Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 2571

FRIDAY'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
Ratings Rat Race: ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ & ‘Grimm’ Rise, ‘Gifted Man’ Bows Out
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - Mar. 3, 2012

NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? (1.5/5 in adults 18-49, 7.6 million viewers) shot up a whopping 50% in adults 18-49 from last week to post its best demo result in 2 years and largest audience ever, and that is great news for ABC. That’s because the ratings for shows like WDYTYA are closely tied to the celebrity featured in each episode. Last night, it was Reba McEntire who proved her continuing drawing power just as ABC is prepping a comedy pilot with her for next fall. NBC’s ratings gains carried over to 9 PM where Grimm (1.7/5) was up 13% from last week, once again proving that it does well when its run is interrupted, something it has rarely gotten so far. Grimm was also helped by the fact that its time slot rival Fringe, which targets similar audience, is on hiatus. At 10 PM, Dateline (1.3/4) was flat.

CBS’ Undercover Boss (2.0/7, 9.6 million) was up a tenth from last week and was once again the top program of the night in 18-49. The season and almost certainly the series finale of A Gifted Man (1.4/4, 9.7 million) also was up a tenth, while Blue Bloods (1.7/5, 11.4 million), once again the most watched program of the night, was flat.

ABC’s Shark Tank (1.7/6) slipped a tenth against Undercover Boss and WDYTYA, despite the fourth reality series in the hour, Fox’s Kitchen Nightmares, airing a repeat. But both of ABC’s newsmagazines, Primetime: What Would You Do (1.7/5) and 20/20 (1.6/5) were up double digits, helping ABC (1.7/5, 5.9 million) to tie CBS (1.7/5, 10.2 million) for No.1 among adults 18-49 for the night. Fox aired all-reruns.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/03/rati...-man-bows-out/

WARNING: Spoilers for the 1st Season of "American Horror Story" in this story Do not read if you intend to watch this when it comes out on home video/streaming.

TV Notes
'American Horror Story': Look who's coming back!
By Lynette Rice, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - Mar. 2, 2012

They may be playing different characters, but some very familiar faces from the first season of American Horror Story will make a return visit to Ryan Murphy’s horror-fest on FX. The co-creator of the drama announced Friday during the PaleyFest in Beverly Hills that Sarah Paulson (the medium Billie Dean Howard), Evan Peters (Tate Langdon) and Lily Rabe (Nora Montgomery) will join Jessica Lange in the show’s second season.

Also participating in the scarefest will be Zachary Quinto, who played a gay man who previously owned the Harmon home (with Torchwood‘s Teddy Sears as Patrick). “Anybody could pop up at any time,” Murphy said during the panel hosted by EW’s Tim Stack. “It’s fun to take actors you love and say, ‘come play again.’”

Speaking of which, it doesn’t seem like we’ll see appearances by the dead Harmons, aka Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott. The actors only signed one-year deals on the show but apparently, Murphy’s not opposed to working them in if he can snag ‘em. Stay tuned.

When AHS wrapped its memorable first season, Murphy said the plan was to start over with a whole new haunting in the second season, which is expected to take place on the East Coast and involve a horror institution. Production resumes in the summer for a mid-October return to FX.

Murphy told EW that the second year will revolve heavily around Lange, who played neighbor-from-hell Constance Langdon in season one. Said Lange during the PaleyFest panel, ”It’ll be terrifying in June, but now I’m pretty relaxed about it.”

Lange and Murphy were joined on the panel by co-creator Brad Falchuk, executive producer Dante Di Loreto, Britton, McDermott, Paulson, Frances Conroy and Alexandra Breckenridge. To pay homage to the show — or maybe just to show some love to Lange — one male attendee dressed up as Constance.

Additional reporting from Tanner Stransky.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/03/02/am...s-coming-back/

TV Notes
Rick Santorum on Fox News Sunday'; Newt Gingrich on 4 shows
By Hal Boedeker, Orlando Sentinel's 'TV Guy' Blog - Mar. 3, 2012

The guest list this Sunday morning, and the main topic will be Super Tuesday:

Fox News Sunday welcomes Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum. Other guests are Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. The program starts at 9 a.m. on WOFL-Channel 35. The panel will be Juan Williams, Bill Kristol, Kimberley Strassel of The Wall Street Journal and Jeff Zeleny of The New York Times.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich will be a guest on NBC's Meet the Press, CBS' Face the Nation, CNN's State of the Union and ABC's This Week.

