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TV Sports/Business Notes
BSkyB, ESPN Vie in U.K. Soccer
By Lilly Vitorovich, Wall Street Journal - May 14, 2012

LONDONA day after Manchester City won the crown as England's top soccer club on Sunday in the closest title race in decades, another battle is looming: the auction of U.K. broadcasting rights to live Premier League soccer, which could raise up to £2 billion ($3.21 billion) for the clubs involved.

The closely watched auction, for which parties have until Wednesday to apply for a copy of the invitation to tender, is likely to be a two-horse race between U.K. satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC, which secured the lion's share of rights in the last auction and has dominated coverage over the past two decades, and Walt Disney Co.'s entertainment and sports network, ESPN, which could be looking to extend its share this time round.

U.K. media analysts have also touted Qatar-based satellite-news channel Al Jazeera and even U.S. technology giants Google Inc. and Apple Inc. as possible bidders. The auction process is expected to be wrapped up in June, according to an English Premier League spokeswoman.

With competition for the rights expected to be hotly contested, many analysts think the auction could raise significantly higher sums this time round.

The English Premier League is the U.K's top soccer competition contested by the nation's 20 leading clubs over a season that runs from August to May. Its attraction extends far beyond U.K. shores, with matches watched by an estimated 4.7 billion people in more than 200 countries. Its popularity has increased as the wealth of clubs has risen, enabling them to pay huge sums to sign top foreign players, including Argentine football legend Diego Maradona's son-in-law, Sergio Aguero, at Manchester City, and Serbia's Nemanja Vidic at Manchester United.

Manchester United's success in the Premier League, winning 12 times in 20 years, and its solid performance in the European Champions League, the region's elite competition, has helped the club retain the title as the world's richest club with a value of £1.39 billion for eight straight years, according to Forbes magazine.

The Premier League is auctioning live broadcasting rightsto 154 of the 380 matches played each seasonover three seasons spanning August 2013 to May 2016. Those rights are bundled into five packages of 26 matches each, and two packages of 12 matches, divided according to when the fixtures are played. No single buyer can buy rights to more than 116 matches.

The last time the Premier League held the auction in early 2009, it sold six packages of 23 matches for £1.78 billion, up around 4% from 2006.

The broadcasting rights are the lifeblood of BSkyB, whose financial success relies largely on its ability to lure customers through its live coverage of the Premier League on its Sky Sports channels. BSkyB secured live broadcasting rights to five packagestotaling 115 matches of a total 138 auctioned in the last biddingcosting £1.62 billion, more than a third of its annual revenue at that time. Those rights expire in May next year.

The operator also charges U.K. pub owners thousands of pounds each year to show Sky's match broadcasts.

Numis Securities analyst Paul Richards described the rights of the Premier League, the most popular soccer league in the world, as a "unique asset" around which BSkyB has built its business.

Mr. Richards, like most media analysts, expects BSkyB to retain the majority of the packages, but he estimates competition this time round could push up the price by between 10% and 15%. UBS analysts Polo Tang and Tamsin Garrity have forecast a 15% increase, while Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Claudio Aspesi predicts a 20% rise.

"We've got great confidence that Sky will manage the process very effectively as it has done for the last two decades," Mr. Richards said, noting the uncertainty over the costs of the auction has been an "enormous overhang on the BSkyB share price over the last six months." BSkyB shares have fallen 5.3% so far this year, closing at 693.50 pence in London trading Friday. They are down about 17% over the past year, which saw News Corp. drop its bid in July 2011 to take full control of the broadcaster.

If BSkyB is forced to pay out a lot more this time for the rights, it is likely to recoup the cost by pushing up subscription-package prices for customers, Mr. Richards said.

BSkyB said last year it would freeze its monthly TV subscription prices "until at least September 2012, to give customers peace of mind at a time when many other household bills are on the rise."

BSkyB declined to comment on the company's auction plans. BSkyB counts media giant News Corp. as its biggest shareholder with a 39.1% stake. News Corp. also owns The Wall Street Journal.

A spokesman for ESPN, which secured one package of 23 live matches in the last round, declined to comment on the network's plans other than to say it "looks forward to participating in the process." Analysts expect the company to at least retain the package, and possibly go for one or two more. ESPN secured its first Premier League package in 2009 when Setanta Sports Holdings Ltd. went bust.

Al Jazeera, which has been reported to be interested in bidding, also declined to comment. To date, the broadcaster's investment has been in global news and current affairs, but, given its wealthy backers, it could make a play for the rights, media analysts say.

Sanford C. Bernstein's Mr. Aspesi believes Al Jazeera is likely to participate in the auction, alongside BSkyB and ESPN, noting the group has already committed around 780 million for French domestic football rights over the next four years.

On top of the seven packages of live broadcasting rights, the Premier League is also selling an Internet-based clips package for all 380 matches and a highlights package for free-to-air networks such as public broadcaster British Broadcasting Corp., and commercial broadcaster ITV PLC, which no longer have the financial firepower to compete with pay-TV giants like BSkyB.

The league will also sell two packages for the right to show the remaining 226 matches in the evenings following the live games. One will be a TV or Internet on-demand package, a first for the Premier League, which UBS analysts believe is designed to drive more revenue for the Premier League and attract the likes of Google and Apple.

The Premier League restricts live broadcasting of matches on Saturday at 3 p.m. to protect attendance at the soccer grounds and participation in the sport at all levels.

A spokeswoman for Google said it doesn't comment on rumor or speculation. Apple has no plans to take part in the auction, a person familiar with the situation said.

A spokesman for ITV, the U.K.'s biggest commercial broadcaster by revenue, said it looks at sports rights "as and when they become available."

The Premier League last week sold broadcast rights in Norway, Sweden and Denmark for three years for an undisclosed sum.

Broadcast rights for other regions outside the U.K. will be auctioned later this year, the English Premier League spokeswoman said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...98189244.html?

I know he owned the Generals but what was the other team ?

Seems wierd that they would let 1 owner have 2 teams sounds like a conflict of interest.

Commentary
A TV Schedule in the Hands of Whoever Holds the Remote
By David Carr, The New York Times' 'Media Equation' Column - May 14, 2012

This week, when they ring the bell on the television upfronts, the annual orgy of advertising buying, I hope the industry isn’t counting on my house to lift ratings.

So far in the month of May, our household has watched exactly two minutes and one second of live television. NBC’s broadcast of “the most exciting two minutes in sports,” as the Kentucky Derby is described, was epic, unfurling on the big flat panel we finally bought. But I doubt our spasm of live viewing is enough to keep the television business in business.

And it wasn’t an anomaly. In April, our sum total of live viewing — the building block of the upfront — came during CBS’s broadcast of the Masters. Even then, I was more riveted by the iPad app in my lap, selecting players and holes to follow.

It’s an apt metaphor. When it comes to the traditional screen that families gather around, live television is competing against a growing array of self-selected content. Given the amount of high-quality shows idling in my DVR and on-demand queue, channel surfing for live television seems very last century. And our television is Web-enabled, so a vast treasure of other goodies awaits from Netflix, Hulu Plus and Apple TV.

(Our house is part of a rapidly growing trend: online viewing is up more than 46 percent in just the last year, according to the media buying firm Horizon Media. And as my colleague Bill Carter noted, live ratings for network programs have declined for 14 consecutive quarters, with audiences bolting in record numbers this spring.)

Outside of the professional football season or some breaking national news event, the television at our house has become uncoupled from the commercial-driven environment that drives the broadcast and cable business. We haven’t cut the cord so much as kinked it in a way that commercials rarely sneak through.

I continue to be a fan of (some) network television products; I just don’t consume them as they’re broadcast.

I’m part of the cult of “Community,” but I motor through several episodes on Hulu Plus when I am feeling the need to spend some quality time with Abed. I’m a frantic fan of “Modern Family,” but this season, fresh episodes were broadcast so sporadically that I just set the DVR to harvest the new ones. And sure, I like to get tucked in by Stephen Colbert, but I don’t go to bed until 1 a.m., so I make sure he is waiting for me in the virtual video library controlled by the remote on my night stand.

There used to be some intellectual cachet in sniffing that you didn’t watch television, but that time is past. Both premium and basic cable churn out so many remarkable goodies that can be recorded or consumed on demand — “Archer,” “Girls,” “Game of Thrones,” “The Killing” and “Louie,” to name just a few — that it feels like a sucker’s game just to settle for sponsor-infested spoon-feeding. Then again, if the business model producing some of that yummy programming dries up, the shows might go away as well.

For half a century, signals came over the public airwaves, and we gathered around the glowing appliance in groups at preordained times. Cable created a second wave of choice and split the model into paid and unpaid streams.

Now, DVR penetration will approach 50 percent of American homes next year, while half of American homes already have video on demand. With the Web offering alternatives as well, the programming controls have been reversed: we watch what we want, when we want to watch, and by the way, we aren’t going to watch much in the way of commercials.

My house is hardly the bleeding edge: Nielsen estimates that there will be 350 million Web-enabled television devices sold worldwide in 2015.

And it isn’t just the early adopters that legacy television has to be concerned about: there is a whole cohort of consumers on the way who are nonadopters of television as we have historically conceived it. My 15-year-old has a television in her room, but it’s not even on the cable-broadcast grid; it is wired instead to a Web-enabled Wii. Like the laptop and smartphone that she never seems to be without, the television is just one more Web-enabled portal for content she controls.

Other significant trends are under way. As the workplace has followed people home through a variety of devices that keep them virtually tethered to their desks, appointment viewing has given way to setting up the next day’s appointments. And social media, Web news and e-mail seem far more urgent than an amusing show in the 9 p.m. slot.

Even so-called event programming like “American Idol” is losing steam — that show’s ratings are down 30 percent — in part because of overexposure and in part because people are less patient with the formula of a cliffhanger interrupted by a thicket of commercials. Save the drumroll; I’ll watch a clip of the winner in the morning.

But the upfronts nevertheless continue to rumble along. According to estimates reported by Reuters, in the coming week the big four broadcast networks and the CW will book some $9 billion in advertising revenue, with the big four up 2 to 4 percent from last year. And cable networks, which surpassed broadcasters for the first time last year in total advertising booked during the upfronts, are expecting a payday of more than $9.6 billion, an increase of 4 to 6 percent.

Part of what keeps legacy television in the game is that it is the last refuge of mass and reach. For retailers who want to flag a sale or an entertainment company with a weekend movie opening, a commercial on a broadcast network or a highly rated cable station can still hammer a message into a lot of noggins. In this targeted age, it’s breathtakingly inefficient — you pay to reach everyone, even the millions not in the desired age group — but making a big television buy is a kind of comfort food, easy and familiar.

Yet by losing audience, networks and cable stations have been able to force advertisers to buy more commercials to reach the number of viewers that they want.

“They have an interesting business model predicated on losing viewers,” observed Brad Adgate, the senior vice president for research at Horizon Media. “It can’t last forever.”

At some point, the laws of both gravity and economics will begin to pull down the upfronts, and with them, the fundamentals of the television business. Jeff Gaspin, who used to head entertainment at NBC, told Bill Carter that he and his son recently decided to catch up on a particular series and so assembled episodes from a variety of sources — iTunes, Netflix and the DVR. They saw all the past episodes in time to watch the final one live on AMC but found that commercials interrupted their experience.

So what show demonstrated to the former television executive that the old way of watching television was losing relevance?

“The Walking Dead.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/14/bu...html?ref=media

TV Notes
NBC chief: '30 Rock' WILL end next season
By Lynette Rice and James Hibberd, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - May 14, 2012

We understand if you’re a little confused on this point.

Less than 24 hours ago, NBC entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt told reporters on a conference call they shouldn’t expect 30 Rock or any of the network’s comedies to necessarily end next season. “As they age [ordering a final season is] something you look at each year, but we haven’t definitively said that to any of them yet,” Greenblatt said.

His statement surprised reporters because sources have been whispering for weeks that this was going to be the last season of 30 Rock. But at the NBC upfront presentation to advertisers Monday, Greenblatt declared 30 Rock is, indeed, ending. The last episode will be a one-hour series finale.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/05/14/nbc-30-rock-end/

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TV Notes
Why NBC is holding 'Smash' for midseason
By James Hibberd, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - May 14, 2012

NBC had some success launching freshman musical drama Smash in recent months. So why wait until midseason — 2013 — to bring back the show?

