art direction.

But it would help if the host wasn't recycling the same material he's been doing since the early '90s, and if the show didn't at times seem to be holding its nose and trying to ignore the unpleasant odor it found emanating from this year's nominated films.

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-al...y-on-nostalgia

Critic's Notes
Oscars Become Badly Paced Bore-fest
By Tim Goodman, The Hollywood Reporter's 'The Bastard Machine' Blog - Feb. 27, 2012

Because it's important to get this out of the way, both presenting and hosting the Oscars are hard work. Thankless, even. For proof, let me put together a montage from the 84th Annual Academy Awards.

Perhaps this is just another thing to blame Brett Ratner for, since his mouth cost him the gig and Eddie Murphy went with him, forcing the Academy to make the safe choice of calling on Billy Crystal to host for the ninth time.

And somewhere, against all odds, James Franco is buying drinks for everybody. The colossal hosting disaster from last year is now forgotten by the safe, unfunny, retro-disaster that was Crystal making jokes that he laughed at repeatedly and overseeing an Oscars telecast that was as poorly paced as any in recent memory.

While it's true that the Oscar host gets too much blame when it goes wrong, there was nary a comedic bit from Crystal that didn't seem like it came from the prior decade or was as obvious as a crying baby in church. If the Academy wanted safe, it got safe, but it also got what seemed like a lounge act that was entirely too chummy and self-satisfied.

But Crystal is just the rod with nowhere to run in a lightning storm. More blame should be placed on the direction of the show, which started deathly slow (after the predictable and no longer fresh or creative video spoof from Crystal) and then got shockingly more slow as it went along.

In years past, the formula that always undid any awards show was simple (and yet few ever fixed it): Start strong, have a bloated and boring middle that then made a mess and a rush of the ending, which is always the most anticipated part of the show. How many times through the years has an awards telecast ran long or too close to the end time and left people we actually tuned in for - best actors, directors and best film winners - to race through their acceptance speeches and thus let all the air out of the room?

Well, inexplicably, this year's Oscars managed to make that formula look brilliant. It started slow, got slower, bloated the entire affair with montages, glazed the eyes of viewers (What, was that really the best director award?) and then ladled on even more montages until it culminated in the predictable - if warranted - crowning of The Artist. About the only thing to raise a pulse was Meryl Streep winning again (in what most people will consider an upset), and that's only going to piss off viewers even more.

So, yeah, not the Oscars' finest moment. And when it comes nowhere near the ratings of the Grammys, the cherry will drop on top.

For much of the night, there was an annoying feedback coming from the main stage microphone that people complained about with ferocity online. Did no one monitor the sound? There also was no palpable sense of excitement or entertainment. And here's where it gets a little tricky for the Hollywood community. Yes, so many people in so many varied categories have done great work, and they need to be feted for that, but in the real world when people are watching the Oscars, they don't really care as much about sound, editing, makeup, etc.

The trick is to include those awards but to keep up the excitement level as a broadcast for people who really only want to know about the acting categories, the director and best film. Sure, film fans have plenty of other categories they love - foreign film, documentary, etc. But the average viewer wants to be entertained while they wait for the big categories.

What they got instead was a ceaseless parade of montages that hammered home the same theme: Movies are magic. They make the world a better place. They make life worth living. Everybody gets swept away at the movies. Isn't it magical?

First off, stop dropping the anvil on us. Secondly, at some point the level of self-congratulation about how your work makes the life of The Little People more magical begins to feel condescending, arrogant and annoying. So how about three of those montages instead of, what, 33?

The pacing was sloppy and slow until -- hey, here we go -- best actors. People could be forgiven for having nodded off by then or perhaps, lulled into a stupor, missing the whole thing because they walked to the fridge or went to the sink to splash cold water on their faces.

Worse for Crystal, the Ellen DeGeneres commercials were like some kind of counterattack. She was funny in them. Like The Artist, people became mesmerized and leaned into their sets, wishing Ellen would jump out and host. Chris Rock - yes, please host. Tina Fey - please write and host! It was one of those nights.

And not a good night.

Here were a few worries I had: That Sacha Baron Cohen would steal the thunder (a bad precedent - look for one of the Transformers next year or some superhero in a costume or Murphy as Norbit or some Disney balloon). I worried that the great Christopher Guest & Players bit would be the highlight (outside of some really sweet acceptance speeches, it probably was). I worried that people were switching over to The Walking Dead or Luck.