Other guests on Meet the Press are Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., the House majority leader, and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., chair of the Democratic National Committee. The program starts at 9 a.m. on WESH-Channel 2. The panel will be NBC's Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie; Mayor Kasim Reed, D-Atlanta; Republican strategist Mike Murphy; and Mark Halperin, senior political analyst for Time and MSNBC.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul is another guest on Face the Nation. The program starts at 10:30 a.m. on WKMG-Channel 6. The panel will be Michael Gerson of The Washington Post and CBS' Norah O'Donnell and John Dickerson.

Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod is another guest on This Week, which starts at 11 a.m. on WFTV-Channel 9. The panelists will be ABC's Christiane Amanpour and George Will; former Gov. Howard Dean, founder of Democracy for America; Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic; Donna Brazile, the Democratic strategist; Matthew Dowd, an ABC News political analyst; and Peggy Noonan of The Wall Street Journal.

Republican candidate Paul is another guest on State of the Union at 9 a.m. and noon. Other guests are Ron Brownstein and Dana Bash of CNN; Martin Indyk, former U.S. ambassador to Israel; and Nick Burns, former under secretary of State.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/ent...n-3-shows.html

Alexandra Breckenridge tweeted that she is not in season 2 either. She said she was open to it but was not asked.

Nielsen Notes (Broadcast)
NBC wins sweeps with Super Bowl win
Dominates the competition with record-setting game
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Mar. 2, 2012

Boosted by the most-watched Super Bowl in history, NBC cruised to an easy February sweeps victory among adults 18-49, its second February victory in the past two years.

Fox and CBS tied for second while ABC fell to fourth.

NBC averaged a 3.7 18-49 rating for the Feb. 2-29 period, according to Nielsen data supplied by NBC.

CBS and Fox tied with a 3.0, while ABC placed fourth with a 2.5. Univision was fifth at 1.4 and the CW placed sixth with a 0.7.

The Super Bowl was without question the difference maker during the four-week period used to set ad rates for local stations.

Without the game, which averaged a 40.5 on Feb. 5, NBC would have finished the month with a 1.9 average, despite the fact that it had the month's No. 1 series as well, "The Voice."

That speaks to the Jekyll and Hyde-ish nature of NBC's schedule. Its top show is very successful, but the rest of its schedule is weak.

The new show "Smash" has been a disappointment, with ratings sliding sharply since its debut, and veteran shows like "30 Rock," "The Biggest Loser" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" have all fallen to series lows in recent weeks.

NBC's sweeps win also speaks to the rising importance of event programming with overall broadcast ratings falling.

One big event can be the difference between first and fourth place in sweeps, as NBC has learned. Its last sweeps victory in 2010 was fueled entirely by the Winter Olympics, which boosted the network to a 4.7 average.

And last year Fox won the February sweeps with the Super Bowl, though it also got a big kick from "American Idol."

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...Super-Bowl.asp

Does the super bowl network ever lose ?? seems almost impossible to do.

I guess if the other net had the olympics maybe.

Yeah, NBC has to take their victories when they can, the bigger question will be if they can pull past ABC for third place when the season is over. I doubt even the Superbowl and The Voice will be enough for that.

TV Review
ABC's 'GCB' comedy is a godsend
By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

ABC's one-hour comedy "GCB" (10 p.m. Sunday, WTAE) is a holy hoot.

Set among uppercrusters in a tony Dallas neighborhood, the series is a welcome heir to "Desperate Housewives," which ends its run in May. ABC executives have high hopes "GCB" will be just that: a hit this spring that can move into the "Desperate" time slot come fall.

"GCB" follows Amanda Vaughn (Leslie Bibb, "Popular"), who moves back home from California to live with her wealthy mom, Gigi (Annie Potts, "Any Day Now"), following the scandalous death of her cheating, thieving husband. But when Amanda gets back to Texas, bringing her two kids in tow, she finds her past as a high school mean girl catches up with her.

Former classmates whom she wronged, led by Carlene Cockburn (Kristin Chenoweth, "Pushing Daisies"), attempt to thwart Amanda's plans at every opportunity. They are fearful of history repeating. "Ladies, it is not appropriate to speak of such things on the phone," Carlene says while plotting on a conference call. "I'll see you in church."