Jennifer Salke, president NBC Entertainment, gave EW.com the scoop. “New showrunner Josh Safran is coming in — he’s awesome,” she says. “And we wanted him to get a chance to own [it] and get in there and have an ownership stake in the show — not just put a gun to his head and [tell him], ‘You gotta get going!’ So we wanted him to be able to stand back and have a real creative discussion about what he wants the season to be and be a big part of that.”

Another factor, Salke says, is Smash will have fewer schedule disruptions airing after the first of the year.

“If it aired in the fall, it would have so many preemptions with the election and those things, you could never really run more than three or four episodes straight,” she says. “The midseason schedule will allow a clean run, which is important for a show like Smash, that’s very serialized, which has that core audience that gets frustrated if they don’t get to see the story from week to week.”

Another scheduling element that Salke did not mention, but might be an issue, is the show’s lead-in. NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt told reporters yesterday he was very happy pairing musicals The Voice and Smash on Mondays. In the fall, NBC will wisely use The Voice — the network’s biggest entertainment program — to launch its most promising new drama, Revolution. You always use your biggest hits to try and launch new shows. But by holding Smash until midseason, NBC might be able to pair Voice and Smash a second time.

Greenblatt told EW.com that fans can expect next season to have improved serialized storytelling now that Safran is on board. “[Safran] has a real passion for this world and he’s a really smart and sophisticated writer,” he said. “He’s going to raise the bar for us. I do think we’re going to do a better job of arcing really interesting and complex serialized stories.”

Sandra Gonzalez contributed to this report.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/05/14/smash-midseason/

Business Notes
Ancestry.com Tumbles After NBC Cancels TV Show
By Patrick Seitz, Investor's Business Daily - May 14, 2012

Shares of Ancestry.com (ACOM) tumbled Monday after NBC canceled the celebrity genealogy show "Who Do You Think You Are?," which has been a big promotional vehicle for the family history Web service.

Ancestry.com said Monday that it will explore "other avenues of distribution" for the show, which ran on NBC for three seasons. That could include finding a cable channel to carry the reality TV program, which this year featured such celebrities as actors Martin Sheen, Marisa Tomei and Rashida Jones, and football star Jerome Bettis. Ancestry was a sponsor of the show and provided research resources.

Ancestry.com is the world's largest online family history resource, with 1.9 million paying subscribers.

"We want to thank NBC for their support of this terrific series, which over the last three years has inspired many viewers to follow their passion to learn more about who they are and where they come from," Ancestry CEO Tim Sullivan said in a statement. "We have a great partnership with the show's producers, Is or Isn't Entertainment and Shed Media, and we look forward to exploring other avenues of distribution."

In early trading Monday, Ancestry.com shares were down 15%, near 22.20.

http://news.investors.com/article/61...ncellation.htm

TV Review
'The Weight of the Nation,' weighty
Heavy on facts but little we haven't heard before
By Tom Conroy, Media Life Magazine - May 14, 2012

One of the reasons that Americans are so fat is that we shy away from things that are supposed to be good for us. We don't like being told to eat our vegetables.

HBO's documentary series "The Weight of the Nation" is worthwhile, but watching it can be a chore. A combination of reporting on the causes of obesity in the U.S. and exhortations to eat better and exercise more, it could inspire viewers to try to improve both their own lifestyles and the public policies that encourage bad health choices. But too much of the series feels, looks and sounds familiar.

The premise of the series is that the country is experiencing an epidemic of obesity that has serious public-health consequences and that people can do something about this on both the micro and the macro level. Airing tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m., it consists of four hours titled "Consequences," "Choices," "Children in Crisis" and "Challenges." As the vagueness of the titles suggest, there is a fair amount of overlap among the episodes.

The first episode, focusing on the effects of obesity, scares us with statistics and visuals. As a nation, we're simply getting fatter; a recent survey found that 68.8 percent of American adults are overweight or obese. The increased health risks include not only heart disease and diabetes but also such unexpected things as arthritis, asthma and dementia.

The sight of body parts taken from autopsies is probably more effective than the numbers. We see fatty deposits in arteries and an obese adult's oversize heart. Doctors have recently discovered a new form of cirrhosis caused by excess fatty deposits in livers.

A recurrent theme throughout the episodes is that humans haven't evolved to handle the ready availability of high-calorie foods. The second episode reports on lifestyle changes that can help.

Warning against both fasting and fad diets, the episode gives simple advice that unfortunately won't be news to most viewers: set realistic goals, track your caloric intake, exercise. Among the depressing news is that dieters may have to limit their calories for the rest of their lives, that a single candy bar can outweigh a half hour of exercise and that fruit juice can be just as dangerous as a sugared soft drink.

The third episode, on children's weight problems, provides even more alarming news. An expert says that this generation of American children may be the first in a hundred years to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.

Efforts at removing snack foods from school cafeterias and regulating the marketing of unhealthy foods to children are portrayed as ineffectual because of the political clout of the food industry. Fewer schools are providing gym class, often because principals want to concentrate on meeting new academic standards.

The fourth episode may be the most controversial. It suggests that the government's heavy subsidizing of corn and soybeans has led to a reduction in the price of sweeteners and meat, both of which contribute to obesity. Meanwhile, fruits and vegetables, which are mostly unsubsidized and are harder to farm and market using industrial methods, are becoming more expensive.

The episode also says that poor people may be more prone to obesity because they live in neighborhoods that lack supermarkets and green markets offering fruits and vegetables and also lack places for kids to play.

It praises programs that try to fight obesity, ending with inspiring montages of people participating in workplace health programs, riding on new bike paths and shopping at farmers' markets.

Sometimes the documentarians seem a little credulous. They fail to question the assumptions that locally grown produce is significantly better than that shipped across the country, that kids offered vegetables in school will actually eat them and that bike paths will be used by enough people to justify the cost.

A lot of the visuals feel familiar, whether it's the ominously grainy footage of fast-food commercials or the inspiring shots of the formerly obese going on power walks. Some of the talking heads wear out their welcome, making similar points over and over.

Since the show steps on the toes of many big advertisers, this is probably the kind of project that only HBO or PBS could present, and PBS would probably be pressured to run something giving agribusiness equal time. Although HBO subscribers won't cancel the channel because of the series, it won't win the channel any new subscribers either, so we should be thankful for the public service.

Besides, once we're done eating our vegetables, we can always watch an episode of "Game of Thrones" for dessert.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...on-weighty.asp

TV Sports
NBC needed more golf star power Sunday
By Michael Hiestand, USA Today - May 14, 2012

NBC's Players Championship on Sunday was what TV golf might have to grapple with for awhile: Selling the sport without getting much help from star power.

With ratings-movers Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson not in contention, NBC at least had Rickie Fowler the poster boy for golf's young guns who was distinctly mediagenic in his all-orange outfit around to hype. Said Johnny Miller after Fowler birdied the 17th hole Sunday: "Seems to have the 'it' there, doesn't he? Somehow he's born with that. That's what could make him a special player. With a little more experience, (he could be) a good closer. It's a rare trait, I'm telling you."

But Fowler finished in a four-way tie for second, leaving the network with Matt Kuchar, 33, getting his fourth tour win. Dan Hicks helpfully suggested Kuchar has "that kind of magnetism, a little bit of Phil Mickelson and little bit of Arnold Palmer." Miller admired that Kuchar "wants to be happy versus having to be compelled to be happy" and that "his game now is ready to do great things. He could be a great threat to Rickie Fowler and Bubba Watson in the future." And Kuchar does sound like a nice guy, saying on NBC after his win that he'd had a "magical experience" and then hugging his mother.

At least NBC had some sideshow in Kevin Na, the 54-hole leader who finished tied for seventh. His hitches and wobbles prompted Hicks to offer the slight exaggeration Sunday that "Kevin Na has struggled with every kind of mental hurdle you can imagine." NBC's Roger Maltbie said he got a text from the famously wobbly amateur golfer Charles Barkley saying that "Kevin Na is my new hero. Welcome to my world" a world, of course, no golf pro wants to inhabit. But Maltbie, who said about Na on Saturday that it's "so amazing to watch him struggle to get the club back from the ball and make a backswing," said "I've got to give the guy credit" for not slowing play Sunday.

With NBC turning the Players Championship into an event that's about as wired for TV as any in golf, and Sunday using timely split-screen coverage to catch more live action, the network made the most of the situation. And early box office returns are solid: Preliminary Nielsen data found viewership for NBC's Golf Channel coverage Friday was up 86% from last year while NBC's Saturday coverage was up 56%.

Wrasslin': NBA action, particularly Sunday, sometimes seemed like block-and-tackling mixed with wrasslin'. ESPN/ABC's Jeff Van Gundy didn't shy away from saying on ABC's L.A. Clippers-Memphis Grizzlies game Sunday that players were being "saddled up" or taking "karate chops" in the "slugfest" often with no fouls called. Van Gundy's verdict: "You know those (insurance company) commercials about 'mayhem'? That's what's going on here for 48 minutes."

Still, despite some short playoff series and some less-than-compelling games, NBA playoff game ratings so far aren't down much. ABC games are averaging 3.4% of U.S. households (down from 3.5% last year) while TNT averages 2.4% (down from 2.7%) and ESPN averages 2% (down from 2.3%). Not exactly a panic situation.

On the move: This week will likely see NBC finally announcing it has signed ESPN's MichelleBeadle for plenty of air time on the NBC Sports Network cable channel and some role on the NBC-owned Access Hollywood. Other possible ESPN defectors include Scott Van Pelt, whose contract is up this week, and Erin Andrews, who last appeared on-air for college basketball and whose contract ends next month. While it wasn't one of those prominent names, ESPN on Sunday announced an on-air staffer exiting: MichelleBonner, an ESPNEWS anchor and occasional SportsCenter anchor since 2005. ESPN spokeman Josh Krulewitz says only that Bonner "is moving on and we wish her the best in her new endeavors."

The biz: NBC spokesman Greg Hughes says the network will announce this week that the Comcast/NBC-owned Bravo channel will focus on tennis in Summer Olympic coverage. Comcast/NBC has said the NBC Sports Network will focus on the U.S. team while NBC's primetime coverage will largely stick to the traditional Olympic primetime approach. Networks want big-market teams in playoff series that, ideally, last seven games. NBC Sports Network got that in the New York Rangers-Washington Capitals NHL series in Saturday primetime. But its seventh game Saturday drew just a 1.4 overnight rating translating to 1.4% of the 56 urban markets measured for overnights despite a 4.8 local rating in New York. Still, that diminutive 1.4% is up 54% from comparable coverage of a Detroit Red Wings-San Jose Sharks Game 7 last year.

Well done: Fox platforms carried nine of the 10 simultaneously-played final-day games in the English Premier League on Sunday, although ESPN2 lucked out getting Manchester City dramatically winning the league title with two late goals. The good news: Unlike Fox's sometimes hokey elements in past international soccer coverage, it didn't add gimmicks to attract casual fans and instead created RedZone-live coverage that darted between scores in various games.

Spice rack: On the debut episode of HBO's The Fight Game with Jim Lampley, boxing promoter Bob Arum made what was likely the weekend's oddest sports analogy. Talking about superstar Manny Pacquiao, Arum says "he's (recently) become a wholly different person. He does Bible studio every night. Sometimes I get the impression I'm promoting Rick Santorum and not Manny Pacquiao." It's easy to get those two mixed up.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/colum...day/54946340/1

TV Reviews
Johnny, We Hardly Knew You
By Dorothy Rabinowitz, Wall Street Journal

Johnny Carson was by all accounts an exceptionally secretive man offstage, as Americans watching him during the 30 years of his "Tonight Show" reign (1962-92) perhaps came to understand. It didn't matter. For the roughly 20 million viewers who tuned in to his show night after night, the character of the real Johnny Carson was never a question—the radiant warmth and wit that emanated from this coolest of stars was knowledge enough. It was a question—one of many—for filmmaker Peter Jones, creator of "Johnny Carson: King of Late Night." Mr. Jones has so tellingly assembled the elements of Carson's life and career—a buoyant story of a particularly American character and success along with the inevitable quotient of darkness—that his subject fairly leaps from the screen. It's good to see him again.

The film's commentators—an array that appears to include every significant comedy star of the past 40 years or so—look as though they might leap from the screen themselves. Such is the emotion stirred in them by their memories of what was, for many, their first break—a guest spot on "Tonight."

