Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 2669

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

Nielsen Notes
‘The Choice’ is the best of a low-rated lot
New Fox reality show, a takeoff on 'The Voice,' averages a 1.7
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Jun. 8, 2012

"The Choice" is certainly no "The Voice," but it's not a disaster, either.

Fox's new celebrity dating show, which spoofs the format of NBC's reality singing program, debuted to mediocre numbers last night, but it did a lot better than the other two programs debuting on the evening.

"Choice" averaged a 1.7 adults 18-49 rating at 9 p.m., according to Nielsen overnights, tying with ABC's "Duets" as the top new show premiere of the summer.

That's not saying a whole lot, however, since the only other Big Four summer premiere prior to last night was CBS's "Dogs in the City," which bowed to a 1.3. Two CW shows also bowed last week to very low numbers.

Last night actually saw three new shows premiere, and "Choice" was the best of the bunch. Fox's "Take Me Out" averaged a 1.3 at 8 p.m.

And NBC's new scripted drama "Saving Hope" managed a mere 0.7 at 9 p.m. Scripted shows usually don't fare well on broadcast during the summer.

"Choice" tied for the night's second-highest-rated program with a rerun of CBS's "Rules of Engagement." CBS's "The Big Bang Theory" repeat was the night's top show with a 2.1.

Meanwhile, ABC's "Duets" fell to a series-low 1.2 from 8 to 10 p.m. in its third week, down 20 percent from last week.

CBS was first for the night among 18-49s with a 1.6 average overnight rating and a 5 share. Fox was second at 1.5/5, ABC and Univision tied for third at 1.2/4, NBC was fifth at 0.7/2, Telemundo sixth at 0.5/1 and CW seventh at 0.2/1.

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 was first with a 1.9 for repeats of "The Big Bang Theory" and "2 Broke Girls," followed by Fox with a 1.3 for "Out." ABC and Univision tied for third at 1.1, ABC for "Duets" and Univision for "Un Refugio para el Amor." NBC placed fifth with a 0.6 for reruns of "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation," Telemundo sixth with a 0.6 for "Una Maid en Manhattan" and CW seventh with a 0.2 for "Breaking Pointe."

Fox took the lead at 9 p.m. with a 1.7 for "Choice," while CBS slipped to second with a 1.5 for a repeat of "Person of Interest." ABC was third with a 1.3 for more "Duets," Univision fourth with a 1.1 for "Abismo de Pasion," NBC fifth with a 0.7 for "Saving Hope," Telemundo sixth with a 0.5 for "Corazon Valiente" and CW seventh with a 0.2 for a "Vampire Diaries" rerun.

CBS moved back to first at 10 p.m. with a 1.5 for a repeat of "The Mentalist," with ABC and Univision tied for second at 1.3, ABC for "Rookie Blue" and Univision for "La Que No Podia Amar." NBC was fourth with a 0.7 for "Rick Center with Brian Williams" and Telemundo fifth with a 0.3 for "Relaciones Peligrosas."

Among households, CBS led the night with a 4.6 average overnight rating and an 8 share. ABC was second at 3.6/6, Fox third at 2.4/4, NBC fourth at 1.9/3, Univision fifth at 1.7/3, Telemundo sixth at 0.7/1 and CW seventh at 0.4/1.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/the-choice-is-the-best-of-a-low-rated-lot/

Technology Notes
Most Tablet Owners Use Them To Watch Videos And TV: Report
By David Lieberman, Deadline.com - Jun. 8, 2012

Producers and directors who’ve finally learned how to craft shows to fill big HDTVs had better learn how to also scale them down for the tablet computer. It’s one of the fastest growing consumer technologies ever, and 53% of tablet owners used the devices to watch video or TV content in April, according to a report out today from comScore. By contrast, just 20% of smartphone owners used the devices to watch video that month.