There's a tangled backstory for all the characters and their relationships with Amanda, including Cricket (Miriam Shor), who lost her boyfriend to Amanda and is now married to Blake (Pleasant Hills native Mark Deklin, "Lone Star").

Amanda's entanglements with Carlene and friends are fun, but it's Gigi who frequently gets the best dialogue. She questions why Amanda would ever leave Dallas for California ("We've got the same weather without the liberals") and has no need for wireless Internet in her house ("Why would I? I don't watch porn").

When it comes to whether her daughter and grandkids will attend church, Gigi stands firm after Amanda says she wants her children to find their own spiritual path. "Cut the commie crap," Gigi says. "My grandchildren are going to church so they can go to heaven, amen, end of story."

Because "GCB" is based on the novel "Good Christian Bitches" by Kim Gatlin, there will undoubtedly be a segment of the audience that's offended by what the TV show's title implicitly stands for (ABC initially called the TV show "Good Christian Belles" but then shortened it to "GCB"). The humor-impaired and those who are blind to hypocrisy should probably stay away. But for everyone else, "GCB" offers surprisingly clever dialogue and winning comedic performances.

Ms. Potts is clearly having a blast, and so is Ms. Chenoweth, who is also a Broadway musical star; she gets to sing as soloist in the church choir in Sunday's premiere.

"GCB" doesn't do itself any favors by beginning with a carnal car crash -- opening with death by oral sex smacks of trying too hard to be outrageous -- but viewers who stick around for the full hour will see "GCB" does not slam Christianity, rather, it pokes fun at hypocritical churchgoers who preach one set of values but live by a different set of moral rules altogether.

Making 'GCB'

Robert Harling, writer of "Steel Magnolias," adapted "GCB" for TV and wrote the pilot. Franklin Park native Gretchen Berg ("Pushing Daisies," "Off the Map") and her writing partner, Aaron Harberts, serve as executive producers on the series. All three, along with Ms. Chenoweth, have a church background. ("GCB" never specifies a denomination for the church the characters attend but it appears to be mainline Protestant.)

Mr. Harberts' father and grandfather have served as Presbyterian ministers, and Ms. Berg grew up attending Heritage Presbyterian on Rochester Road and today attends Beverly Hills Presbyterian. She and Mr. Harberts named their production company Two Presbyterians Productions.

"You always have your parents in the back of your head when you write anything," Ms. Berg said during a January interview at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif. "With this it's almost like you have the whole church community in the back of your head when you write."

Ms. Berg said characters on "GCB" might get biblical precepts wrong and think they're speaking from the authority of God when they are not.

"That's where some of the humor comes from," she said. "But we always have to make sure [as writers] our moral compass is correct and we have a lot of people who would say, 'I don't think that's right,' who are involved in the show."

"GCB" star Mark Deklin grew up attending Pleasant Hills Community Presbyterian Church, where he says he first cut his chops acting and singing and was active in the church youth group.

"The show is very respectful toward religion and Christianity," he said. "[From the book title] some people might think it's an attack on Christianity and Jesus, but if anything the message is pro-Christ: Jesus was great; his teachings were great; the problem is people who claim to follow him but they do all these un-Christ-like things. At the end of the day, that's what's being made fun of."

Canceled/renewed

Last week MTV canceled animated comedy "Good Vibes."

CBS has renewed its annual special "The Kennedy Center Honors" through 2018. FX has renewed animated comedy "Archer" for a fourth season.

National Geographic Channel has ordered new seasons of "Rocket City Rednecks," and CMT has ordered more episodes of "Bayou Billionaires" and "My Big Redneck Vacation," which will air in June.

Deadline.com reports ABC Family has ordered an additional eight episodes of freshman series "Jane by Design."