There's video of the young Jerry Seinfeld—a riff on his parents having to move to Florida now that they'd reached a certain age. It's the law, Mr. Seinfeld solemnly explains to the convulsed Johnny. He's followed by the present-day Mr. Seinfeld telling the filmmaker what it had meant to get a slot on "Tonight,'' which he does with the intensity of a man describing the central event of his life.

So it goes with all the guests. Among them Drew Carey, shown, in his first appearance on "Tonight," doing his routine about ordering a frankfurter with bacon—the bacon because there weren't enough nitrates in the frankfurter, he explains. All through his act, Mr. Carey tells the filmmakers, he could see Johnny laughing so hard he had to grip the desk to keep himself from falling off his chair. That part in particular had meant everything. Everyone who performed on the Carson show knew that when this host broke up, the laughter was real.

It's a measure of Mr. Jones's keen instincts as a filmmaker that he didn't trot out, for entertainment value, the dazzling assortment of comedy acts on the "Tonight Show" over the years—a choice that would have been easy and obvious. Instead he's focused intently on Carson's relationship with his guests—things like the unmistakable joy Carson showed when a guest struck gold with some hilarious routine. This was not a show host in a hurry to get himself back to stage center.

He was a host who knew how to nudge things along to fruition when a guest was inching toward something rich but not yet there. He was a master at running with a non sequitur, and he had learned the art of silence—mostly, we're told, from his idol, Jack Benny. His timing was perfect. In one "Tonight" clip Carson asks guest Mel Brooks what professions the members of his family worked at.

"They were all chemists," Mr. Brooks grandly replies. Why should this be so funny? It is, though—you can feel the laughter building as Carson stares into the camera, wide-eyed, in one of those luxurious silences of his.

When it comes to the who-Carson-really-was question, the film provides an assemblage of commentators that includes one of his two ex-wives (he was married three times), producers, biographers and too many other categories to name—all of whom saw in the off-camera "Tonight" host a man exceptionally capable of enjoying his own company. There are also descriptions less sunny: the words "standoffish," "aloof," "the great American Sphinx" and "loner''—that last, in our culture, invariably a term with clinical overtones suggesting something amiss.

It wouldn't be surprising if something had gone amiss somewhere. From the evidence, that place would seem to be Carson's childhood and rearing by a mother who explained once, after her children were grown, that she didn't like boys—they were dirty and trouble. She never quite lost the feeling, apparently. When her middle son, John, became the toast of television, the Time reporter interviewing her asked what she thought of one of his monologues. It wasn't funny, she told him, and left the room. Ruth Carson never missed a chance, one family observer says, to say something deflating about her son's achievement.

Mr. Jones's film, so rich in its suggestiveness, requires no psychologizing and delivers none. It's a stupendous achievement—a kind that brings its famously inaccessible subject to life with a revelatory depth that seems impossible. Still there it is. It should win every award available. They'll all be deserved.

'JOHNNY CARSON: KING OF LATE NIGHT'
Monday, May 14, at 9 p.m. on PBS

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A few words more for "White Heat" (briefly cited in last week's column by Nancy deWolf Smith)—words of praise for this elegantly plotted and suspenseful six-part series whose first installment began Wednesday. The drama concerns seven university friends who first meet when they share a flat owned by Jack (Sam Claflin), a distinctly unpleasant specimen of 1960s radicalism. Key events of each decade—the Vietnam War, Margaret Thatcher's ascension to power—provide background atmosphere but impinge hardly a whit on the essential story of friends and their trials.

Jack finds a lover in his principled and ambitious tenant Charlotte (Claire Foy), with whom Victor (David Gyasi), the sober and disciplined law student from Jamaica, will in turn fall in love. Similar complications beset the rest of the group. The series, which chronicles the lives of the friends for decades, boasts an exceptionally skillful script by the show's creator, Paula Milne; highly distinctive characters; a distinguished cast; and a story that maintains its power to the end. All of which adds up to a drama series well worth catching up with.

'WHITE HEAT'
Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on BBC America

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...estyleArtEnt_6

TV Notes
Fox Takes Few Gambles With New Schedule
By Josef Adalian, New York Magazine's 'Vulture' Blog - May 14, 2012

Back when he ran FX and NBC, Kevin Reilly, now in charge of Fox's entertainment division, developed a rep for being something of a gambler, making big bets on the kinds of shows that more lily-livered suits would reject on sight: The Shield, Nip/Tuck, The Office, My Name Is Earl, Friday Night Lights. That gutsiness has continued at Fox, where Reilly pushed past internal naysayers to green-light Glee and a half-hour comedy starring indie darling Zooey Deschanel. Of course, wagers don't always pay off: Reilly is also responsible for Terra Nova, Lone Star, and a second season of Breaking In.

And it's the ghost of those latter failures that haunts Fox's prime-time lineup this fall: Having now spent eight years as the No. 1 network among viewers under 50, there is no logical reason for Reilly's Fox to take many big bets with the schedule. While every other network (including possibly CBS) is poised to either unveil a slew of new shows, make a radical scheduling play, or both, Fox has opted to play a pat hand. This is smart, this is reasonable, but this is also not without a downside.

Before getting into the risks of not being risky, let's quickly break down the minor tweaks Fox is actually making this fall. The headline play was the decision to shift Glee to Thursday nights, a move that will change viewing patterns for some teen girls but otherwise is not nearly as sexy as it might have been even a year ago. Back when Glee was white hot (in 2010), shifting the show to Thursdays would've been seen as Fox drawing a (chorus) line in the sand against the more established powers (Grey's Anatomy, The Office). Now Glee is simply a solid hit, and its scheduling behind The X Factor probably has much to do with Fox hoping to use Simon Cowell's singing competition to boost Glee as it does the network looking to make gains on Thursdays. That said, depending on what else actually ends up on Thursdays at nine, Fox figures to improve its ratings in the time slot by either a little (if CBS shifts Big Bang Theory to nine) or a lot (if ABC and CBS don't make any changes to the hour). In any case, the combination of X and Glee means Fox will pretty much own the night among viewers under 35, and gives it a pretty good chance of winning the night among the coveted 18 to 49s.

The shift of Glee is being made, Reilly says, to allow Fox to launch a four-show, live-action comedy block on Tuesdays, something that's been a goal of the network for years (man cannot live on animated shows alone). "Even in the age of DVRs, there's flow with comedies," Reilly told reporters Monday. Putting The Mindy Project with New Girl has been the obvious play since the moment Fox picked up the Mindy Kaling brainchild orphaned by NBC. If New Girl can pick up some more fans thanks to summer repeats and strong buzz from what was an amazingly strong final run of episodes this spring, and Mindy lives up to buzz, Fox should improve enough in the full 9 p.m. hour to make up for what could be a rockier road at eight. We love Raising Hope, but America has been a bit slow to catch on, and odds are, Fox will be down versus what Glee had averaged.

Fox's other schedule shifts are shifts in name only. On Mondays, Bones stays put at eight, while viewers used to watching doctors save people on House can now watch The Mob Doctor save people (and mobsters!). On Fridays, Fox will continue to let Fringe fans record the show for later viewing, while allowing Kiefer Sutherland and Tim Kring to avoid the embarrassment of cancellation after a half-season by airing what will be the second, and very likely final, season of Touch. Fox probably won't improve its ratings on the night, but it will make more money, since a scripted show such as Touch will fetch more ad dollars than higher-rated unscripted shows (Hell's Kitchen MasterNightmares).

Reilly's boss at Fox, entertainment division chairman Peter Rice, went out of his way Monday to note that all of the above boringness is actually a sign of just how Fox strong is. "A lot of our success has to do with our consistency," he said during a conference call with reporters. Likewise, because Fox is only launching three new shows in the fall, marketing chief Joe Earley says he'll be able to focus his firepower on hyping existing Fox players, including New Girl, Glee 2.0: The College Years, and the Spears-sational X Factor, all of which are in need of extra attention. And if history is a guide, this combination of safe scheduling and intense focus on returning shows will keep Fox atop the Nielsen ratings for at least one more season (see also: CBS, which created this winning template years ago and has dominated overall viewership for a decade).

But there is a downside to being boring, as we mentioned at the top of this story. While swinging for the fences (to use the sort of baseball metaphor Reilly is fond of) can result in strike-outs such as Lone Star or Terra Nova, it also increases the odds of getting the home runs on which any successful network is built. This season, however, Fox is barely stepping up to the plate. (Even its titles are conventional: four of its five new shows, including midseason replacements, have names that begin with the word the.) It's become so reliant on three hours of music competition on Wednesday and Thursdays, it's given itself very little ground into which to plant the seeds of new hits. And as strong as Fox seems today, it's not hard to see how this could change quickly: What if the Glee reboot doesn't work? What if viewers decide not to give X Factor a second chance, and some of last year's loyalists are turned off by the Britney-and-Demi of it all? What if the aging Bones ends its run this year and Mob Doctor ends up being a perfect show for CBS, but not Fox?

If all three new shows are hits, this won't matter (and for what it's worth, Reilly and other Fox insiders are sounding even more confident than usual that their new development turned out well). And Fox does have some very cool-sounding, somewhat riskier midseason shows on its bench: Kevin Williamson doing the cult thing with The Following could be creepy fun, and How I Met Your Mother's creators are behind another format-twisting comedy with The Goodwin Games. But during his chat with reporters Monday, Reilly sounded proud, even borderline cocky, about the fact that he's unlikely to order more midseason shows: "You don't have to have three more backups when you feel really good [about development]," he said. Maybe Reilly the gambler hasn't disappeared completely after all.

http://www.vulture.com/2012/05/fox-s...onts-2012.html

I always wanted to do one of those No Political Comments things....

'Saturday Night Live' nixes skit mocking Obama on bin Laden
David Jackson USA Today

Saturday Night Live apparently developed a skit mocking President Obama for excessive celebration of Osama bin Laden's death, but it did not air.
According to a script obtained by the conservative website The Daily Caller, Obama -- as portrayed by actor Fred Armisen -- delivers a speech wishing all Americans a happy "Killing Osama bin Laden Day."
"I hope you had a safe and joyous first anniversary of his killing, and that you were able to spend it with those you love," said the faux Obama, according to the script. "This is a special time of year, when we gather together with family and friends, to commemorate the shooting of this terrorist, and the gutsy decision that made it possible."
Obama/Armisen, who repeatedly uses the word "gutsy," notes that he flew to Afghanistan the day of the anniversary, and apologizes to wife Michelle and his daughters because "I couldn't be with you this time."
"You know there's no place I'd rather be on Killing Osama bin Laden Day than with you," says the fake Obama to his family. "But I'll be home for the next Killing Osama bin Laden Day -- if only, as the song goes, in my dreams."
The skit looks to have been slated to open the program, complete with the ending catchphrase, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!"
Instead, SNL went last week with a skit on Fox News.
The real President Obama visited Afghanistan last week.
In the bin Laden parody, the fake Obama suggests ways to celebrate Killing Osama bin Laden Day, including appropriate gifts.

From the discarded script, as reported by The Daily Caller:

"Now tonight, I want to talk to you about the economy. But first, a little more about the killing of Osama bin Laden. Why is it that Mitt Romney refuses to join the rest of his fellow Americans in commemorating the first year anniversary?

Does he think that killing Osama bin Laden wasn't the right thing to do, or that it wasn't "gutsy"? Why all this sympathy for a terrorist? Could it be they shared some special bond, since Mitt and Osama were both members of the One Percent? He's weird.

Now I'll get to the economy in a minute, but while I'm on the subject, there seems to be some confusion among the general public about when exactly we celebrate Killing Osama bin Laden Day.

Many of you apparently think it's the first Sunday in May, whatever date that falls on. Wrong. He may have been killed on the first Sunday of May, but Killing Osama bin Laden Day is always celebrated May 1st, the date of the actual killing,whatever day of the week that falls on. Are we clear?

Also, in response to numerous queries, here are the appropriate gifts for each anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death, according to the White House Office of Etiquette.

For the first anniversary: Paper. And the gemstone is opal. For the fifth anniversary: Wood. The gemstone is amethyst. For the 10th anniversary: Tin. Really. Tin. Many people think it's silver, but it's not. It's tin. Remember that. You don't want to be embarrassed.