On the other hand, I was happy for people who helped save the show - Emma Stone, Christopher Plummer, even Angelina Jolie sticking her leg out with authority helped distract from the feeling that the clock was melting. There was even a macaroni-and-cheese commercial that provided a ray of light.

Just a guess here - but since this makes two fairly horrendous Oscars in a row, the Academy will have to really rethink the process next year. And not to guess about others' feelings, but you can bet that other critics will revile this effort as well.

For all of this talk about how the movies are magic (montage, montage, montage), maybe someone in the business could have sprinkled some of that magic on this telecast. It certainly didn't transport us to another world - unless that world was a show on another channel.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bas...st-Hugo-295309

TV Review
'Cab Calloway: Sketches' on PBS
At the Cotton Club, a Bandleader Who Found Fresh Ways to Keep the Beat
By Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times - Feb. 25, 2012

The “American Masters” programs on PBS are almost always rewarding, but the episode about Cab Calloway on Sunday night on Channel 13 in New York (and on Monday night on many other PBS outlets; check local listings) is unusually so, with smart, well-presented insights into his music, his dancing, his acting and his barrier-crossing appeal.

The film, “Cab Calloway: Sketches” by Gail Levin, jettisons much of what would be in a conventional biography — we are given only a vague picture of his early life — and instead focuses on his work as a bandleader, in savvy but accessible detail. A grandson, C. Calloway Brooks, explains the unusual Calloway practice of having the bass play slightly ahead of the beat, with the drums staying fractionally behind.

“The bass player pulls the whole groove forward,” Mr. Brooks, himself a bandleader, explains. “It gives it tremendous momentum. A weak drummer would speed up. They’d say, ‘Oh, I’ve got to lock in with the bass player, so I’ve got to speed up to get with that bass player.’ But what you have to do is have the strength to be able to stay in the center of the beat and let the bass player play in front of the beat.”

That was one of the things that gave Calloway, who died in 1994, a distinctive sound and helped propel him to success at the Cotton Club in Harlem and, with the recording of “Minnie the Moocher” in 1931, to national cult status. Another, of course, was his wildly energetic scat singing.

“There was nobody in his band who could play out of their horn more jazz than he could get out of his throat,” Mr. Brooks says.

The film also explores Calloway’s crossover appeal in amusing but forthright detail, with comments about how his straight hair and relatively light skin tone made him more acceptable to white audiences of the day. That made for a certain incongruity when “Minnie the Moocher,” a song with a catchy singalong chorus that was actually about shady characters, became a national hit.

“When I look back now and think of middle-class whites hi-de-ho-ing as Cab Calloway’s singing about cocaine, it’s like surreal,” the critic Gary Giddins says. “How clueless was white America?”

Ms. Levin wraps the film in a clever device with a sweet payoff: she periodically shows footage of a painting of Calloway as it takes shape. At the end, the painting comes to animated life — a fitting metaphor for what this film does for Calloway himself.

'AMERICAN MASTERS - CAB CALLOWAY: SKETCHES'
On Channel 13 on Sunday night at 8; on many other PBS stations on Monday (check local listings).

http://tv.nytimes.com/2012/02/25/art...ref=television

TV Sports
Patrick a star before first race on Fox
By Michael Hiestand, USA Today - Feb. 27, 2012

Early on in Fox's Daytona 500 coverage Sunday, studio analyst Michael Waltrip announced that while the NBA had "Linsanity," "We've got Dan-Mania!"

Really? As Danica Patrick still is waiting to drive in her first Sprint Cup race, she already was a star on Fox on Sunday. It went right down to John Roberts, hosting what turned out to be a five-hour Daytona 500 Fox prerace show, announcing on-air that the race was canceled even as "history was supposed to be made today when Danica Patrick started her first Daytona 500."

But don't worry, Fox isn't likely to overlook Patrick's historical significance when its coverage starts Monday at noon ET.

In a taped interview with Patrick that led Sunday's coverage, Fox lead analyst Darrell Waltrip told her she had "become the face of NASCAR." (And "a pretty good face," he added, as Michael, his brother, put it in his lengthy debut as a Fox prerace analyst.)

Darrell Waltrip also told Patrick she was "a busy girl." (Later Michael, noting he'd seen Patrick in the gym, said she was also "a strong girl.") When Darrell noted to Patrick that she was about to turn 30, she replied she recently "found two gray hairs." Later we saw Darrell persuade Fox's It Girl to follow him on Twitter.

Darrell's Daytona 500 prediction for Patrick, which presumably still holds: "I wouldn't be surprised if she won the whole darn thing!"