Channel surfing

The Oscar telecast Sunday night drew 39.3 million viewers, up 4 percent from last year, but it tied 2011's broadcast as the lowest-rated in key demos since 2008, according to Broadcasting & Cable. ... Oscar-winning documentary "Saving Face," about Pakistani survivors of acid attacks, will debut at 8:30 p.m. Thursday on HBO. ... In memory of the late Davy Jones, cable's Biography will air "Biography: The Monkees" tonight at 8 followed by "Bio Remembers: Davy Jones" tonight at 9. ... FX announced a summer comedy programming block that kicks off with Charlie Sheen's return to TV starring in back-to-back episodes of "Anger Management" at 9 p.m. June 28, followed by season two of "Wilfred" (10 p.m.), season three of "Louie" (10:30 p.m.) and the debut of Russell Brand's "Strangely Uplifting" (11 p.m.). ... I'm loathe to write much about pilots because most of them will never see the light of day, but this one is worth noting because of its lineage: The CW is making a "Sex and the City" prequel pilot, "The Carrie Diaries," and has cast actress AnnaSophia Robb ("Bridge to Terabithia") as the young Carrie Bradshaw, the role originated by Sarah Jessica Parker in the HBO comedy. ... Comedy Central's "South Park" returns for its 16th season at 10 p.m. March 14. ... TLC's "Long Island Medium" returns for season two at 9 p.m. March 25. ... Jonah Hill will host NBC's "Saturday Night Live" on March 10 with musical guests The Shins. ... On March 16, USA's "Fairly Legal" (9 p.m.) and "In Plain Sight" (10 p.m.) return for new seasons. ... Lifetime ordered 10 half-hour episodes of a new docu-series, "Bristol Palin: Life's a Tripp," starring the daughter of former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. ... HGTV's "Showhouse Showdown" (2:30 p.m. Saturday) will feature local designer Alisha Gwen competing against design veteran Joe Berkowitz to decorate two new Cranberry homes with identical floor plans. The episode was taped in August in Mystic Ridge. ... Chris Fennimore hosts the 100th episode of "QED Cooks" at 10 a.m. Saturday on WQED-TV.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12062/1213829-67-0.stm

TV Notes
'Game of Thrones' new trailer: It's war!
By James Hibberd, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - Mar. 3, 2012

You’ve been told that “War is Coming” this season on Game of Thrones.

Ready to see some of it?

EW.com has the exclusive new trailer for Thrones season two (links to the earlier trailers below). There’s fighting, there’s romance, there’s …

Florence and the Machine!

For the first time, HBO has licensed a pop song to market Game of Thrones, selecting the indie track “Seven Devils.” I suspect some fans may be initially taken aback by the combination of a modern tune and the land of Westeros. By the end of the trailer, I think you’re going to really dig it (it’s waaaay better than, say, that Enya song slapped onto The Fellowship of the Ring). Here’s your new trailer:



http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/03/03/ga...-seven-devils/

TV Notes
'Southland' puts viewers on L.A.'s mean streets
The gritty TNT crime series uses former gang members and off-duty LAPD personnel to bolster the reality quotient of story lines that are usually filmed on location.
By Miles Corwin, Los Angeles Times - Mar. 4, 2012

The suspect is a teenager, a baby-faced black kid out for a joyride in "the Jungle," a high-crime maze in southwest Los Angeles. Two white LAPD cops attempt to pull him over. The teenager, cornered in a cul-de-sac, backs up toward them. One cop panics, accidentally fires a shot and blows out the back windshield, narrowly missing the driver.

All the variables add up to the calculus of a riot: young black suspect, trigger-happy white cop, inner-city neighborhood. Irate residents shout at the cops and pour out of apartments, dash down the sidewalk, sprint from between buildings. Before the riot ignites, however, other residents on the street, who had witnessed the incident from the beginning and had seen the cameras rolling, explain that the shooting was not real, merely a scene from the television show "Southland." (Tuesdays at 10 p.m.)

This kind of authenticity is the hallmark of the show, now midway through its fourth season, which has garnered critical acclaim if moderate ratings for its attention to detail, gritty realism and ability to credibly portray the tribulations of LAPD street cops and detectives. The Wall Street Journal's review of the new season on TNT was headlined: "Does It Get Any Better Than This?"

While much of television is shot in Southern California, "Southland" is one of the few shows that has vividly captured the diversity and the sprawling landscape of Los Angeles. From Bel-Air to Boyle Heights, from Venice to Watts, the show provides viewers with a kaleidoscopic travelogue of the city at its best and its worst. There are few sets; most of the shooting is done on the street.