But you can also add your own ideas. For example, I've already promised Michelle and the girls, for the 10th anniversary, I'm taking them to Orlando.

One more thing: I want to remind us all that, when sending a Killing of Osama bin Laden anniversary card, or offering best wishes on Killing Osama bin Laden Day to a friend who happens to be Muslim, we should be considerate of Islamic cultural tradition. To many Muslims, phrases like Osama bin Laden "went dirt-napping," or "assumed room temperature," or "sleeps with the fishes," can be offensive. Especially the last one, since, as we all know, he was buried at sea.

And of course, let's all remember that heavy drinking, and Killing Osama bin Laden Day, are never a good combination. So please celebrate Killing Osama bin Laden Day responsibly. After all, it's the"gutsy" decision."

http://content.usatoday.com/communit...on-bin-laden/1

TV Notes
It's official: Britney Spears, Demi Lovato to join 'X Factor'
By Lynette Rice, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - May 14, 2012

The worst kept secret at Fox was made official at the network’s upfront presentation in New York today: Britney Spears and Demi Lovato will join The X Factor as judges in the fall.

Spears and Lovato joined fellow judges Simon Cowell and L.A. Reid on the Beacon Theatre stage very briefly but long enough to express their enthusiasm for their new high-profile gigs.

“I’m ready to find the true star,” gushed Spears, who wore a very tight and very short white dress for the occasion.

“It’s an honor to be standing next to you,” continued Lovato (and she meant that for Cowell, not Spears). She, too, was clad in a short and tight tog. “It’s an honor to represent my generation.”

Spears and Lovato replace Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger, who only served as judges for one season. The X Factor will return in the fall, when Cowell promises the show will be “number one music franchise.”

“This is the Rolls Royce” of music shows, Reid told advertisers Monday.

Strangely, the presentation ended with a performance by Mary J. Blige — not Spears or Lovato or even the Glee actors like Lea Michele or Darren Criss, who were also in attendance.

Spears tweeted a photo of herself alongside her new coworkers Reid, Cowell, and Lovato at the Beacon, but didn’t add further comment on the social networking site.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/05/14/nbc-30-rock-end/

* * * *

TV Notes
Fox fall trailers: 'The Mindy Project,' 'The Following,' more
By James Hibberd, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - May 14, 2012

Fox has released its first video from new fall shows like Mindy Kaling’s The Mindy Project and Kevin Williamson’s thriller The Following.

Check out the trailers that just played at the network’s upfront presentation to advertisers below (and, for those who missed them, NBC’s trailers from Sunday are here):

THE MINDY PROJECT (trailer)

THE GOODWIN GAMES (trailer)

THE FOLLOWING (trailer)

BEN AND KATE (trailer)

THE MOB DOCTOR (trailer)

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/05/14/fo...ect-following/

TV Notes
Mitchell Guist of 'Swamp People' Dies
By Mike Krumboltz, Yahoo.com - May 14, 2012

Mitchell Guist, one of the happy-go-lucky stars of the hit reality TV show "Swamp People," has died.

Guist appeared on the show with his brother, Glenn. Their History Channel biography says: "Swampers through and through, Glenn and Mitchell Guist were born and raised on the bayou and live entirely off the land. These brothers are always up to something, whether it's hunting for their dinner or making use of everything nature has to offer."

According to Sheriff Mike Waguespack, who spoke to WRBZ Louisiana, Guist was in his boat along the Belle River when he apparently fell. Witnesses say he appeared to have been suffering from a seizure.

"Swamp People" has been a hit for the History Channel. Currently in its third season, the show focuses on the lives of alligator hunters in rural Louisiana. The Guist brothers joined the cast in the second season.

There is no official word yet on Guist's cause of death. He was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to WAFB. CPR attempts were unsuccessful. There is no word on whether an autopsy will be performed.

News of Guist's death quickly spread. "Swamp People" became a trending term on Twitter. The condolences rolled in on the show's official Facebook page. "Rip Mitch!! So sad :0( Glen is gonna be lost without him," one person wrote. Another posted, "Couldn't help but shed some tears. RIP Mitch."

Guist was a likable fellow. When, during one episode, he was asked about his favorite food, he responded, squirrels, rabbits, deers, fish, frogs I ain't really picky on food.

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/mitchell-gu...ple--dies.html

TV Notes
Fox Upfront Presentation: Live Blog
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - May 14, 2012

Like NBC's presentation earlier today, Foxs presentation too opened with a comedy video featuring cast members from several shows. The setup was the quartet from Fox's freshman comedy New Girl interviewing candidates for a new roommate. Glees Will Schuester, Fringes Walter Bishop, Bones Temperance Brennan (played by New Girl star Zooey Deschanel's sister Emily), the kid from Touch and Rubber Man from American Horror Story on sister network FX were among the characters who interviewed for the gig, along with Randy Jackson of American Idol and So You Think You Can Dances Mary Murphy.

After Glees Jane Lynch emceed the presentation for the past two years, ubiquitous American Idol host Ryan Seacrest took over the role this year, presenting Fox's executives in the style of the reality series. Like a pro, he phoned in such lines as describing British-born Fox chairman Peter Rice as as American as American Pie, Justin Bieber and soccer, blending America's favorite dessert with Canadian pop export Bieber and the world's most popular sport that everyone outside the U.S. calls football. Seacrest also claimed that After a nationwide vote, the biggest star at Fox is Kevin Reilly.

Reilly started the rollout of next season's slate with Tuesday night, which features four comedies. Since the first day I walked into Fox, this is the kind of comedy lineup I've wanted present to you, Reilly said of Raising Hope, New Girl and newbies Ben & Kate and The Mindy Project. Fox has a third new comedy, Goodwin Games, on tap for midseason.

He took a jab at NBC's large volume of comedies next season (seven new, 13 total). A lot of comedies will come at this you this week, I think they announced like 200 this morning. He also showed a graph depicting the drop of ratings for NBC's The Voice over the course of its second season. Looking at the odds this fall, I'm betting on the original, Reilly said, introducing The X Factor, which will face The Voice for the first time this fall.

Reilly introduced new midseason drama The Following starring Kevin Bacon as the new 24, emphasizing the casting coup by noting that that the series doesn't star a Kevin Bacon type or a six degrees of Kevin Bacon but the actual Kevin Bacon.

In keeping with the American Idol theme, Seacrest joined Reilly at the end of the presentation for elimination. Was Reilly voted off? After the nationwide vote you're safe, Seacrest said. A performance by Mary J. Blige closed the show.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/05/fox-...ion-live-blog/

Technology/Legal Notes
How the TV Industry Blew Its Best Chance to Kill Dish's Ad-Skipping Technology
By Eriq Gardner, The Hollywood Reporter's 'Live Feed' Blog - May 14, 2012

Last week, in what must have seemed for many in the entertainment industry to be a case of history replaying, Dish Network introduced the Auto Hop, its new device that will let subscribers watch recorded television programming without the commercials.

The technology isn't exactly a new idea. But for more than a decade, cable and satellite distributors have been careful about going too far with DVR functionality, not wanting to upset programmers worried about the future of the 30-second commercial.

This changed after Dish broadcast news of the Auto Hop to its 14 million customers. "I think this is an attack on our eco-system," said NBC Broadcasting chairman Ted Harbert on a conference call Monday. "I'm not for it."

Will a lawsuit commence?

Before addressing that question, let's examine whether entertainment companies might have made a mistake eight years ago.

For many, the controversy over Auto Hop will be reminiscent of the industry's battles against ReplayTV, which introduced its own time-shifting DVR device in 1999 and two years later was sued by copyright holders. Two years after that, ReplayTV owner Sonicblue declared bankruptcy, and the common perception was that the industry sued the technology out of existence.

But upon a second viewing of the dispute, the lawsuit against Sonicblue never led to any substantial judicial determination about the merits of the plaintiffs' argument: that ReplayTV's technology facilitated infringements of copyrighted programming and represented unfair competition by attacking the "fundamental economic underpinnings" of TV's ad-supported business model. Nor did the lawsuit go very far in weighing the defense: that the device was a jazzed-up version of the VCR, which was blessed as "capable of substantial noninfringing uses" by the U.S. Supreme Court in the famous Sony Betamax case.

Instead, after Sonicblue declared bankruptcy, the lawsuit was stayed. And then, a bunch of ReplayTV consumers sought to substitute their own claims so as to get a judgment about the legality of the device. The entertainment industry resisted the invitation to drag the dispute out, signing a covenant not to sue the new plaintiffs, which led a judge in 2004 to dismiss the case because there was no controversy left to adjudicate.

Mistake?

Now, eight years later, if the entertainment industry wants to bring a new lawsuit, it must do so against Dish, led by its chairman Charlie Ergen, who industry insiders portray as a very stubborn individual who isn't afraid to spend tens of millions of dollars and countless years in court in a given dispute. Instead of taking on a handful of consumers post-Napster, the industry now has to decide whether its test case will be against a guy willing to pony up for the best lawyers.

Although the commercial-skipping technology really hasn't changed, the interpretation of the law certainly has, and if there is a lawsuit against Dish over the Auto Hop, don't expect it to be like the ReplayTV litigation.

When Hollywood studios sued ReplayTV, the biggest question at the time was a service provider's vicarious responsibility for its users. In the Supreme Court's Grokster ruling, it was affirmed that there was responsibility, but then broadcasters sued Cablevision over a remote-storage DVR system, and the 2nd Circuit found that the system was "akin" to the VCR and that Cablevision's system was only acting at the best of its users.

Michael Elkin, a partner at Winston & Strawn, currently defending Aereo against claims made by broadcasters, believes the Cablevision case "validated the DVR functionality" and also gives another reason why a potential Auto Hop lawsuit is more likely to resemble Cablevision than ReplayTV. "Here, Dish is a licensee of the major television broadcasting companies and intends as I understand to limit the commercial-skipping device to discrete TV programs just on the major networks," he says.

In other words, Dish has a licensing agreement over programming, and the threshold question will be whether the company has breached the agreement.

Of course, the question of possible copyright infringement wouldn't be ignored in a lawsuit over Auto Hop. Elkin adds the broadcasters likely would claim the device is altering the content of its copyrighted programming. Copyright authority allows users the ability to control derivatives, and it likely will be argued that no matter Dish's agreements with broadcasters, the satellite giant is trafficking in unlicensed works.

There are many reasons why a case against Dish is a more fearsome proposition than the one against ReplayTV -- the nature of the defendant, licensing agreements and the precedent of the Cablevision case -- but there's at least one way in which things really haven't changed much at all during the past decade.

"Commercials are the lifeblood of the broadcast networks, and the new Dish commercial-skipping feature, if not enjoined, would undermine the economic underpinnings of the broadcast networks," says Lawrence Iser, a partner at Kinsella Weitzman, who says he expects a lawsuit to come.

Will it? The anxiety by Herbert and others suggests yes. But the decision to pass up the chance eight years ago to determine this question once and for all leaves some doubts as to whether the broadcasters are ready to hit the play button on legal action against Dish.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr...hnology-323932

TV Notes
Tuesday’s Highlights: 'Glee' on Fox
By Los Angeles Times' 'Show Tracker' Blog - May 14, 2012

[ALL TIMES LISTED ARE PACIFIC TIME]

LINDSAY LOHAN guest stars as herself on a new episode of the musical comedy-drama “Glee” at 8 p.m. on Fox.

SERIES

No Kitchen Required: The chefs prepare meals in the tradition of Thailand’s “Sea Gypsies” in this new installment (7 and 10 p.m. BBC America).

NCIS: The Mark Harmon-led action drama ends another season, followed by the season finale of “NCIS: Los Angeles” (8 and 9 p.m. CBS).

90210: The youth-oriented drama presents its season finale (8 p.m. KTLA).

Fashion Star: The final three contestants get one last chance to impress the retailers before the winner is announced in the season finale (10 p.m. NBC).

United Stats of America: This new installment of the humorous, statistics-minded series looks at the how and why of where we choose to live (10 p.m. History).

Best Ink: This tattoo-themed reality competition ends its season (10 p.m. Oxygen).

Private Practice: There’s a baby on the way as the medical drama ends its season (10 p.m. ABC).

Pregnant in Heels: The docu-series about a coaching service for expectant mothers returns (10 p.m. Bravo).