Patrick, popping up again on Fox in the rain delay, sounded resolute: "These delays don't mess with me." And if they do, Fox can always put her on American Idol.

Say what? Mitt Romney, on SiriusXM Radio's Daytona 500 prerace show Sunday, after being asked if he had a driver he was rooting for: "I do, but I'm not going to tell you." OK. Also Sunday, Rick Santorum, whose campaign is a sponsor of Tony Raines' car in the 500, said on ABC's This Week that he discussed a game plan with the driver: "He's sitting way, way back, letting all the other folks crash and burn, and then sneak up at the end." Might work if the first Sprint Cup race was in Iowa. …NBC's PGA Tour coverage Sunday included a closeup of Lee Westwood's errant ball having landed in the back of a woman's shirt. But it didn't seem like she was trying to get away with anything, repeatedly telling Westwood, "I'm so sorry." …Charles Barkley, on TNT's All-Star weekend coverage Saturday, suggested bystanders LeBron James and Dwyane Wade wearing stylish glasses offended his fashion sensibilities: "I don't like that intelligent nerd look they're trying to get." What's left unclear is whether Barkley opposes all accessorizing. …NFL Network's scouting combine coverage superimposed footage of quarterbacks Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck and, from last year, Cam Newton running 40-yard dashes to create a visual comparison of their speed and also threw in anchor Rich Eisen running a 40-yard dash. Semi-amazing that the combine can be turned into sort of entertaining TV.

Heard of this guy? Jeremy Lin's endorsement potential, Nielsen research says, for now tops the marketability of James and Kobe Bryant.

Nielsen's N-Score, meant to measure name recognition and likability and based on polling 1,100 consumers meant to resemble the U.S. population, gives Lin a score of 102. Bryant scores 90, while James gets 84. About 19% of the U.S. population has heard of Lin, Nielsen says, and of those 30% say they like him.

Lin's name recognition isn't close to Patrick's. Nielsen found she's recognized by 30% of the public. Thanks to Fox on Sunday, that's probably higher.

Clip 'n' save: Johnny Miller says Tiger Woods could win 30 to 40 more golf tournaments but won't "even tie" Jack Nicklaus' record 18 major wins. The NBC analyst, appearing on the Golf Channel, said Woods could have a "second career" in which he'd get lots of wins. But Miller says eight years ago he wrote that Woods, who has won 14 majors, wouldn't break Nicklaus' record — "at the time, everybody thought I was smoking something" — and feels the same way now. "He's lost his mojo or psyche or power," Miller says.…Indianapolis Colts center Jeff Saturday, the first active player NFLN has used on combine coverage, on Peyton Manning's future: "He'll be playing football" somewhere next season, "I can assure you of that."

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/colum...ick/53260724/1

I'm pretty sure I'll watch it at some point - but it still comes off to me at the outset as invasive and certainly disingenuous of PBS of all stations - to make a film about people that don't want to be filmed - using telephoto lenses to get photos? The Enquirer sure - but PBS? Hmmmmm. Watching them go corporate is somewhat disturbing.

Haven't seen or read much about CC since the Ken Burns Jazz Series which I have watched from front to back several times. I'm definitely going to check this one out and I'm glad AM decided to do a piece on him.

Patrick a star before first race on Fox
By Michael Hiestand, USA Today - Feb. 27, 2012


Well - I for one ain't countin him out one bit. I think he'll get there.


I sure wish he'd come back to Tennessee as Offensive Coordinator and later Head Coach - me and a whole lot of other Vols fans

Nascar has moved the starting time of the 500 to 7 p.m. tonight.

He's 36. If he doesn't get one this year, prospects really start to dim.

I say that as someone who thinks he'll definitely win one in his 40s, and assuming his knees allow him to keep playing, could easily one day be the oldest winner of a major. But that's only two. Needs two on top of that just to tie the record.

I agree that Tiger won't get there now. It's not ball striking that deteriorates with age once you reach your 40's, it's putting. The nerves get a little twitchy and it gets harder to see the proper line. He used to make everything he needed to; no more. That inescapable malady of advancing years is what will keep Jack's record safe from Tiger.

Thanks. Already fixed it in the schedule for tonight.

Completely agreed of the Bore-Fest the Oscars were last night..

Is boring the new funny? I think the only giggle I had is when J-lo and Diaz showed us their behinds...

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

Being that the wife & I recorded the show & FF-ed thru all but the major announcements.....sad that I missed the J-Lo/Diaz booty show. OTOH, our brief zip thru the Oscars was not all that boring.