Many television shows use cops behind the camera for crowd control. In "Southland," off-duty cops are on camera. During roll call, in the detective squad room, on the street securing a homicide scene, almost all the cops in the background are cops playing cops. When evidence is collected at crime scenes or bodies are hauled off to the morgue, the show uses off-duty LAPD criminalists or coroner's investigators.

HBO's "The Wire" was a landmark show because of the graphic way it portrayed cops, criminals and killers in inner-city Baltimore. A few other shows, including "NYPD Blue" and "Hill Street Blues," were lauded for attempting to realistically portray officers in and out of the squad room. For the most part, however, television cop shows have strained the bounds of viewers' credulity.

Executive Producer Christopher Chulack had a different vision. "I wanted 'Southland' to feel immediate, like a ride-along, and to make it the closest thing possible to a cop reality show," he said. "We've got real cops out there every day. A lot of times we'll say, 'You guys just do what you normally do and we'll film it.'"

Adding to the sense of realism, the actors playing gangsters are not sent to auditions by their Beverly Hills agents. Most are ex-gangbangers, tatted and menacing, who know how to mad-dog rivals, throw gang signs and dis the cops. During some shoots, the officers who are extras and the gangsters who are extras previously had encounters on the street, which has made for fraught moments.

During one episode, the two actors playing gang detectives careened to a stop on a Boyle Heights street to question a group of extras playing gang members, who quickly surrounded the cops. The off-duty officers soon offered a few suggestions to Chic Daniel, a retired LAPD officer who is the show's technical advisor.

"A few of the guys said the gang cops should immediately have the gangsters turn around with their hands around their heads and then search them," said Daniel. "A few other guys said the cops should make the gangsters sit on the ground and cross their legs so they can't get up and run. Pretty soon the former gang members started offering advice. They said that as soon as the cops pulled up, a few guys who weren't holding dope or guns would run. When the cops chased them, the rest of the guys would split in the other direction. We incorporated all of that, and the end result was we had a very realistic scene."

Before the first season, Daniel put the cast through a weeklong boot camp, where they learned how to cuff a suspect, how to frame a door during a warrant search, how to clear a house. They shot their weapons at the range and went on ride-alongs with officers. The actors hit the weight room and bulked up.

Since its inception, women and minorities have populated the writing staff, which has enabled "Southland" to tell the story of the current-day LAPD, which is no longer a bastion of white males but is now one of the most diverse police forces in the nation. Cheo Hodari Coker, a supervising producer, began his career covering gangster rap for The Times and other publications.

"I've seen the corrupt side of the LAPD, but since I've been involved in this show I've learned to respect a lot of officers I've met on the job," he said. "I used to only think about the guys in their cars who were being stopped. Now I'm also thinking about the cops who are stopping them and the danger they face on the street."

A new dynamic

The first three seasons focused on the relationship between a rookie Ben McKenzie, playing Ben Sherman and his hard-nosed training officer, John Cooper, played by Michael Cudlitz, a closeted gay who has a bad back and a pain pill habit. During the fourth season, Cooper, released from rehab, is teamed with Jessica Tang, played by Lucy Liu.

The show also features convincing performances by Regina King, who plays a homicide detective, and Shawn Hatosy, an ex-gang officer teamed with Sherman. The driving force of the first three seasons was the testy relationship between Sherman and veteran Cooper. As Cooper tried to teach his young charge the mechanics and the mind set of policing, the viewer learned along with Sherman. The challenge for the fourth season will be to match that dramatic drive.

The verisimilitude of the show and the filming on the street enable actors to get a better feel for their roles, McKenzie said. Shooting was interrupted one day in South Los Angeles when, about a hundred feet from the cameras, a woman burst out of her apartment waving a loaded gun, threatening to shoot her boyfriend. McKenzie arrested a gangbanger in one scene, and he was such a convincing actor that the show wanted to bring him back for another episode. Unfortunately, he was unavailable because he had violated parole and was back in jail.

In one scene, McKenzie shoved his shotgun in his patrol car, muzzle first. An off-duty cop working as an extra told him that if he didn't want to shoot his partner, the shotgun should go butt-first.

"These guys on the set aren't shy," said McKenzie, relaxing in his trailer after a morning of shooting downtown. "Acting is like tennis: You're only as good as the person you're playing against."

For an actor, Cudlitz said, getting the nuances right is easier on "Southland" because when the shooting starts he is surrounded by cops.