SPECIALS

The Weight of the Nation: This in-depth examination of America’s obesity epidemic concludes with parts 3 and 4 (8 and 9:10 p.m. HBO).

MOVIES

Blue Valentine: Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are a couple on the rocks in this poignant 2010 drama (8 p.m. TMC).

SPORTS

Baseball: The Tigers take on the White Sox (11 a.m. WGN America), the Angels host the Athletics (4 p.m. FSN) and the Dodgers play the Diamondbacks (7 p.m. KCAL).

Hockey: The NHL playoffs continue, with teams TBA (5 p.m. NBCSP).

Basketball: The NBA playoffs continue, with teams TBA (5 and 7:30 p.m. TNT).

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

Commentary
As Talent Flees to Cable, Networks Fight Back
By Bill Carter, The New York Times - May 14, 2012

It was once the ultimate prize for a creator of drama series on television: a call from one of the broadcast networks during upfront week to say that his or her new project had been selected to fill an hour on the prime-time schedule.

For some, at least, that thrill is gone.

Yes, we do have A-level producers who say, I don't want to be on the network; I only want to be on cable,' said Zack Van Amburg, the president of programming and production for Sony Pictures Television, a studio that generates shows for both network and cable channels.

In growing sections of the television drama business, a condition known as cable envy has been setting in and spreading. Cable, the land of small budgets and even smaller audiences, has become the place creators of drama go if they want to take big creative risks and win golden trophies.

But increasingly, networks are trying to lure talent that otherwise might succumb to the allure of cable. It helps that some of the top network programmers cut their teeth in cable: Kevin Reilly of Fox once was the top programmer at FX, Bob Greenblatt at NBC earned his post because of his success leading Showtime, and Paul Lee, the top programmer at ABC, previously had that job at the ABC Family Channel.

They are not trying to reshape their hourlong dramas along the lines of the hot cable series of the moment, but they are willing to bend traditional network rules.

For example, networks are willing to offer shorter seasons a staple of cable programming and to run serialized shows without interruption by reruns. This season interruptions, primarily repeated episodes, clearly drove viewers away from certain network shows. Unforgettable, on CBS, sank late in the season after long stretches of reruns.

Last week, the producer Kevin Williamson, among others, released the news that Fox had ordered a new high-concept drama called The Following, about a police officer's pursuit of a charismatic serial killer. The officer will be played by the busy film actor Kevin Bacon, who put a cablelike stipulation into his deal: he will work only on 15 episodes a year.

Mr. Reilly, the president of entertainment at Fox, who said he could not officially confirm the show's order until Monday, said that, with serialized shows like The Following, audiences want to sit down and blow right through them. Fox set the standard for that kind of scheduling with 24. Like that series, The Following could be held back until January and then allowed to run without interruption.

The networks are opening up to that scheduling model, and we're going to drive it, Mr. Reilly said.

The term cable envy was either invented or popularized by the longtime program-planning executive and outspoken industry wise man, Preston Beckman of the Fox network, who did not like the condition. Cable envy is something that needs to be guarded against, he said. If you believe in it, go work for a cable network.

Rather than give in wholly to guard against cable-style scheduling, networks are trying to offer a little taste of it to producers and writers. Mr. Greenblatt, for example, said NBC is holding back the second season of its Broadway drama, Smash, until January so it can run uninterrupted, a little bit in the cable way.

But it is not easy to coax drama creators to return to the broadcast airwaves.

A big reason is prestige. Of the six dramas nominated for Emmy Awards last season, exactly one, The Good Wife on CBS, was from a network. AMC's Mad Men was the winner for a fourth consecutive year. This season, quality drama has become even more pervasive on cable, thanks to shows like Homeland on Showtime and American Horror Story on FX.

Another reason is the wider palette offered by cable in language, sexuality and subject matter. There's one word about cable, said Ryan Murphy, a whose résumé includes Nip/Tuck and American Horror Story on cable and Glee on network. And the word is freedom.

Mr. Murphy said the cable practice of ordering only 13 episodes and running them straight through also helps with casting: big-name stars are increasingly willing to sign on for the shorter duration of cable shows.

The 13-episode schedule was how I was able to get the cast for Horror Story,' Mr. Murphy said. Jessica Lange was not interested in doing 22 episodes.

A few years ago, Mr. Van Amburg had the bright idea to try to lure Vince Gilligan, once an executive producer on The X-Files, back to network television from movies.

We said to him, Come back to TV; let's create the next X-Files' together,' Mr. Van Amburg said. And he pitched us a show about a guy who gets cancer and starts dealing crystal meth.

That idea became the now-celebrated AMC series Breaking Bad.

I just find cable particularly appealing, Mr. Gilligan said in telephone interview. You get a certain amount of creative freedom.

The true contrast between network and cable comes down to dollars. Networks pay more per hour for dramas up to about $4 million an episode, versus about $3 million for a top cable drama. They also offer a much bigger payday for shows that become hits.

The cable-drama business model has been helped by the interest of digital distributors like Netflix and Amazon. They have provided a much healthier aftermarket for the serialized shows that dominate in cable. Serialized shows do not fare well in syndication. Nor are they as appealing in sales to international television companies. In both cases, buyers prefer closed-end episodes because viewers can watch them in any order.

Mr. Reilly said, Cable producers can do very well, citing Matthew Weiner, the Mad Men creator, who recently landed a lucrative deal to continue that show. But he added, Compare that to House,' one of the biggest global sellers ever. Sales of House have generated hundreds of millions, which means a much bigger payoff to the show's creators.

If there is a center of cable-envy resistance in the business, it is at CBS. The network scrupulously stands by the traditional network formula 22 or more episodes, no serialization. That is largely because, for CBS, deep in crime show hits, it is working fine.

Mr. Beckman congratulated CBS for its absence of cable envy. I give CBS props. There's nothing wrong with developing shows you can make 24 episodes of.

Robert and Michelle King, who created The Good Wife for CBS, admit to a bit of cable envy. Yes, we feel it, Mr. King said. When I read that Matt Weiner is on a slope in Vail after he's finished his 13 episodes, I'm like: Stuff it, Matt.' We're still here working on episode 21. But Mr. King and his wife said they still preferred the grind of 22 episodes a year.

I think we'd get frustrated telling only 13 stories, he said.

Mr. King added that what network producers would most like is not related to language or sexual content, but a return to the 10 o'clock drama that allowed more experimentation.

That described such past network shows, and Emmy winners, as NYPD Blue and E.R.

When we talk about the creative renaissance of cable it's not about nudity or swear words, it is the willingness to go into some dark or chancy territory, and the networks should be able to do that just as well, he said.

Shawn Ryan has created shows for cable and network. This year he developed a big ambitious show called Last Resort, in which a submarine with nuclear warheads goes rogue and takes over an island. He decided it fit best at ABC.

While Mr. Ryan agreed shorter schedules were an attraction, he disputed some of the other advantages of cable. At networks, You get as much creative freedom as you earn, he said.

For several years he led both The Shield on FX and The Unit on CBS at the same time. He won awards and prestige for The Shield, but he had 16 million viewers for The Unit. The Shield averaged fewer than three million.

He recalled that when he was producing the two dramas at the same time, As soon as anyone in Los Angeles heard I worked on The Shield' and The Unit,' all they wanted to talk to me about was The Shield.' But anytime I went home to Rockford, Ill., all they wanted to talk about was The Unit.' That was always a nice lesson for me.

Mr. Ryan added: You can get caught up in the cacophony of people who write about television and people who work in television, where Mad Men' is really a big deal. It's not such a big deal outside of Los Angeles and New York.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/14/bu..._r=1&ref=media

Cannot say I'm impressed with NBC's schedule this season. There is not one new show that I will watch, and the handful of shows I do watch on NBS has been cut by cancellations, so I see myself making great use of Netflix. I've decided that "The Voice" one a years is enough for me and will opt out for the fall, but might return for the spring outing. One I idea I wish they would use is to have a different set of judges for the fall and spring and then have a Voice Off between the two seasons, that might make it interesting.

I was busy today dumping shows off my DVRs, I've gone from 8% free to well over 50%, talk about spring cleaning. Now I read I can dump the 15 episodes or so I have of "Unforgettable", that might push my free space over 60%!

I could be wrong, but I think you might enjoy watching them. Yes, there is a series-long underlying theme to the show, but IMHO it is not much of a theme and the fact that there will be no closure doesn't really detract from enjoying the episodes themselves.

TV Notes
ESPN to Resurrect '30 for 30' Doc Series
By The Hollywood Reporter Staff - May 15, 2012

ESPN will roll out a second helping of its 30 for 30 documentary series, The New York Times reports.

The first 30 intallments aired beginning in fall 2009, with the concept of honoring ESPN's 30-year anniversary over a period of 15 months; but the documentaries kept coming, pegged to the ESPN Films banner even after the series' cutoff date. Hence, the official return of 30 for 30 this fall for a 2-year run.

When we embarked on 30 for 30, we always wondered if there would be 30 good stories, Connor Schell, vice president and executive producer of ESPN Films, told the Times. Now, I think all of us in this group believe that there is an infinite number of stories.

ESPN is expected to make an official announcement Tuesday. The network will merge 30 for 30 content with Grantland.com, the sports-and-pop culture website from ESPN sports columnist and podcaster Bill Simmons, an executive producer on the series. After each documentary airs, a Grantland-original, digital short film will then premiere on the site in addition to podcasts and oral histories related to the episode.

The first short, premiering Tuesday, is focused on ex-baseball giant Pete Rose, 71, as he signs autographs in a Las Vegas shopping mall.

The shorts give us a chance to tell stories that might be a little more clever or off the beaten path, and let us try things, like humor or animation, said Schell. The short films are really consistent with the type of storytelling that Grantland does every day. My hope is that the 30 for 30 brand translates into that space.

Meanwhile, 30 for 30 will explore such subjects as 1983's winning North Carolina State basketball team and Bo Jackson, who played both professional baseball and basketball. Also: a pair of Tribeca Film Festival docs, Broke (an athlete riches-to-rags story) and Benji (about the 1984 murder of a Chicago high-school basketball player).

Simmons recently spoke with THR about plans to resurrect 30 for 30.

"I don't know if it'll be 30 or 35 docs, but I'm pretty confident it's going to happen," he said late last year. "It was so hard to get 30 last time, and the series probably hit about 70 percent of its potential. We were learning as we did it. As we explained it to directors, we could see their wheels turning, like, 'Yeah, that sounds great.' Then you could tell they were thinking, 'I'm not f--ing doing this for ESPN.' This time around is different, and I think Connor and I will be able to get whomever we want."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...antland-324540

TV Notes
Univision Announces 2012-13 Slate
By Tim Molloy, TheWrap.com - May 15, 2012

Univision, the top-rated Spanish-language network, unveiled its 2012-13 lineup of new and returning shows Tuesday, days after announcing a new digital video network and three webnovelas.

Univision will present its 2012-13 schedule -- and those of sister networks Galavision and Telefutura -- to advertisers at their upfront presentations on Tuesday.

Along with the novelas "Amor BravÃ*o” (When the Heart Commands)" and "Por Ella Soy Eva (For Her, I’m Eva)," both of which have aired this season on Mexico's Canal de las Estrellas, Unvision is celebrating 50 years of "Sábado Gigante" and bringing back the reality competitions “¡Mira Quién Baila!," "Nuestra Belleza," "Parodiando," and “Pequeños Gigantes."

Here's the full lineup for Univision, Telefutura, and Galavision, as described by the networks: [CLICK LINK BELOW FOR PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS/SCHEDULES]

http://www.thewrap.com/tv/article/un...13-slate-39846

TV Notes
ABC mixes soaps, comedy in with six freshman keepers
By Gary Levin, USA Today - May 15, 2012

NEW YORK - ABC is adding five dramas and four sitcoms for next season, including a soap set in the country-music world, a drama about a spooky apartment building and a comedy starring Reba McEntire.

Six freshmen series are returning, more than any other network: Once Upon a Time, Revenge, Suburgatory, Last Man Standing, Don't Trust the B - - - - in Apt. 23 and Scandal. Private Practice and Happy Endings also are coming back. Low-rated Body of Proof won a last-minute reprieve thanks to its value to sibling ABC Studios and talks with producer Anthony Zuiker (CSI) to helm the show. Cougar Town moves to TBS; Missing is canceled.