And getting the Oscar highlights AND getting thru last night's Walking Dead in the course of about 90 minutes felt like a major time-saving accomplishment.

Nielsen Overnights (18-49)
ABC's Oscars crush the competition Sunday
Network draws a 22.6 metered-market household rating
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Feb. 27, 2012

It looks as though ABC's Oscars improved on last year's performance, according to very early Nielsen numbers.

The Oscars broadcast averaged a 25.5 household rating and 38 share from 8:30 to 11:24 p.m. last night, according to Nielsen metered-market data.

That was up a full point over last year, when the show averaged a 24.5/37.

More accurate numbers, including total viewers, will be released later today, which will make comparisons to past years easier. Media Life will post those ratings as soon as they are released.

Clearly the Oscars broadcast crushed the competition, with ABC's Sunday night average topping CBS, NBC and Fox combined by 140 percent in the metered markets with a 22.6 to the other three networks' 9.4.

ABC was first for the night among 18-49s with an 8.8 average overnight rating and a 21 share. CBS was second at 1.4/3, Fox and NBC tied for third at 1.3/3, Univision was fifth at 0.9/2 and Telemundo took sixth 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.

ABC led each hour of the night, beginning with a 5.5 at 7 p.m. for "Oscars Red Carpet Live," followed by CBS with a 1.3 for "60 Minutes." NBC was third with a 1.1 for "Dateline," Fox fourth with a 0.9 for repeats of "Bob's Burgers" and "The Cleveland Show," Univision fifth with a 0.6 for "Dale con Ganas" and Telemundo sixth with a 0.4 for "Pa'lante con Cristina."

At 8 p.m. ABC was first with a 9.5 for the end of "Carpet" (8.1) and the first half hour of the Oscars ceremony (11.0), while CBS remained second with a 2.1 for "The Amazing Race," the evening's top non-Oscar-related show. Fox was third with a 1.6 for repeats of "The Simpsons" and "Napoleon Dynamite," Univision fourth with a 1.1 for "Parodiando," NBC fifth with a 0.8 for a "Celebrity Apprentice" rerun and Telemundo sixth with a 0.4 for more "Cristina."

ABC was first at 9 p.m. with a 10.3 for more Oscars, with NBC second with a 1.6 for a new "Celebrity Apprentice." Fox was third with a 1.5 for reruns of "Family Guy" and "American Dad," Univision fourth with a 1.3 for more "Parodiando," CBS fifth with a 0.9 for a repeat of "The Mentalist" and Telemundo sixth with a 0.5 for the first half of the movie "Ice Age 2."

At 10 p.m. ABC led with a 9.8 for the Oscars, with NBC second with a 1.9 for more "Apprentice." CBS was third with a 1.2 for a repeat of "CSI: Miami," Univision fourth with a 0.8 for "Sal y Pimienta" and Telemundo fifth with a 0.6 for the end of its movie.

Among households, ABC was first for the night with a 17.8 average overnight rating and a 27 share. CBS was second at 3.8/6, NBC third at 2.7/4 and Fox fourth at 1.8/3.

Household ratings for Univision and Telemundo weren't immediately available.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...ion-Sunday.asp

P. Manning has a fused neck vertebrae , I myself would not even consider coming back ,he's made enuff cash now & to risk him being hurt worse with a fragile neck , I think he's nutz to return ..........Move to coaching & still enjoy the game , live a comfortable life ....

Generally hall of famers go into the tv biz not coaching.
Rod Woodson is the only recent one that did that i can think of.

The lead contender was a silent black and white film and Billy Crystal has been doing this so long he could have been in a silent black and white film. You can't really expect dazzle and energy from that.

Next year they should announce the winner by putting the noms for each category in a cage on stage with Oscar in the middle.

Last one standing gets the prize!

And Michael Bay should direct.

I would probably watch that telecast.

Business Notes
CBS, Discovery in TV Guide net
By Claire Atkinson, New York Post - Feb. 27, 2012

EXCLUSIVE: The TV Guide Network, which is up for sale along with its companion site, is drawing interest from potential suitors Discovery Communications and CBS Corp., The Post has learned.

Lionsgate Entertainment owns the TV Guide channel, brand name and online property TVGuide.com, along with JPMorgan's private-equity arm, One Equity Partners. TV Guide magazine is owned by Open Gate Capital, founded by Andrew Nikou.

The Post has learned, however, that Nikou, 34, has joined the bidding for TVGuide.com.