Researchers also found that a disproportionate number of tablet owners make video viewing part of their routine: 18.9% watch something at least once a week, and 9.5% do so every day. Among smartphone users 6.7% watch at least weekly and 2.9% check out videos daily. ComScore says that nearly 27% of the tablet owners who watch video at least once a month paid to do so. About 56% of tablet owners are in households with income of $75,000 or more. The devices, introduced just two years ago, “are poised to fundamentally disrupt the way people engage with the digital world,” comScore SVP Mark Donovan says. “It’s not surprising to see that once consumers get their hands on their first tablet, they are using them for any number of media habits including TV viewing.”

Video viewing on tablets probably will skyrocket as cable and satellite companies introduce TV Everywhere plans that stream movies and shaows that used to just be piped to TV sets.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/06/house-creator-david-shore-signs-overall-deal-with-sony-pictures-tv/

TV Notes
Henry Ian Cusick Not Returning to 'Scandal' for 2nd Season
By Tim Kenneally, TheWrap.com - Jun. 8, 2012

Henry Ian Cusick is done being "Scandal"-ized.

"Lost" alum Cusick will not return to ABC's drama "Scandal" for its second season, TheWrap has confirmed.

On the Shonda Rhimes-created series -- which stars Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope, a former White House communications director who goes into private practice with a crisis-management firm -- Cusick played Stephen Finch, a womanizing employee of Pope's.

No word on how Finch's character will be handled -- or not handled -- in the show's second season.

Cusick's upcoming projects include the upcoming thriller "The Girl on the Train" about a documentary filmmaker whose life takes a dramatic turn after a chance encounter with a mysterious woman.

Hollywood Reporter first reported the news.

http://www.thewrap.com/tv/article/henry-ian-cusick-not-returning-scandal-2nd-season-43431

Business Notes
Dish Chief: TV Needs to Change
By Shalini Ramachandran, Wall Street Journal - Jun. 8, 2012

Dish Network Corp. Chairman Charlie Ergen said a new ad-skipping feature that has infuriated major broadcast TV networks is a "competitively necessary" response to the explosion of cheap Internet video. That Web video threatens the pay-TV ecosystem, he added, and it is partly caused by the TV networks themselves.

In a rare interview, Mr. Ergen for the first time explained publicly his rationale for introducing the ad-skipping service called Auto Hop last month. The reclusive satellite TV pioneer said the broadcast networks, several of which have sued Dish over the ad-skipping feature and have refused to run Dish ads promoting a Dish digital video recorder, have been "more emotional than realistic."

With the new service, Mr. Ergen aims to force the networks to develop "more meaningful" ads, using, for example, demographic targeting of viewers. "Ultimately, broadcasters and advertisers have to change the way they do business or they run the risk of linear TV becoming obsolete," he said. "I think the conversation is going to go a lot faster because now there is a risk of inaction as opposed to no risk of inaction."

Over four hours last Friday, both at his Englewood, Colo., headquarters and his favorite pancake restaurant nearby (the famously frugal billionaire ate a half stack of buttermilk pancakes, price $2.98), Mr. Ergen mused on the dangers posed to pay TV by cheap online video, his plans for a mobile broadband network and the similarities between business and his favorite games of chance—poker, blackjack and backgammon.

Mr. Ergen is the antithesis of the modern business executive. Fifteen years ago, when his teenage daughter had to get braces on her teeth, he promised he would wear a set to keep her company. When the time came, he tried to back out.

His daughter responded that he was behaving like News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, who had recently pulled out of a tentative satellite joint venture with Dish's predecessor company EchoStar. The Journal reported in 1997, citing people close to Mr. Murdoch, that he had realized he had rushed into a bad deal. News Corp. Thursday declined to comment.

The Dish chairman ended up wearing braces on his teeth for a year and a half. "She called me out," he recalls. "It was a pretty good life lesson."

A professional gambler before he founded Dish in 1980 with his wife and a poker buddy, Mr. Ergen said he thinks of business as one big card game where he likes to "play the odds." Dish is now the third biggest pay-TV distributor, after DirecTV and Comcast Corp., with about 14 million subscribers. Mr. Ergen's controlling stakes in Dish and another satellite-technology company are worth $8 billion.

His poker experience has come in handy in the dispute over Dish's "Auto Hop" ad-skipping service. With poker, "You can win with bad hands. You start learning about how emotion plays into people's decisions," he says.