The new crop includes a mix of soapy, female-skewing dramas, more action fare and family comedies (one of which will inherit ABC's best time slot, after Modern Family). Scheduling details are unclear, but don't look for many major changes, with Wednesday's lineup mostly intact and DWTS anchoring Monday and Tuesday. But ABC must rebuild Sunday as Housewives and GCB exit. ABC ranks third this season, with stable ratings, but its young-adult audience fell 4%, and it's now fourth in that measure behind a Super Bowl-fueled NBC.

Among newcomers:

Nashville, a soap set in the country capital, stars Hayden Panettiere, Powers Boothe, Sam Palladio, Clare Bowen and Connie Britton.

666 Park Avenue, in which a couple managing a Manhattan apartment building encounter supernatural doings. Terry O'Quinn (Lost) is among the stars.

Last Resort, a drama about a renegade crew of a submarine who defy mysterious orders to deploy their nuclear weapons, stars Andre Braugher.

How to Live With Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life) stars Sarah Chalke in a comedy about a divorced mom forced to move in with her eccentric parents.

Malibu Country, another comedy, stars McEntire also as a divorced mom, who moves her family from Nashville to a house in Malibu, Calif., where she tries to restart her singing career. It will join Tim Allen's Last Man Standing on Fridays.

The Neighbors is a comedy about a family that moves to a New Jersey community populated by aliens.

The Family Tools is about a dreamer (Kyle Bornheimer) who runs his family's handyman business.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/televis...ule/54964092/1

TV Notes
'NCIS: LA': A rare spinoff success story
Wraps season as the No. 2 scripted show in total viewers
By Louisa Ada Seltzer, Media Life Magazine - May 15, 2012

The success of "NCIS: Los Angeles" might seem a no-brainer, considering the success of its parent. One presumes that spinoffs of successful shows tend also to be successful.

But in fact it's arguably the only really thriving spinoff on television the past few years.

This year "The Finder," a spinoff of "Bones," flopped even though it aired behind "Idol."

And the fourth "Law & Order" spinoff, "Law & Order: Los Angeles," fizzled after a decent start last year, not even making a second season.

In fact, "NCIS" and "NCIS: LA," which airs its two-hour season finale tonight at 9 p.m., average more total viewers together than the two editions of "American Idol" or "Dancing with the Stars."

Yet while "NCIS's" strength is well noted, "NCIS: LA" tends to be overshadowed by the show it was spun off of. It would be the MVP on any other network.

The show averages 15.6 million total viewers, according to Nielsen, just 1 million short of the Thursday edition of "Idol" and No. 2 among all scripted shows behind only "NCIS," which averages 19.4 million.

While its strength is in total viewers, "NCIS: LA" also draws a very respectable 3.2 in adults 18-49, making it the No. 5 drama on broadcast.

The reason for "NCIS: LA's" success is that it captures the original's formula so well without being a clone. It has a slightly offbeat humor and very interesting characters. While the crime-of-the-week plotlines are sometimes formulaic, the crew's interactions are not.

On tonight's finale, Callen and the crew confront a criminal mastermind known as The Chameleon.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...cess-story.asp

Actually "LOLA" was the FIFTH "L&O" spinoff. "SVU" is spinoff #1, "Criminal Intent" #2, "Trial by Jury" #3 and "Conviction" (the series Dick Wolf scrapped together after the "Trial By Jury" debacle just so he could recycle already-built-and-paid-for sets and studio leases) would be the fourth. If you don't count "Conviction" as "L&O" canon (many fans don't because it doesn't have "L&O" in the title; since it stars Stephanie March as ADA Alex Cabot I do count it as a spinoff) then, indeed, "LOLA" is spinoff #4.

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

Nielsen Overnights (18-49)
Solid return for NBC's 'America's Got Talent'
Seventh-season debut averages a 3.6 in 18-49s
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - May 15, 2012

The Howard Stern era of "America's Got Talent" got off to a solid start last night.

"Talent" averaged a 3.6 adults 18-49 rating from 8 to 10 p.m., according to Nielsen overnights, tying for No. 1 in the timeslot and down just 5 percent from what "The Voice" averaged in the slot last week.

It wasn't "Talent's" best debut despite the fact that it aired during the regular season and not the summer for the first time. But that also meant it faced much tougher competition, including CBS's "Two and a Half Men" and ABC's "Dancing with the Stars."

"Talent" was down 18 percent from last season's premiere, when it bowed in June rather than May. But it tied the season five premiere in 2010.

"Talent" peaked with a 3.8 in its final hour.

Stern joined the show as a judge this year, replacing Piers Morgan, the only remaining original judge on the show. The move prompted protests from the Parents Television Council, but the shock jock kept things clean in his first appearance.

Meanwhile, elsewhere last night, the ninth-season finale of CBS's "Two and a Half Men" was the night's top show with a 3.8, though that was down quite a bit from the 10.7 the show's ninth-season premiere earned last fall, when people tuned in to see how Charlie Sheen's departure would be handled.

The 90-minute season premiere of "The Bachelorette" averaged a 2.5 on ABC at 9:30, retaining nearly all of "Stars'" 2.6 lead-in.

CBS finished first for the night among 18-49s with a 3.3 average overnight rating and a 9 share. NBC was second at 3.0/8, ABC third at 2.5/7, Fox fourth at 2.0/6, Univision fifth at 1.4/4, CW sixth at 0.6/2 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-four percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

At 8 p.m. CBS led with a 3.6 for the one-hour season finale of "How I Met Your Mother," followed closely by NBC with a 3.5 for "Talent." ABC was third with a 2.4 for "Stars," Fox fourth with a 1.9 for "Bones," Univision fifth with a 1.4 for "Una Familia con Suerte," CW sixth with a 0.6 for "Gossip Girl" and Telemundo seventh with a 0.5 for "Una Maid en Manhattan."

NBC took the lead at 9 p.m. with a 3.8 for more "Talent," while CBS slipped to second with a 3.6 for "Men" (3.8) and "Mike & Molly" (3.3). ABC was third with a 2.8 for the final half hour of "Stars" (2.5) and the beginning of "Bachelorette" (2.6), Fox fourth with a 2.2 for "House," Univision fifth with a 1.3 for "Abismo de Pasion," CW sixth with a 0.6 for "Hart of Dixie" and Telemundo seventh with a 0.5 for "Corazon Valiente."

CBS regained the lead at 10 p.m. with a 2.7 for "Hawaii Five-0," with ABC second with a 2.5 for more "Bachelorette." NBC was third with a 1.8 for "Smash," Univision fourth with a 1.4 for "La Que No Podia Amar" and Telemundo fifth with a 0.4 for "Relaciones Peligrosas."

ABC was first for the night among households with a 7.7 average overnight rating and a 12 share. CBS was second at 6.4/10, NBC third at 5.3/8, Fox fourth at 4.2/6, Univision fifth at 2.0/3, CW sixth at 0.9/1 and Telemundo seventh at 0.7/1.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...ot-Talent-.asp

TV Notes
2012-13 ABC Schedule: Comedy Block On Friday, ‘Revenge’ Gets ‘Housewives’ Slot
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - May 15, 2012

ABC is launching 10 new series this coming season: 666 Park Avenue, The Family Tools, How To Live With Your Parents (For The Rest Of Your Life), Last Resort, Malibu Country, Mistresses, Nashville, The Neighbors, Red Widow and Zero Hour. Five of them will premiere in the fall, the rest in midseason.

Dan Fogelman’s alien family comedy The Neighbors landed the coveted post-Modern Family slot for a block of single-camera comedies about unconventional families. Freshman soap Revenge was handed ABC’s signature Sunday 9 PM slot occupied for the last eight seasons by Desperate Housewives. It will lead into spooky new drama 666 Park Ave. After NBC moved The Voice results show from 9 PM to 8 PM, ABC is doing the same with the Dancing With The Stars results show, so the two franchises will go head-to-head again next fall. Also like NBC, ABC is opening a 9-10 PM comedy block on Tuesday (the network started comedies on the night this season at 8 PM). For a second consecutive year, ABC plans to expand the Tuesday comedy block to two hours between the two cycles of Dancing. Last year, it abandoned the idea because of the strength of Fox’s New Girl. Now it is aiming to do it again with newbies How To Live With Your Parents and Family Tools in the 8 PM hour in January.

As expected, ABC is pairing the new Reba McEntire comedy Malibu Country with Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing for a mini-TGIF revival from 8-9 PM on Friday. Bringing TGIF to ABC has been a passion idea for ABC topper Paul Lee, and a Friday slot for Malibu Country and Last Man Standing makes sense given the older appeal of both shows. But tinkering with ABC’s reality/newsmagazine lineup, which has been on fire this season — often finishing as No. 1 on the night — is risky.

The Shawn Ryan-produced new submarine thriller Last Resort was given the daunting Thursday 8 PM slot, where ABC has failed to successfully launch a new scripted series since Ugly Betty with such recent casualties as FlashForward, Charlie’s Angels and Missing. Shonda Rhimes’ Private Practice and Scandal are staying put in their spring slots, Tuesday and Thursday at 10 PM, respectively.

UPDATE 8:50 AM: For those of you were wondering why ABC would bench its newsmagazine 20/20 in November during an election year — that’s not gonna happen. ABC just issued a correction to its previously announced primetime schedule, with 20/20 staying put in the Friday 10 PM slot instead of Primetime: What Would You Do? which is going on hiatus.

Here is ABC’s 2012-13 schedule (new shows in bold):

MONDAY

8 PM “Dancing with the Stars”
10 PM “Castle”

In January

8 PM “The Bachelor”
10 PM “Castle”

TUESDAY

8 PM “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show”
9 PM “Happy Endings”
9:30 PM “Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23”
10 PM “Private Practice”

In January:

8 PM “How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)”
8:30 PM “The Family Tools”

WEDNESDAY

8 PM “The Middle”
8:30 p.m. “Suburgatory”
9 PM “Modern Family”
9:30 PM “The Neighbors”
10 PM “Nashville”

THURSDAY

8 PM “Last Resort”
9 PM “Grey’s Anatomy”
10 PM “Scandal”

FRIDAY

8 PM “Shark Tank”
9 PM “Primetime: What Would You Do?”
10 PM “20/20”

In November:

8 PM “Last Man Standing”
8:30 p.m. “Malibu Country”
9 PM “Shark Tank”
10 PM “20/20”

SATURDAY

8 PM “Saturday Night College Football”

SUNDAY

7 PM “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
8 PM ”Once Upon a Time”
9 PM “Revenge”
10 PM “666 Park Avenue”

* * * *

NEW FALL AND MIDSEASON SERIES:

DRAMA

“666 PARK AVENUE”

At the ominous address of 666 Park Avenue, anything you desire can be yours. Everyone has needs, desires and ambition. For the residents of The Drake, these will all be met, courtesy of the building’s mysterious owner, Gavin Doran (Terry O’Quinn). But every Faustian contract comes with a price. When Jane Van Veen (Rachael Taylor) and Henry Martin (Dave Annable), an idealistic young couple from the Midwest, are offered the opportunity to manage the historic building, they not only fall prey to the machinations of Doran and his mysterious wife, Olivia (Vanessa Williams), but unwittingly begin to experience the shadowy, supernatural forces within the building that imprison and endanger the lives of the residents inside. Sexy, seductive and inviting, The Drake maintains a dark hold over all of its residents, tempting them through their ambitions and desires, in this chilling new drama that’s home to an epic struggle of good versus evil.

“666 Park Avenue” stars Rachael Taylor (“Charlie’s Angels,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” Transformers) as Jane Van Veen, Dave Annable (“Brothers & Sisters,” “Reunion”) as Henry Martin, Robert Buckley (“One Tree Hill,” “Lipstick Jungle”) as Brian Leonard, Mercedes Masöhn (“The Finder,” “Chuck,” “Three Rivers”) as Louise Leonard, Helena Mattsson (“Iron Man 2,” “Nikita,” “Desperate Housewives”) as Alexis Blume, Samantha Logan as Nona Clark, with Vanessa Williams (“Desperate Housewives,” “Ugly Betty,” “Shaft,” “Soul Food”) as Olivia Doran and Terry O’Quinn (“Lost,” “Millennium,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “Alias,” “The West Wing,” “Jag”) as Gavin Doran.