Lionsgate and One Equity hired boutique investment bank Moelis to explore a sale of the network in January after putting the Web site on the auction block last year.

Discovery's cable channels include Animal Planet and TLC in addition to the flagship Discovery Channel. Beyond premium channel Showtime, however, CBS has far less exposure to the cable business.

Both firms declined to comment.

Sources familiar with the talks said the channel could fetch as much as $350 million, with the site going for closer to $50 million.

Whether Lionsgate goes ahead with a sale of the channel depends on the price, although JPMorgan appears committed to selling, sources said.

Lionsgate has been mulling the channel sale since agreeing to acquire Summit Entertainment, the independent studio behind the Twilight franchise, for $412.5 million. It paid $255 million for the properties in 2009, and almost immediately sold off a 49-percent stake to One Equity for $123 million.

Nikou's Open Gate, which bought TV Guide magazine for a buck in 2008, is said to be offering around $50 million for TVGuide.com. The firm declined to comment.

While the TV network, which is distributed to 80 million homes, has attracted interest, it still poses challenges for buyers aiming to escape its scrolling TV listings format.

The network has reduced the number of households that are required to see the scroll, but at least one big distributor hasn't agreed to new terms, sources said.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/busines...dpwyHcyjFfu1eK

Business Notes
Netflix Said Near Accord With Univision for U.S. Rights
By Andy Fixmer and Cliff Edwards, Bloomberg

Netflix Inc. is nearing an accord to provide U.S. online customers with Spanish-language programming from Univision Communications Inc., said two people with knowledge of the situation.

The deal, when concluded, is expected to include programs from Mexico City-based Grupo Televisa SAB (TV), the world's largest Spanish language broadcaster, said one of the people, who wasn't authorized to talk publicly.

Netflix is adding shows from the most-watched U.S. Spanish- language network to reach an audience of 50 million U.S. Hispanics. Hulu.com added Univision in October. The accord represents an expanded relationship for Univision, which already provides shows to Netflix in Latin America.

Our content is in great demand, and we are in negotiations with several distributors, Monica Talan, a spokeswoman for New York-based Univision, said in an e-mail. She declined to comment further.

Netflix, based in Los Gatos, California, fell 1.2 percent to $111.67 at the close in New York. The stock has climbed 61 percent this year. Closely held Univision is owned by Saban Capital Group Inc., Madison Dearborn Partners LLC, Providence Equity Partners Inc., TPG Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP.

Univision reported today that revenue rose 6.9 percent in the fourth quarter, according to a conference call transcript. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization increased 6.3 percent.

The company had about $9.2 billion of debt at the end of the year, according to the transcript.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...ish-shows.html

Nielsen Overnights
Oscars ratings rise, but Grammys shined brighter
By James Hibberd, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - Feb. 27, 2012

Did Billy Crystal rescue the Oscars?

Even with few box-office heavyweights in contention for top categories, Sunday night’s 84th Annual Academy Awards telecast rose slightly in the ratings from last year.

ABC’s awards coverage delivered 39.3 million viewers, up 4 percent from 2011, according to the network. In the adult demo, the show received an 11.7 rating, off a tenth from 2011. The program out-delivered three of the past four Oscars telecasts and ranked as ABC’s most-watched program in two years.

And yet, the Oscars were outshone in one respect: CBS’ mega-rated Grammys coverage earlier this month pulled a slightly bigger audience than the usually dominant Academy Awards, and totally stomped the Oscars in the adult demo. The music awards show, likely boosted by the death of Whitney Houston, had 39.9 million viewers, just barely edging out Sunday’s program. If last night’s viewership tally is sustained in Nielsen’s national ratings release tomorrow, it will mark the first year the Grammys drew a larger crowd than the Oscars since Nielsen started its current ratings system in 1992. Among adults 18-49, there was no contest: Grammys had a 14.1 rating to Oscars 11.7.

Here’s how the Oscars have fared in recent years:

– 2011: 37.9 million viewers / 11.8 adult demo rating (King’s Speech)
– 2010: 41.7 million viewers / 13.3 adult demo rating (Hurt Locker)
– 2009: 36.3 million viewers / 12.1 adult demo rating (Slumdog Millionaire)
– 2008: 32 million viewers / 10.7 adult demo rating (No Country for Old Men) — LOWEST
– 2007: 40.2 million viewers / 14.1 adult demo rating (The Departed)
…
– 1998: 55.2 million viewers (Titanic) — HIGHEST

Also Sunday night: CBS’ Amazing Race (7.6 million, 2.1) was down 25 percent this week (understandably). NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice (5 million, 1.8) was hammered down 31 percent (also understandably — if you like celebrities, are you going to watch Donald Trump’s Island of Broken Toys or the Oscars?).