But Mr. Ergen doesn't discount the role of luck, which may be why he has several bottles of feng shui water in his office and says he has "feng shui-ed"—with rituals for luck—all his satellite launches since Dish first sent a satellite into the sky in 1996 on a Chinese rocket that was charmed by auspicious Chinese water and chants.

Dish has had a contentious relationship with many entertainment companies for years, particularly over the so-called "retransmission" fees it has to pay to carry broadcast networks' programming. Some TV executives have accused Dish of releasing the new ad-skipping service to gain more leverage in negotiations over those fees, a strategy Mr. Ergen implicitly acknowledged.

"If the ad is skipped, the consumer likes it, but it's not necessarily good for me and it's not necessarily good for the broadcaster because I'm in the same ecosystem as him," Mr. Ergen said. "So we have to figure out how the broadcaster benefits, we benefit and the consumer continues to feel like he gets a fair deal. So maybe [the consumer] pays a little bit less for 'retrans,' his bill doesn't go up by double digits every year.... That's an interesting conversation to have."

So far, the service has provoked an intense backlash from broadcasters. On Wednesday, Dish said a Dallas-based TV station group, Hoak Media Corp., pulled 14 stations in six states off Dish's service. Dish said Hoak is demanding a 200% rate increase and is asking that Dish turn off Auto Hop. Hoak didn't respond to requests for comment.

Two weeks ago, in what it says was a pre-emptive move, Dish sued in federal court in New York, seeking a declaratory judgment that it has the right to offer the ad-skipping service. Within hours, three of the networks filed suit in a different court, claiming the service is a breach of copyright.

The dispute comes as the pay-TV industry is grappling with a saturated market—at least 90% of the U.S. households with TV sets have cable, satellite or phone-company-delivered subscription TV, according to Nielsen—and as the availability of cheaper online video options is growing.

Mr. Ergen, 59 years old, says four of his five children have stopped paying for a TV subscription, and the fifth is living home. Motioning to his daughter sitting next to him in the restaurant, he says she and her friends "come home and bring out their tablets" and surf online "until they find something free that they want to watch."

He also complains the broadcast networks are making many of their programs available free online on various sites, including their own and Hulu, which is controlled by several big network owners (including News Corp., which owns Fox and The Wall Street Journal).

What's more, he notes, the shows carry fewer ads online than when they were originally broadcast, which makes him think the broadcasters' complaints about Auto Hop are "disingenuous."

A Fox spokesman said in a statement that "while Mr. Ergen wraps himself in the flag of 'innovation,' the idea of using technology to exploit others' intellectual property for personal gain is not a new or innovative idea." The spokesman also said "Dish hasn't unleashed this product on the vast amounts of cable programming in which it sells advertising," where it has "ample opportunity" to test Mr. Ergen's advertising ideas.

CBS said in a statement, "In the end, we expect our programming content to be handled responsibly by distributors. When that's not done, we have to look at all options." ABC declined to comment. NBC didn't respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Ergen says networks—and advertisers—need to develop more targeted commercials "that you're not going to want to hop over," and he says he has "half a dozen creative ideas" about how to do that.

Efforts to develop more targeted TV ads have been tried for years, gaining little traction, partly because of concerns about privacy. One ad executive expressed skepticism about Mr. Ergen's suggestions. "That's like putting nice drapery on top of a casket," he said. "It's 99% more likely that the conversation…is about retransmission fees."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303296604577452332545810776.html

Enough

A number of bickering posts have been removed.

In the words of Commander Data: "Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing."

Rats ... I always seem to miss all the fun.

TV Notes
'Ultimate Spider-Man' Renewed for Second Season on Disney XD
By Lesley Goldberg, The Hollywood Reporter's 'Live Feed' Blog - Jun. 8, 2012

EXCLUSIVE: Disney XD wants more of their friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

The cable network has renewed animated hit Ultimate Spider-Man for a second season, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively.

The series, which was used to launch the network's Marvel Universe programming block, has been a constant performer for the youth-skewing cabler, posting gains in total viewers and across boys ages 6-14, 6-11 and 2-11.