Based on the book series by Gabriella Pierce, “666 Park Avenue” was written by David Wilcox (“Fringe,” “Life on Mars”), who is also an executive producer along with Matthew Miller (“Chuck,” “Human Target”), Leslie Morgenstein (“Gossip Girl,” “The Vampire Diaries,” “Pretty Little Liars,” “The Lying Game,” “The Secret Circle,” “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”), Gina Girolamo (“The Secret Circle,” “The Lying Game”) and Alex Graves (“Fringe,” “The West Wing”). The pilot for “666 Park Avenue” was directed by Alex Graves. “666 Park Avenue” is from Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with Alloy Entertainment (“Gossip Girl,” “The Vampire Diaries,” “Pretty Little Liars”) and Warner Bros. Television.

“LAST RESORT”

500 feet beneath the ocean’s surface, the U.S. ballistic missile submarine Colorado receive their orders. Over a radio channel, designed only to be used if their homeland has been wiped out, they’re told to fire nuclear weapons at Pakistan.

Captain Marcus Chaplin (Andre Braugher) demands confirmation of the orders only to be unceremoniously relieved of duty by the White House. XO Sam Kendal (Scott Speedman) finds himself suddenly in charge of the submarine and facing the same difficult decision. When he also refuses to fire without confirmation of the orders, the Colorado is targeted, fired upon, and hit. The submarine and its crew find themselves crippled on the ocean floor, declared rogue enemies of their own country. Now, with nowhere left to turn, Chaplin and Kendal take the sub on the run and bring the men and women of the Colorado to an exotic island. Here they will find refuge, romance and a chance at a new life, even as they try to clear their names and get home.

“Last Resort” stars Andre Braugher (“Men of a Certain Age”) as Captain Marcus Chaplin, Scott Speedman (“The Vow”) as XO Sam Kendal, Daisy Betts (“Sea Patrol”) as Lieutenant Grace Shepard, Dichen Lachman (“Being Human”) as Tani Tumrenjack, Daniel Lissing (“Crownies”) as SEAL Officer James King, Sahr Ngaujah (“House of Payne”) as Mayor Julian Serrat, Camille de Pazzis as Sophie Gerard, Autumn Reeser (“Hawaii Five-O,” “No Ordinary Family”) as Kylie Sinclair, Jessy Schram (“Falling Skies,” “Once Upon a Time”) as Christine Kendal.

Recurring guest star is Robert Patrick (“The Gangster Squad”) as Master Chief Joseph Prosser.

“Last Resort” was written by Shawn Ryan (“The Shield,” “The Unit,” “The Chicago Code”) and Karl Gajdusek, who are also executive producers along with Martin Campbell and Marney Hochman Nash. The pilot for “Last Resort” was directed by Martin Campbell. “Last Resort” is produced by Middkid Productions in association with Sony Pictures Television.

“MISTRESSES”

Welcome to a provocative and thrilling drama about the scandalous lives of a sexy and sassy group of four girlfriends, each on her own path to self-discovery, as they brave the turbulent journey together.

Meet Savi (Alyssa Milano), a successful career woman working toward the next phase in her life — both professional and personal — simultaneously bucking for partner at her law firm while she and her husband, Harry (Brett Tucker), try to start a family of their own. Savi’s free-spirited and capricious baby sister, Josselyn (Jes Macallan), couldn’t be more different – living single, serial dating and partying, and regularly leaning on her big sister along the way. Their common best friend, April (Rochelle Aytes), a recent widow and mother of two, is rebuilding her life after tragedy and learning to move forward, with the support and guidance of her closest girlfriends. And friend Karen (Yunjin Kim), a successful therapist with her own practice, reconnects with the girls after her involvement in a complicated relationship with a patient goes far too deep.

“Mistresses” is a salacious new drama about a group of friends caught in storms of excitement and self-discovery, secrecy and betrayal, and bound by the complex relationships they’ve created.

“Mistresses” stars Alyssa Milano (“New Years Eve,” “Romantically Challenged,” “Hall Pass,” “My Name Is Earl,” “Charmed,” “Melrose Place”) as Savannah, Yunjin Kim (“Lost”) as Karen, Rochelle Aytes (“Work It,” “White Collar,” “Detroit 1-8-7,” “Desperate Housewives”) as April, Jes Macallan (“Kiss Me,” “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “Crash and Burn,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Shameless”) as Josslyn, Jason George (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Closer,” “Against the Wall,” “Castle,” “Off the Map,” “Eastwick”) as Dominic, Brett Tucker (“Castle,” “Spartacus: Vengeance,” “Rizzoli & Isles,” “NCIS,” “Neighbours”) as Harry, Erik Stocklin (“Grey Sheep,” “Sick Day,” “Let’s Big Happy”) as Sam.

Guest Starring Marin Hinkle (“Two and a Half Men,” “Brothers & Sisters”) as Elisabeth, John Schneider (“Smallville,” “90210,” “Desperate Housewives”) as Thomas Grey, Shannyn Sossamon (“How to Make It in America,” “Dirt”) as Alex, Cameron Bender (“Commander in Chief,” “Whitney,” “Beverlywood”) as Richard, Kate Beahan (“Burning Man,” “Rake,” “Boston Legal”) as Miranda, Sunkrish Bala (“Notes from the Underbelly,” “I Just Want My Pants Back”) as Hamid.

Based on the U.K. television series, “Mistresses” is from K.J. Steinberg (“Gossip Girl”) and is executive-produced by Robert Sertner (“Revenge,” “No Ordinary Family”), K.J. Steinberg (“Gossip Girl”), Rina Mimoun (“Privileged,” “Gilmore Girls”) and Douglas Rae (“Wuthering Heights,” “Camelot,” “Mistresses,” “Raw,” “Meadowlands”). The pilot for “Mistresses” is directed by Cherie Nowlan. The series is from ABC Studios.

“NASHVILLE”

Chart-topping Rayna James (Connie Britton) is a country legend who’s had a career any singer would envy, though lately her popularity is starting to wane. Fans still line up to get her autograph, but she’s not packing the arenas like she used to. Rayna’s record label thinks a concert tour, opening for up-and-comer Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere), the young and sexy future of country music, is just what Rayna needs. But scheming Juliette can’t wait to steal Rayna’s spotlight. Sharing a stage with that disrespectful, untalented, little vixen is the last thing Rayna wants to do, which sets up a power struggle for popularity. Could the undiscovered songwriting talent of Scarlett O’Connor (Clare Bowen) be the key to helping Rayna resurrect her career?

Complicating matters, Rayna’s wealthy but estranged father, Lamar Hampton (Powers Boothe), is a powerful force in business, Tennessee politics, and the lives of his two grown daughters. His drive for power results in a scheme to back Rayna’s handsome husband, Teddy, in a run for Mayor of Nashville, against Rayna’s wishes.

“Nashville” stars Connie Britton (“Friday Night Lights,” “American Horror Story”) as Rayna, Hayden Panettiere (“Heroes”) as Juliette, Powers Boothe (“MacGruber,” “24”) as Lamar, Charles Esten (“Enlightened,” “Big Love”) as Deacon, Eric Close (“Chaos,” “Without a Trace”) as Teddy, Clare Bowen as Scarlett, Jonathan Jackson (“General Hospital”) as Avery, Sam Palladio as Gunnar and Robert Wisdom as Coleman.

“Nashville” was written by Callie Khouri (“Thelma & Louise”) who is an executive producer along with R.J. Cutler (“The September Issue,” “The War Room,” “Flip That House,” “A Perfect Candidate”) and Steve Buchanan. The pilot for “Nashville” was directed by R.J. Cutler. The series is produced by Lionsgate, ABC Studios and Gaylord Entertainment.

“RED WIDOW”

When Marta Walraven’s (Radha Mitchell) husband is brutally murdered, her first instinct is to protect her three young children. Her husband’s business partners – Irwin Petrova (Wil Traval), Marta’s scheming and untrustworthy brother, and Mike Tomlin (Lee Tergesen) — were involved in an illegal drug business deal with rival gangsters, and Marta’s husband paid the ultimate price. She already knows the violent world of organized crime; her father, Andrei Petrova (Rade Sherbedzija), and loyal bodyguard Luther (Luke Goss) are gangsters too. She and her sister Kat (Jaime Ray Newman) had always wished for a safer life without bloodshed and fear. For a while Marta lived happily as a stay at home housewife in San Marta’s cooperation, FBI Agent James Ramos (Mido Hamada) now promises justice.

Marta discovers a tenacity she never knew she had, and takes on the gangsters and the FBI to unveil the truth about her husband’s death. As she digs into this dark underworld, she’ll test her own strength, relying on her resourcefulness, determination and family ties like never before. To get out of this mob, she needs to beat the bad guys at their own deadly game.

“Red Widow” stars Radha Mitchell (“Melinda and Melinda,” “Silent Hill,” “Rogue,” “Henry Poll Is Here,” “The Children of Huang Shi,” “The Waiting City”) as Marta Walraven, Wil Traval (“Rescue Special Ops,” “Underbelly,” “All Saints”) as Irwin Petrova, Erin Moriarty (“One Life to Live”) as Natalie Walraven, Sterling Beaumon (“Arthur Newman, Golf Pro, “Clue”) as Gabriel Walraven, Lee Tergesen (“Army Wives”) as Mike Tomlin, Jakob Salvati as Boris Walraven, Mido Hamada as FBI Agent James Ramos, Luke Goss as Luther, Jaime Ray Newman (“Drop Dead Diva”) as Kat Petrova, Suleka Mathew (“Hawthorne”) as Dina Tomlin and Rade Serbedzija (“24”) as Andrei Petrova.

Based on the Dutch series “Penoza,” “Red Widow” teleplay is by Melissa Rosenberg (“Dexter” and screenwriter of the Twilight franchise). “Red Widow “is executive-produced by Melissa Rosenberg, Howard Klein (“The Office,” “Parks & Recreation”), Endemol Studios and Alon Aranya. The pilot for “Red Widow” was directed by Mark Pellington. The series is produced by ABC Studios.

“ZERO HOUR”

As the publisher of a paranormal enthusiast magazine, Modern Skeptic, Hank Galliston has spent his career following clues, debunking myths and solving conspiracies. A confessed paranormal junkie, his motto is “logic is the compass.” But when his beautiful wife, Laila (Jacinda Barrett), is abducted from her antique clock shop, Hank gets pulled into one of the most compelling mysteries in human history, stretching around the world and back centuries.

Contained in one of his wife’s clocks is a treasure map, and what it leads to could be cataclysmic. Now it’s up to Hank to decipher the symbols and unlock the secrets of the map, while ensuring the answers don’t fall into the wrong hands – a man they call White Vincent (Michael Nyqvist). With his two young associates, Rachel (Addison Timlin) and Arron (Scott Michael Foster), in tow, along with Becca Riley, a sexy FBI agent (Carmen Ejogo), Hank will lead them on a breathless race against the clock to find his wife and save humanity.

“Zero Hour” stars Anthony Edwards (“Big Sur,” “Flipped,” “ER”) as Hank, Carmen Ejogo (“Sparkle,” “Chaos,” “Away We Go”) as Beck, Scott Michael Foster (“Californication,” “The River”) as Aaron, Addison Timlin (“Californication”) as Rachel, Jacinda Barrett (“Matching Jack,” “Middle Men,” “New York, I Love You”) as Laila and Michael Nyqvist (“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Patrol”) as White Vincent.

“Zero Hour” was written by Paul T. Scheuring (“Prison Break”) who is also an executive producer along with Pierre Morel, Lorenzo DiBonaventura (“The Transformers,” “GI: Joe” franchise, “Salt,” “Red”) and Dan McDermott (“Human Target”). The pilot for “Zero Hour” was directed by Pierre Morel. The series is produced by ABC Studios.

COMEDY

“HOW TO LIVE WITH YOUR PARENTS (FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE)”

Polly (Sarah Chalke) is a single mom who’s been divorced for almost a year. The transition wasn’t easy for her, especially in this economy. So, like a lot of young people living in this new reality, she and her daughter, Natalie (Rachel Eggleston), have moved back home with her eccentric parents, Elaine (Elizabeth Perkins) and Max (Brad Garrett). But Polly and her parents look at life through two different lenses. Polly’s too uptight. Her parents are too laid back. Polly’s conservative when it comes to dating (no action, whatsoever), while her parents are still sexually adventurous. They think Polly turned out okay, so what’s the big deal? Well, they say it takes a village to raise a child…and in Polly’s case, this village is on fire. But with help from her best friend Gregg (Orlando Jones), her lovable yet irresponsible ex-husband Julian (Jon Dore) and her cool and fun assistant Jenn (Rebecca Delgado Smith) Polly takes her first steps toward getting a life, starting with a social one.