"This changes the feeling of a set," said Cudlitz, lingering beside the old Terminal Annex post office building. "You get sucked into a different kind of energy because you pick up things from the people around you. I ask a lot of questions: 'Hey, would I step over the tape here?" 'Would I be starting paperwork now?' Sometimes there are a multitude of answers. But when I hear, 'You'd never do that,' I definitely pay attention."

On many police shows, the females simply impersonate the macho males and miss the complexities and contradictions of being a woman and a cop.

"It's interesting seeing the female extras who are off duty," said King. "They have the command presence, but they're still very much women. They wear mascara, for example. It's the subtle things like this that help me understand how to play a strong woman who is still feminine."

Like a documentary

Most of the shooting is done is sketchy neighborhoods using small, handheld digital cameras. The documentary feel is enhanced by the abrupt cutting. Because there is no need to build and maintain sets, the production costs are kept at a reasonable level.

The show displays the boredom, the frustration, the terror and the flashes of humor that compose the street cops' daily routine. Unlike many forensic shows in which detectives immediately obtain lab results, these cops, like real LAPD detectives, endure endless waits for DNA results because of the massive backup. These cops know not to touch a body until a coroner's investigator arrives and how to dab their nostrils with Vicks VapoRub before entering an apartment with a odorous decomp.

The show was created by Chulack and John Wells, both former executive producers of "ER." The show premiered on NBC in 2009. Because of its adult content, "Southland" was designed to be a 10 p.m. show, but NBC consigned it to 9 p.m. Ratings were so-so, and network executives canceled the show six months later, and cable channel TNT immediately picked it up.

"Because of all the reality shows, viewers have a higher standard; they're very aware of something that seems artificial," Wells said "In 'ER,' we'd have one or two people maybe a nurse and a physician in the background who really did it. We amplified that on "Southland.' We wanted to do something that was real and maybe it was a little too real for NBC and for some viewers who want a simple black-and-white show: the bad guy has to be stopped and the good guy will stop them."

The show has attracted a loyal following, and a show today, Wells said, can thrive with a smaller audience, as compared with a few decades ago. "That's why a show like 'Mad Men' can have smaller numbers but is still attractive to a certain kind of advertiser," he said. "They're happy because they know who the audience is. Our show, which has many viewers who are well educated and interested in public affairs, is like that."

A number of LAPD officers are devoted viewers. Some object to the poetic license occasionally taken during investigations but enjoy seeing their friends on TV. Others, like LAPD Det. Robert Bub, who heads the Van Nuys division's homicide unit, appreciate the dark cop humor and the realistic street scenes.

"I remember watching an episode with my wife and a few of the cops were rescuing an officer who was under fire," he said. "They draped their vests over the windows, the driver hunkered down, drove between the injured officer and the shooter, and they made the rescue. My wife asked me if officers would really do something like that. I told her I remember being trained like that in the academy."

Corwin, a former Times reporter, has written two nonfiction books about LAPD homicide detectives. His crime novel, "Midnight Alley," will be released in April.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...113,full.story

From The Wrap.com - FALL 2012 PILOTS: THE COMPLETE LISTS

ABC / CBS / NBC / FOX / THE CW (click link to see each network's pilot slate).

The Summer Olympics may fix that.

Well, it would if it fell within the season, but only September to May ratings really count toward anything.

Seems like it. I was behind on watching three episodes, including the Clarence one that didn't air. But I finished watching them a little bit ago. It turns out that there is nothing in the Clarence episode that depends on any other episode. Doesn't mean that something in the two following episode won't have something in them that mentions Clarence. Won't know that until Monday.

The doctor woman (sorry, lousy with names) that is in a coma is not in the Clarence episode to mess up any dependencies.

So, Fox gets away with this one, maybe.

Technology Notes
The Second Screen, Trying to Complement the First
By Randall Stross, The New York Times - Mar. 4, 2012

Do two screens create television-watching heaven? Do viewers want television content on their laps as well as on the main screen?

The Nielsen Company has some survey data confirming what we can see around us: Many TV viewers are using a computing device of some kind while they watch. Last October, Nielsen said 40 percent of smartphone and tablet owners in the United States self-reported that they used their devices daily while watching TV.

The Nielsen survey respondents also noted the various things they're doing with that second screen. At the top of the list were checking e-mail, during programs and commercials, along with Web surfing unrelated to the TV program. Looking up information related to the program at hand finished far behind.