The creative team behind the animated series, which includes co-executive producers Man of Action Studios as well as creative consultant Paul Dini, will return for Season 2. Ultimate Spider-Man scribe Brian Michael Bendis (Powers) also will return as consulting producer and pen additional installments of the series.

Season 2 will feature Spider-Man teaming with other heroes from the Marvel Universe including the Avengers as well as exploring the origin of S.H.I.E.L.D. trainees with more revealed about Nova, Iron Fist, Power Man and White Tiger.

"With Season 2, the series introduces popular Marvel heroes and villains you've never seen before on the small screen," head of Marvel Television Jeph Loeb said.

Added Disney XD vp and GM David Levine: "As the anchor of our Marvel Universe block, Ultimate Spider-Man Season 2 will be back with more humor, villains and adventurous storylines that boys (and girls) will love."

Exec producers include Alan Fine, Dan Buckley, Joe Quesada and Loeb; Stan Lee, Eric Radomski, Man of Action's Joe Casey, Joe Kelly, Duncan Rouleau and Steven T. Seagle as well as Dana Booton and Cort Lane co-exec produce.

Drake Bell, Chi McBride and Clark Gregg lead the voice cast.

Ultimate Spider-Man airs at 11 a.m. Sundays on Disney XD.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/ultimate-spider-man-renewed-season-2-disney-xd-335383[/quote]

TV Notes
ABC Opposes CBS’ ‘Glass House’ Restraining Order Request; CBS And Kenny Rosen React
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - Jun. 8, 2012

With the June 18 premiere date for ABC’s new reality series Glass House looming, the legal scuffle over it between CBS and ABC has intensified. CBS at midnight filed a request for a temporary restraining order against ABC trying to block the Glass House debut after a judge-approved schedule for the discovery stage of the proceedings made a ruling before the Glass House premiere highly unlikely. CBS filed the lawsuit against ABC last month, claiming Glass House was a copycat of its own Big Brother, and it is being made by former Big Brother producers using know-how they’ve acquired on Big Brother that is protected by non-disclosure agreements. This morning, ABC responded to CBS’ filing with a motion that opposes CBS’ TRO request. It calls CBS’ proposed TRO schedule — which asks for TRO proceedings to begin immediately, with ABC responding by noon on Monday and CBS replying the following day so the court could render a decision by June 18 — “ridiculous” and asks the court to reject it. ABC argues that “CBS has made its own bed by stubbornly refusing to negotiate a reasonable schedule and instead engaging in scorched-earth litigation tactics.”

In its filing, ABC also addresses the copyright claim by CBS, bringing up CBS’ 2003 unsuccessful lawsuit against ABC over I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, which CBS argued was an offshoot of its Survivor. “Plaintiffs have claimed copyright in reality show formats for years and always lost — because the stock elements, generic ideas, and scenes a faire that they have repeatedly sought to copyright are not protectable,” ABC argues. “In the latest example of this argument, CBS says that Glass House infringes on its supposed copyright license in the idea of 14 people living in a house, competing with each other, and voting each other out of the house. But there can be no copyright license in what has become a generic idea, and the law bars CBS’ claims today, just as it did 10 years ago.”

On the opposite side of the argument, CBS today issued a statement regarding its filing from last night. “The public announcements from ABC and their producers own testimony about ‘Glass House’ clearly point to a program that will replicate virtually every element of BIG BROTHER. And, the deposition testimony included in our court filing today further demonstrates the brazen lengths that former BIG BROTHER producers have gone to use confidential material, obtained while under our employment, to develop this new show.” According to sources, CBS still intends to pursue legal cases against the individual former Big Brother producers working on Glass House for allegedly breaching their Big Brother confidentiality agreements.