“How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)” stars Sarah Chalke (“Mad Love,” “Scrubs”) as Polly, Jon Dore as Julian, Rachel Eggleston as Natalie, Brad Garrett (“Everybody Loves Raymond,” “‘Til Death”) as Max, Orlando Jones (“Rules of Engagement”) as Gregg, Elizabeth Perkins (“Weeds”) as Elaine, Rebecca Delgado Smith as Jenn.

“How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)” was written by Claudia Lonow, who is also an executive producer along with Brian Grazer and Francie Calfo. The pilot for “How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)” was directed by Julie Anne Robinson. The series is produced by 20th Century Fox and Imagine Television.

“MALIBU COUNTRY”

When Reba Gallagher (Reba) discovers that her husband, Bobby, (Jeffrey Nordling) a country music legend, has a cheatin’ heart, her world is turned upside down. Reba dreamt of becoming a country star herself, but put her career on hold to raise a family. Now she’s questioning all of that, big-time. With the ink on her divorce barely dry, Reba packs up her sharp-tongued mother, Lillie May (Lily Tomlin), her two kids and the U-Haul and heads for sunny California to begin a new chapter. Leaving Nashville in the rear view, they start over at their Malibu residence — the last remaining asset they have. Reba gets to know her new open and loving neighbor Kim (Sara Rue) and her son, Sage, but also discovers that relocation to Southern California is going to be quite an adjustment for a traditional southern belle: the West Coast seems like the polar opposite of Music City, and Reba feels like an outsider. Still, with the support of her family she sets about finding her voice, jump-starting her music career with the help of her new music agent, Geoffrey (Jai Rodriguez), and embracing this chance to begin again.

“Malibu Country” stars country music superstar Reba (“Reba,” “Tremors”) as Reba, Sara Rue (“Rules of Engagement,” “Less Than Perfect”) as Kim, Justin Prentice as Cash, Juliette Angelo as June, Jai Rodriguez (“Bones,” “How I Met Your Mother,” one of the original hosts of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”) as Geoffrey and Lily Tomlin (“Eastbound and Down,” “Damages,” “Desperate Housewives,” “West Wing,” “Nine to Five,” “All of Me,” “Nashville”) as Lillie May.

“Malibu Country” is from Kevin Abbott (“Last Man Standing,” “My Name Is Earl,” “Reba”) who executive produces along with Michael Hanel & Mindy Schultheis, Reba McEntire & Narvel Blackstock, Dave Stewart & Pam Williams, John Pasquin. The pilot for “Malibu Country” was directed by John Pasquin. The series is from ABC Studios.

“THE NEIGHBORS”

How well do you know your neighbors?

Meet the Weavers, Debbie (Jami Gertz) and Marty (Lenny Venito). Marty, in hopes of providing a better life for his wife and three kids, recently bought a home in Hidden Hills, a gated New Jersey townhome community with its own golf course. Hidden Hills is so exclusive that a house hasn’t come on the market in 10 years. But one finally did and the Weavers got it!

It’s clear from day one that the residents of Hidden Hills are a little different. For starters, their new neighbors all have pro-athlete names like Reggie Jackson (Tim Jo), Jackie Joyner-Kersee (Toks Olagundoye), Dick Butkis (Ian Patrick) and Larry Bird (Simon Templeman). Over dinner, Marty and his family discover that their neighbors receive nourishment through their eyes by reading books, rather than eating. The Weavers soon learn that the entire community is comprised of aliens from Zabvron, where the men bear children and everyone cries green goo from their ears.

The Zabvronians have been stationed on Earth for the past 10 years, disguised as humans, awaiting instructions from home, and the Weavers are the first humans they’ve had the opportunity to know. As it turns out, the pressures of marriage and parenthood are not exclusive to planet Earth. Two worlds will collide with hilarious consequences as everyone discovers they can “totally relate” and learn a lot from each other.

“The Neighbors” stars Jami Gertz (“Entourage,” “Modern Family,” “Still Standing,” “Ally McBeal”) as Debbie Weaver, Lenny Venito (“Bored to Death,” “Men in Black III,” “Person of Interest,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm”) as Marty Weaver, Simon Templeman as Larry Bird, Toks Olagundoye as Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Clara Mamet as Amber Weaver, Tim Jo (“Glory Daze”) as Reggie Jackson, Ian Patrick (“Wanderlust”) as Dick Butkis, Max Charles (“The Three Stooges,” “The Amazing Spider-Man”) as Max Weaver, Isabella Cramp as Abby Weaver.

Guest starring are Mitch Rouse as Real Estate Agent and Doug Jones as Alien. Co-Starring are Bruce Green as Angry Man and Mary K. DeVault as Angry Woman.

“The Neighbors” was written by Dan Fogelman (“Cars,” “Tangled,” and “Crazy, Stupid, Love”) who is also an executive producer with Aaron Kaplan, Jeff Morton (“Modern Family”) and Chris Koch (“Workaholics,” “Modern Family”). “The Neighbors” was directed by Chris Koch and is from ABC Studios.

“THE FAMILY TOOLS”

Mixing family with business is never easy, and Jack Shea (Kyle Bornheimer) is about to learn that lesson the hard way. When Jack’s father, Tony (J.K. Simmons), has a heart attack and is forced to hand over the keys to his beloved handyman business, Jack is eager to finally step up and make his father proud. Unfortunately Jack’s past career efforts have been less than stellar, so everyone seems to be waiting for him to fail. His new job isn’t made any easier by Tony’s rebellious, troublemaker assistant, Darren (Edi Gathegi), and Darren’s flirtatious sister, Liz (Danielle Nicolet), who works at the local hardware store. Yet with the support of his Aunt Terry (Leah Remini) and his oddball yet endearing cousin Mason (Johnny Pemberton), Jack Shea may just find his true calling right at home.

“The Family Tools” stars Kyle Bornheimer (“Bachelorette,” “Romantically Challenged,” “Perfect Couples”) as Jack Shea, J.K. Simmons (“Ultimate Spiderman,” “Generator Rex,” “The Closer”) as Tony Shea, Edi Gathegi (“X Men: First Class”) as Darren, Johnny Pemberton (“21 Jump Street,” “Aim High”) as Mason, Danielle Nicolet (“X Men TV Series”) as Liz and Leah Remini (“In the Motherhood,” “King of Queens”) as Terry.

Based on the UK series “White Van Man,” “The Family Tools” teleplay is by Bobby Bowman. “The Family Tools” is executive-produced by Bobby Bowman, Mark Gordon (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “Criminal Minds”) and Andrea Shay (“It Takes a Village,” “Virtual Virgin”) and Paul Buccieri (“Prime Suspect”). The pilot for “The Family Tools” was directed by Michael Fresco (“Suburgatory,” “Raising Hope,” “Better Off Ted,” “My Name Is Earl,” “Northern Exposure,” “St. Elsewhere”). The series is from ABC Studios.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/05/2012...usewives-slot/

Technology Notes
Comcast finds way to deliver ads to subscribers who skip commercials on DVR
By Steve Donohue, FierceCable.com Blog

Comcast has developed technology that would allow the nation's largest cable operator to deliver advertising to subscribers who skip commercials contained in TV shows recorded on a DVR, according to a U.S. patent application obtained by FierceCable.

Subscribers who hit fast-forward, pause and other trick-mode buttons on their remotes would receive an alternate ad displayed in the center of their TV screen or by making the alternate ad partially transparent, according to the patent.

Comcast details a strategy for targeting alternative ads to a subscriber who skips commercials based on demographics and the subscriber's viewing habits, including "historical choices made by the recipient whether to skip or watch previous alternate content."

Comcast also says networks would be able to charge advertisers a premium for the right to deliver alternative ads to a subscriber who skips commercials in TV shows contained in a DVR. The MSO notes that it could also sell advertising displayed while a subscriber uses fast forward to other media buyers.

"The content provider may charge the advertiser an extra fee to play the alternate advertising during fast-forward operation," Comcast states in the 20-page patent application. "In other embodiments, however, the content provider may sell those trick mode advertising avails to other advertisers," the company writes.

Comcast details several methods for delivering alternative ads to subscribers who skip fast forward. One approach would be to use a DVR containing multiple tuners to download alternative ads to a subscriber's set-top before he begins watching a program. "This can be done behind the scenes without the user's knowledge," Comcast chief scientist Dan Holden writes in the patent application. Holden is named as the inventor on the application, which was published Thursday by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

Comcast may be able to boost ad revenue by selling advertisers multiple alternative ads, and using the trick modes to incent subscribers to watch other ads or previews for movies or TV shows. "The alternate advertising trick file can be configured to tempt the consumer to take further actions," Comcast writes on the patent application. "Alternately, when the consumer selects double rewind, the consumer may be presented with another advertisement that includes an instruction to select yet another trick mode in order to receive some benefit such as a prize or another preview or the second half of the same preview. The possibilities are endless," the company adds.

Comcast officials wouldn't comment on when the technology may be deployed. "While we regularly file patent applications for a variety of technologies, we cannot comment on their potential use or speculate on whether those technologies would be part of any future products or services," spokeswoman Jenni Moyer said Friday.

Comcast and other cable MSOs have increased revenue from digital cable subscribers by leasing customers DVRs, but the devices have made it much easier for viewers to skip commercials, which hurts programmers. While it's not clear how soon Comcast may attempt to deliver alternative ads to subscribers who skip commercials, that strategy could help both operators and programmers deliver more relevant ads to subscribers and offer the industry a new source for ad revenue.

Click here for a slideshow of the patent diagrams.

http://www.fiercecable.com/story/com...dvr/2012-05-11

TV Notes
'Dancing With the Stars' 'All-Star' Season Set for Fall
By Michael O'Connell, The Hollywood Reporter's 'Live Feed' Blog - May 15, 2012

Dancing With the Stars is switching gears for its 15th cycle. Following weeks of rumors, ABC entertainment president Paul Lee formally announced that the veteran franchise will be bringing back former competitors for an "All-Star" season this fall.

"We can't talk about the casting yet, but I'd love to see some of the fan favorite from the last seasons come back," he said. "We have many from the past 14 seasons."

Though an all-star season of the series is something that's been floated around for a while, it recently gained traction when former competitor Mario Lopez mentioned on-air that he'd been approached to return.

Recently speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Dancing With the Stars EP Conrad Green wouldn't confirm plans, only saying that it has been part of the discussion for years. "It's definitely an option for the future," he said. "I think it's something our fans would really like."

One reason why the show has likely chosen the 15th season as the time bring back familiar faces is ratings. The current cycle has seen dips in viewers and adults 18-49, thanks in large part to direct competition against NBC's The Voice.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/liv...pfronts-324599

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TV Notes
Marvel's 'Hulk' Still in the Works at ABC
By Lesley Goldberg, The Hollywood Reporter's 'Live Feed' Blog - May 15, 2012

NEW YORK -- Paul Lee still wants the Hulk to smash on ABC.

The network's entertainment president told reporters Tuesday during a conference call ahead of his formal upfront presentation to Madison Avenue ad buyers in New York that he'd still like to "see some Marvel projects come to television."

"Hulk is in development," he confirmed. "It wasn't going to be ready this season but we hope it's going to be ready for next season."

Oscar nominee Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labrynth) is developing the project for the Disney-owned network after ABC's parent company purchased Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion in late 2009.

With Disney distributing box office hit The Avengers, Lee touted the corporate synergy and expressed optimism that he plans to expand its superhero slate. "We're immensely proud to be a company with The Avengers," he said. "We're going to continue to develop aggressively."

Pressed for details, Lee remained mum only noting, "We've got some in development, but none that I can talk about at this point."

More recently, ABC Studios and Fox gave a put pilot commitment to an adaptation of Marvel's The Punisher, with Criminal Minds' Ed Bernero that didn't move forward.

The update news comes as The Avengers continues to build to its box office cume. The film, which stars Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, has already topped $1 billion worldwide.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/liv...el-toro-324627

Seems to me TiVo was developing something like this several years.