But users' memories are not the best measurement tool. Radha Subramanyam, Nielsen's senior vice president for media analytics, does not have technology to capture what users are doing on their portable devices as they watch. We're relying on what people tell us that they're doing, she says.

On the supply side, second-screen apps like those from Yap.tv, Umami, IntoNow, BuddyTV Guide and Miso are proliferating for smartphones or tablets. Five years ago, we thought interactive TV was one screen, Ms. Subramanyam says. Turns out, it's the second screen.

Some of the new apps can recognize all the shows you may be watching on the major networks, based on what's called their audio fingerprint. These apps then display options that can include related photos, live chats, tweets or user polls. Other apps require you to manually select a show before you can see such choices.

How badly does the television audience want to see that kind of content while watching the show itself? That's hard to know. Trevor Stout, Yap.tv's chief executive, declined to say how many viewers use it regularly.

Scott Rosenberg, Umami's chief executive, said he was concerned that advertisers were rushing to embrace second screens well before they were ready to offer compelling content. The traditional bargain with TV is, We give you great content and you accept our advertising messaging,' Mr. Rosenberg said. Why should the second screen be any different? Actually, the bar for great content is even higher.

His company offers a free iPad app and is working just on giving consumers a compelling reason to open that second screen app in the first place and then stick around. In the future, he says, the company will explore ways to integrate advertising into the experience in ways that won't irritate viewers.

Mr. Rosenberg says, Once the novelty has worn off, consumers are not going to dive for their phones just to start an app to get info about the ad they've just seen.

Last year, Nielsen released a study it did for Google in which subjects were shown a 15-second commercial for a sports sedan. Of those who saw the ad only on television, half were able to recall the name of the manufacturer. Of those who saw it at different times on four screens television, computer, smartphone and tablet about three-quarters remembered the name.

Perhaps most surprising, however, was that even after the message was pounded in four different ways, some 26 percent didn't recall the advertiser.

Marc DeBevoise, senior vice president and general manager of CBS Interactive's entertainment division, seems wary of supplying the second screen with content that distracts from the main one.

Extensions his term for complementary content are rarely meant to be watched or used at the same time that the show is watched, he says. They're meant to bridge the gaps between watchings.

So far, second-screen apps are dwarfed by the popularity of the social media giants Facebook and Twitter. Television is social, says Elizabeth Shaw, an analyst at Forrester Research. We've always talked offline with others about what is going on in our favorite shows. Now it's moved online. Networks know this and are trying to figure out how to move these conversations to their own Web and mobile properties.

MR. DeBEVOISE says that we do think social commenting during shows is a big opportunity, citing the 13 million social media comments counted by Bluefin Labs during the CBS broadcast of the Grammy Awards last month. Bluefin says the number was a record for any program it has tracked.

Mr. Stout at Yap.tv contends that a second-screen app, like his company's, is superior to social networks' software. If you're on Facebook or Twitter while you're watching TV, he says, you're not getting an experience customized to the show you're watching.

But maybe TV-focused customization isn't what most viewers crave. Rather, they may be happiest with the unfettered ability to do unrelated things with a second screen. And perhaps, before long, a third one, too.

Randall Stross is an author based in Silicon Valley and a professor of business at San Jose State University.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/bu...ref=television

Ratings are over at that point. Summer numbers don't really count because the HUT numbers (Households Using TV) is so low because people are out enjoying the weather and longer days that the ad agencies don't even use them. They don't move the needle.

The whole Nov/Feb/May sweeps method is outdated and has been for a while.

Try to convince the ad agencies of that.

I'm sure they already know it, but to admit that the system is faulty would bring down the whole house of cards the TV ad business is built on.

Yep. It falls into that "The Truth That Dare Not Speak It's Name" department. For to speak it is to acknowledge it, and then television civilization as we know it will collapse.

Unless Alicia has moved to the bad part of Chicago, I think it's probably still The Good Wife...

Is this the new CBS series about Carmela Soprano - Life After Tony?

It is a good deal for the ad agencies. It is the stations that pay for the ratings to be taken and tabulated and reports created and the agencies get the use of for free. To introduce a new system means the agencies will have to pony up money. Not happening.