The highest-profile among them is Glass House executive producer Kenny Rosen, whose deposition was widely quoted in CBS’ filing last night. “CBS first tried to intimidate me and then sued me for agreeing to work for a competing network,” he said in a statement tday. “What CBS is doing is wrong on many levels and I look forward to our day in Court.”

http://www.deadline.com/2012/06/glass-house-case-updates-abc-opposes-cbs-restraining-order-request-cbs-and-kenny-rosen-react/

TV Review
‘Real Life: The Musical,’ too much ado
OWN reality show turns life's little special moments into song and dance spectacles
By Tom Conroy, Media Life Magazine

We live in an era of kindergarten graduation ceremonies and four-hour Little League awards banquets and four-day wedding extravaganzas. Americans increasingly tend to make a big production out of almost anything.

Now that tendency has its own reality show, OWN's "Real Life: The Musical." In it, regular folks are helped to create "Glee"-style musical numbers to commemorate events that in past decades would have been treated in a more subdued, dignified and appropriate fashion. As would happen in real life, all the fuss involved in putting together the musical numbers distracts everyone from the significance of whatever is being honored. So we don't get the expected emotional rush during the performances, which manage the difficult trick of seeming fake and amateurish at the same time. Viewers will neither shed tears nor tap toes.

In the premiere episode, airing this Saturday, June 9, at 10 p.m., a couple named Douglas and Charmain, whose mothers are angry that they eloped to Las Vegas four years ago, decide to have a real wedding ceremony. But because they're on this show, they plan to perform a choreographed duet to "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," which they have to put together in five days. If they skipped the song and dance, they could have planned their ceremony at leisure.

The show's host, a Brit named Tom Lowe, takes Douglas and Charmain to a vocal coach named Bobette Jamison-Harris, who tries to teach them how to harmonize. This starts off unpromisingly. Charmain says, "There's definitely a misconception that black people should know how to sing and dance."

Tommy Faragher and P.J. Bloom, a pair of music producers, work on an arrangement while the choreographer Tony G. handles the dance routine.

We're expected to worry when Douglas and Charmain try to enlist their friends as backup dancers and few of them seem available. But moments later, a bunch of them show up anyway.

Tom and the couple come up with a cover story: Douglas and Charmain will explain the presence of cameras by telling their mothers that they're going to be featured in a reality show about mothers-in-law. They get them to the church by saying that Douglas is going to be delivering a sermon.

Along the way, the couple talk to a caterer and shop for a dress. These normal pre-wedding activities remind us that the event would be special — if not more so —without singing and choreography.

Like most reality shows, "Real Life: The Musical" is full of interview bites that don't say anything we don't already know. Forty minutes into the hour, Douglas tells the camera, "Our mothers have no idea what's about to hit them."

After Charmain ducks out of the church and returns in her wedding dress, the musical number begins, and the real falsity kicks in. Neither the bride nor the groom seems to be singing live. It's unclear whether they lip-synched to a tape in the church or whether a studio recording of the song was dubbed in later.

Either way, that isn't how we expected the couple's problems with harmonizing to be solved. The choreography, meanwhile, is heavily augmented by professional dancers.

Spoiler alert! The mothers say they love it.

In the second episode provided for review, a recent high school graduate named Nick, who happens to be the son of the actress Marilu Henner, wants to pay tribute to Ted Walch, his theatre and cinema studies teacher. The producer team suggests he sing "Thank You for Being a Friend," the theme from the sitcom "The Golden Girls."

Viewers who haven't seen the first episode will worry when Nick tries to enlist his classmates as backup dancers and no one picks up the phone. Once again, they all show up.

Bobette gives Nick some technical suggestions about how to hit high notes, but the lesson isn't anything we can use at home.

Mr. Walch has been told that he's being taped for a show about great teachers, so the reveal couldn't have been too much of a surprise. Once again, Tony provides extra dancers. Nick isn't even miked, and his voice sounds Auto-Tuned. Mr. Walch would probably have been just as happy with a performance by the school's glee club, which also would probably have been more professional and entertaining.

Spoiler alert! Mr. Walch says he loves it.

Maybe you had to be there. Those of us watching from home can find more emotional lift on shows like "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Undercover Boss" and can find better processed versions of hits on "Glee." "Real Life: The Musical" is neither real enough nor musical enough.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/real-life-the-musical-too-much-ado/

TV Review
‘Hannah’s Law’ updates ‘High Noon’ with Sara Canning as a bounty hunter
By David Hinckley, New York Daily News - May 26, 2012

The last time a lot of American TV viewers saw Sara Canning, she was one of many characters who ran out of luck in the CW series “The Vampire Diaries.”