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/02/27/oscars-ratings/

It's "island of MISFIT toys" if you're going to write about pop culture, you should probably get the details right before mocking.

(Maybe I'm just grumpy today.)

Always liked the snow/heat mizer song.

'Essentials Broadband' Service Capped at 5 GB Monthly for $5 Off
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, February 27, 2012

Three years after Time Warner Cable tried to test usage-based broadband billing -- and backed off after a furious outcry from customers and elected officials -- the MSO is launching an optional plan in southern Texas capped at 5 Gigabytes per month.

The operator is pitching the "Essentials Broadband" plan as a way to save money: Customers with Standard, Basic and Lite broadband packages will receive $5 off per month if they stay under the 5 GB ceiling. However, they could pay up to an additional $25 per month if they exceed the usage limit.

TWC is offering Essentials Broadband in San Antonio, Laredo, Corpus Christi, the Rio Grande Valley and Texas's Border Corridor.

"Although our Internet service is terrific, it's a competitive world out there, so we're trying some new stuff to not only retain the customers we have today, but get new customers tomorrow," TWC director of digital communications Jeff Simmermon wrote in a blog post announcing the program. "By offering broadband pricing based on usage, we're hoping to enhance the value of the subscription to the lighter users that represent a large number of our customers. And we're hoping that attracts more customers from our competition -- people that are drawn by the flexibility, choice and opportunity to save."

Example of TWC bandwidth-usage meter


TWC is positioning the metered-usage plan as the broadband equivalent of TV Essentials, the $39.99 per month stripped-down cable TV service.

In the spring of 2009, TWC tried to launch consumption-based billing in four markets. But the effort rapidly became a public-relations nightmare, with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and others intervening to express their opposition. Time Warner Cable chairman and CEO Glenn Britt later characterized the episode as "a bit of a debacle."

Simmermon acknowledged that "we know that when we attempted a usage-based billing plan before, it didn't go well."

The Essentials plan is opt-in, he emphasized, and offers customers the opportunity to save a few dollars each month. "It's not going to be for everybody, and that's fine -- all Time Warner Cable customers will still have the option of selection an unlimited broadband plan," Simmermon wrote.

Time Warner Cable customers can switch back and forth between metered and unlimited plans as often as they like. Essentials Broadband users will have access to an online meter that displays usage on a monthly, weekly, daily or hourly basis. Usage above the 5 GB limit is billed at $1 per Gigabyte, up to $25 per month.

In addition, the MSO will have a 60-day (two billing-cycle) grace period to allow customers to adjust usage patterns, during which the cable company will notify customers of overages but won't charge for them.

Among other Internet service providers, AT&T and Suddenlink Communications have instituted monthly usage limits with overage fees. Meanwhile, those that have caps but don't charge overage fees include Comcast, which limits all users to 250 GB of monthly usage, as well as Cox Communications and Charter Communications.

Time Warner Cable customers with higher-speed Turbo, Extreme and Wideband service will continue to have access to unlimited-usage broadband, and no optional tiered plan or discounts.

"We profit from unlimited consumption, and a free, open Internet is the sort of Internet that has gotten us this far," Simmermon said. "But now, if our customers in southern Texas choose a tiered plan, then they've got a chance to knock a few dollars off their monthly bill."

http://www.multichannel.com/article/...s_Optional.php

That's for A-list toys. Trump can only get B- or C-list ones, so it's the island of broken toys for them...

What a joke. For the few that do stay under 5 GB they should be knocking $15-$20 a month off. Otherwise the cap should be 25 GB if they only want to give $5 a month off. I call FAIL on this plan.

Haven't watched in years. Simple way to fix the Oscars.

A) 24 catagories. No one cares for at least half them. Let them have an award cermony the night before that is untelevised for those. Stream it on the internet if they want to

B) Enough with the prodcution numbers and stupid bater between announcers. Just get up there announce the nominees and the winners.

C) when you get an award say thanks you and leave. Enough with thanking everyone and their mothers. Save the comments for backstage durring the presser.

You do that and you can get the Oscars in well under 90 minutes if not an hour and then maybe people will tune in.

Make for wonderful television

You might as well show an insurance seminar in its place. You obviously miss (or don't care for) the whole point of the ceremony.