Star Trek:The Next Generation - BD

http://www.roddenberry.com/tng-the-next-level-dvd.html

Yeah, I deserve that! It's still The Good Wife at 9 on CBS, Alicia hasn't joined the MS-13 gang in East L.A. or anything like that.

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

TV Notes
Saturday Night Live' With Lindsay Lohan Delivers Strong Ratings
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - Mar. 4, 2012

Creatively, last night's Lindsay Lohan-hosted Saturday Night Live felt like a letdown after the strong, star-studded previous episode hosted by by Maya Rudolph. But in the ratings, it was anything but. SNL, fronted by the tabloid fixture and musical guest Jack White, drew a 5.5/14 in metered-market households last night. That was up 12% from the Maya Rudolph edition and the second highest SNL rating this season, behind only the football-inflated January 7. telecast (8.2/19), which aired on the night of NBC' coverage of the Lions-Saints NFL Wild Card playoff game.

Versus the same night last year, the late-night show was up 2%. In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, SNL averaged a 3.3/15 among adults 18-49, up 14% from the last original and again the second highest rating this season behind the 4.6/18 of Jan. 7

http://www.deadline.com/2012/03/satu...trong-ratings/

TV Review
'Stevie TV,' pop culture on a skewer
Stevie Ryan is often spot-on in her new VH1 sketch comedy show
By Tom Conroy, Media Life Magazine

It's hard to be cool when you're moralizing. It's even harder to be funny.

Stevie Ryan, the titular star of VH1's new sketch comedy show "Stevie TV," manages to be both cool and funny while satirizing the excesses of contemporary pop culture. Unlike many comic commentators, she seems to actually understand the appeal of people like the Kardashians, Katy Perry and various reality-TV fame junkies while also seeing what makes them ridiculous and ultimately unacceptable. More than half of the bits work, a high success rate in today's sketch shows.

Premiering this Sunday, March 4, at 11 p.m., the show opens with a fake commercial for the Kardashian Kraze board game. Kim appears in a little girl's room and tells her and her friends that the game is "all the fun of being a Kardashian without having to make a deal with Satan."

The girls gain points for things like making a sex tape and getting married for money, until Kim tells one, "You're a national disgrace! You win!"

Ryan then introduces herself to the camera, saying, "I'm so stoked to have my own television show without having to sleep with a gross old dude," as a picture of Hugh Hefner and his former girlfriend Kendra Wilkinson flash onscreen. "I just had to make comedy videos on line," she adds, "which is actually twice as depressing." (Ryan's clips are viewable on YouTube.)

Then Ryan appears as Wilkinson in her reality show "Kendra." Twirling on a stripper pole, she says, "I'm really stressed out about being a ho and a mom at the same time." Every sentence begins or ends with an unvarying version of Wilkinson's trademark laugh.

A parody of VH1's "Mob Wives" is sharper, capturing the violent mood swings that characterize most conversations on that type of show. After an irrational argument over baked ziti, one of the wives tells the camera how badly one of her friends is going to be injured after she's done with her: "I'm talking inspirational movie made about you, a 5K run in your honor. That's how hard I go."

Pursuing the theme of awful people who are willing to behave badly to get on TV, Ryan plays a typical troubled teen from "Maury." In a jerky montage, she boasts about various transgressions: "I'm proud to say I've already had syphilis and gonorrhea five times! I've been smoking cigars since I was three years old! One time, I stole semen from a sperm bank so I could get pregnant with it!"

Ryan skewers Katy Perry in a video for a song called "Sexy Mistake," off the album "Pink Teenage Milkshake Boobs." While dragging a timid girl into various dangerous situations, Ryan sings, "Get roofied tonight!...Bad decisions are fun to make."

A sketch in which Ryan, playing a convincing Justin Bieber, picks up various older fans in his van so that he can shoot amateur porn with them is moderately funny, but the point is hard to grasp.

Ryan has a winning way of disappearing into her celebrity impersonations, which range from serviceable to spot-on. Even when the voice is a little off, she usually has a strong take on the subject.

At the risk of taking it more seriously than Ryan would probably want us to, her take often is that these people's behavior is reprehensible and that we shouldn't be wasting our time watching it.

Judging by so much of today's entertainment, that message needs to be heard. "Stevie TV" makes us laugh at the same time.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...n-a-skewer.asp