She played Jenna. Now the late Jenna.

Frankly, the odds don’t look much better for Canning’s Hannah Beaumont in “Hannah’s Law,” a new Hallmark movie where she plays a beautiful young female bounty hunter in the Old West.

It could be noted she also has a black best friend and fellow female bounty hunter, which suggests some suspension of historic disbelief may in order here.

Go ahead and suspend, and then get on with watching Hannah move toward her inevitable showdown with Frank McMurphy (John Pyper-Ferguson).

Seems that when Hannah was young, McMurphy’s gang rode up to her family’s remote farmhouse and gunned down her mother, father and younger brother so they could steal the family horses.

Hannah escaped because she was hiding in the hayloft. Later, as she was growing up in an orphanage, she met Isom Dart (Danny Glover), who taught her to hunt and capture bad guys.

You don’t have to be a genius to figure out which gang she was really after.

But once she’s captured the first few of McMurphy’s men, one at a time, McMurphy puts two and two together to realize this attractive nuisance needs to be stopped.

By now we also know a few more facts about Hannah.

One is that she is being courted by the sheriff of Dodge, a relentless, honest and somewhat modest man named Wyatt Earp.

Two is that she’s friends with a quiet man who spends most of his time sitting in the local saloon gambling. He always wins. Goes by the name Doc Holliday.

What were we saying about suspending disbelief?

Anyhow, this mix-and-match Western takes another turn when McMurphy and his boys ride into Dodge to get rid of Hannah.

“Hannah’s Law” turns into “High Noon.”

Without giving away all the details, very little of what happens doesn’t have a direct correlation to the plot and events in the classic 1952 Gary Cooper movie.

Where it differs, however, is the ending, when we get a final revelation that sounds a lot more like the setup for a sequel.

Whether that’s planned, who knows. If it doesn’t happen, “Hannah’s Law” can stand on its own as comfortably familiar old-school Western entertainment. It has good guys and bad guys and the not always swift, but ever-vigilant hand of justice.

No vampires required.

'HANNAH'S LAW'
Network / Air Date: Saturday at 8 p.m., Hallmark Movie Channel
Rating: ★★★ (out of five)

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/television/hannah-law-updates-high-noon-sara-canning-a-bounty-hunter-article-1.1091133
Edited by dad1153 - 6/9/12 at 5:44am

Critic's Notes
'Car Talk' hosts' radio success did not translate to TV
By Patrick Kevin Day, Los Angeles Times' 'Company Town' Blog - Jun. 8, 2012

The hosts of "Car Talk," brothers Ray and Tom Magliozzi, had a long, wildly successful run for 25 years on NPR. They're currently planning to hang up their mics later this year and get out of the radio business on a high note. But the talents that made them beloved (their attitudes and their voices) didn't necessarily make them multimedia stars.

The brothers tried multiple times to branch out into TV, but with limited success. Their first attempt came in the 1995 sitcom "The George Wendt Show."

The CBS sitcom did not star Ray and Tom (or their radio names Click and Clack). Instead, it was a vehicle for George Wendt following his decade-plus run on the sitcom "Cheers." The Wendt series, created by Lew Schneider and Peter Tolan (who would both go on to much more successful shows), used the concept of two wise-cracking brothers who own a garage and host a call-in radio program but made significant changes to the Magliozzis' lives. For one thing, the show was set in Madison, Wis., instead of Boston. Wendt and Pat Finn played the brothers. The series was a ratings failure, and only six of the eight produced episodes were aired during its run in spring 1995.

The brothers' next attempt at TV success was the PBS animated series "Click and Clack's as the Wrench Turns," in which the Magliozzis' voices were used with cartoon versions of themselves. The animated series took them on outlandish adventures, such as traveling to India to outsource themselves and creating a car powered by pasta.

All 10 produced episodes aired on PBS in 2008 but received mediocre reviews. The boys' hometown paper, the Boston Herald, said that the show was "silly like a bad Saturday morning cartoon" and that their animated personas were closer to low-rent scam artists instead of silly goofs. Times TV critic Robert Lloyd said the show was "as tepid as weak tea that has been forgotten on the kitchen counter." [CLICK LINK BELOW TO SEE CLIP]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-car-talk-click-clack-as-wrench-turns-20120608,0,1530520.story

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

Ah, but Captain Picard (DrDon), says otherwise.

Make it so, Number One.

I'm actually built more like Riker. Later Riker, not the thin early one.

TV Notes
Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein on ‘Face the Nation’
By Hal Boedeker, Orlando Sentinel's 'TV Guy' Blog

To mark the 40th anniversary of the Watergate break-in, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein will sit for a “Face the Nation” discussion. They were the Washington Post reporters whose work brought down President Richard Nixon. The CBS program starts at 10:30 a.m. Sunday on WKMG-Channel 6.

Other “Face the Nation” guests: Gov. Scott Walker discusses his victory in the Wisconsin recall, and Gov. Martin O’Mally, D-Md., offers the Democratic response. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka discusses what’s next for labor. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., discuss the latest in the intelligence leaks. A panel on politics features Norah O’Donnell and John Dickerson, both of CBS.

Also on the Sunday morning guest list:

***Looking at the Wisconsin recall for “Fox News Sunday” will be Gov. Mitch Daniels, R-Ind.; Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association; and Thea Lee, deputy chief of staff of the AFL-CIO. The program starts at 9 a.m. on WOFL-Channel 35. The panel will be Bill Kristol, Mara Liasson, Liz Cheney and Charles Lane of The Washington Post.

***ABC’s “This Week” offers a panel discussion with former Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pa.; former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., and Fox News host; Ann Coulter, conservative commentator; and Van Jones, former White House environmental adviser. The interview guests are David Axelrod of the Obama re-election campaign and former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum. The program starts at 11 a.m. on WFTV-Channel 9.

***Axelrod talks to CNN’s “State of the Union,” which starts at 9 a.m. and noon. Other guests are Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.; and Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif.

***NBC’s “Meet the Press” will be preempted for the men’s final of the French Open.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2012/06/bob-woodward-carl-bernstein-on-face-the-nation.html

TV Review
‘Mob Wives Chicago,’ worst of da worst
These dames get physical, yanking hair and throwing punches on this VH1 series
By Tom Conroy, Media Life Magazine

Most of reality TV is more of the same. Usually it's more of the same and a little bit worse.

"Mob Wives Chicago" is the latest cookie-cutter show in VH1's "[Something] Wives” franchise (e.g., “Basketball Wives,” “Football Wives,” “Mob Wives”), which is a blatant copy of Bravo’s “Real Housewives of [Somewhere]" franchise. All of these shows focus on stupid, crass, idle women who devote their vast amounts of excess time and energy to feuding with one another, probably egged on by the shows' producers.

Premiering this Sunday, June 10, at 8 p.m., "Chicago" has probably found the stupidest, most crass and most idle cast ever, and the feuding explodes into what may be the ugliest catfight ever shown on TV.

Although most viewers have probably said, "Enough!" by this point, there must be some who are saying, "More!" They will get it.

To assemble a cast this perfect, the producers had to bend their own rules. None of the women is currently a wife. Their primary connection to the Mob comes from either their fathers or, in one case, an uncle.

As in almost every premiere episode of a "Housewives"/"Wives" show, we meet a group of women with one obvious outcast who is nonetheless invited to a get-together. Among the other invitees is always at least one woman with whom the outcast has a beef. After too much drinking, harsh words are exchanged, heads bob and fingers are thrust at faces. In "Mob Wives Chicago," however, it gets physical.

The outcast is Pia Rizza, who is shunned because her father testified against his former Mob associates. Ever since, Pia has been known as the daughter of a rat, which sounds worse when "rat" is pronounced in that harsh Chicago accent.

The other women condemn her for working as a stripper, which, in their social milieu, is worse than theft, extortion and murder but not as bad as testifying truthfully in court.

Pia's best friend is Nora Schweihs, who, as if often the case with at least one cast member on these shows, has recently moved to the location for a dubious reason, the real reason probably being so that she could be on TV. Her father was a notorious Chicago hitman, but don't say that to Nora, who has only fond memories of her childhood. "We had so much class," she tells us. "I was drinking Dom Perignon when I was five."

Nora, who has been living in Florida, says that the feds confiscated her father's body the day of his funeral and that she wants to find out where the body is. For some reason, she refuses to believe the funeral director, who says that shortly after the funeral, her father was buried in the grave the family had purchased.

The other three principals are united against Pia. Renee Fecarotta Russo is the niece of an alleged loan collector and hitman. Her first ex-husband is serving life in prison for murder; her second ex-husband, whom she alleges to be a "felon," is suing her for custody of their daughter.

Christina Scoleri is the daugher of an alleged burglar who was arrested more than 20 times. She is recently divorced but is still living with her husband. "In this lifestyle," she says, "divorce is frowned on. It's like a sin." Unlike, say, theft, extortion and murder. She also says that her family doesn't know she's divorced. Let's hope cable TV is also considered a sin.

Finally, Leah DeSimone is the daughter of an alleged Mob associate who is still alive, so let's stress the "alleged." A giant-haired single woman, she is one of those ethnic people who have an insult in their own language for everyone. Nora, for example, is a "scoozimod." After a while, it sounds as if Leah were simply stringing together Italian-sounding phonemes.

The premiere is mostly taken up with the women's self-introductions until we get to the big blow-up. Nora says she (and not the producers) has decided to invite her friends to meet at a bar. Leah is out of town and misses the fun.

All dolled up and traveling in limousines, the women proceed to take too many shots and then try to clear the air. Renee tells Pia, "A rat is a rat." Then she tells the camera, "I don't associate with rats, not even the daughter of a rat," as if we hadn't just seen her associating with Pia.

Christina, for no reason, mentions that people say Nora's father was a hitman, but this too fails to set off sparks.

But then they all discuss the rumor that Nora called Pia a whore. Somehow Pia and Nora kiss and make up, until Christina brings it up again. When Pia stands up to make a point, Christina's fight reflex kicks in.

In most "Wives" shows, the only thing thrown would be gestures, but Christina hurls her drink at Pia, soaking Nora. Christina and Pia start beating on each other until the bouncers try to separate them. Christina grabs Pia's hair and holds on to it as if she were waterskiing and the hair were the towline.

As on all of these shows, each commercial break is preceded with a "coming up" tease. Usually the action that is being teased fails to live up to the hype. This time it doesn't.

The second episode provided for review deals with the start of Nora's search for her father's remains and Renee's custody battle, but mostly it's a series of scenes in which the women get together in pairs and discuss what happened in the bar. If the fight seemed irrational while it was happening, it only seems more so as the women try to make sense of it.

We also get to see the immediate aftermath of the brawl. Nora picks up an enormous clump of Pia's hair. One hopes it was an extension.

Renee, who would never associate with the daughter of a rat, nonetheless invites Pia over for coffee and tells her she should apologize to Christina. When Nora and Christina meet, Christina acts hurt because, she says, Nora unfriended her on Facebook. Nora denies this.

In turn, Christina denies disparaging Nora's father at the bar. In an interview bite, she tells the camera, "I didn't say anything about Nora's father. All I said was 'I heard your father was a hitman.' "

And so on and so on.

It's not easy to find people who are equally illogical whether they're drunk or sober, but the creators of the "Wives"/"Housewives" shows keep doing it. Where that falls on the moral spectrum between snitching and stripping is not for us to judge.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/mob-wives-chicago-worst-of-da-worst/

TV Notes
'Alphas' action-packed season 2 trailer
By James Hibberd, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog

The world now knows about the existence of super humans. The Alphas team is scattered. But new threats prompt the government to reassemble Dr. Rosen’s group of reluctant heroes.

Here’s the first action-packed trailer for Syfy’s Alphas season two. And be sure to click here for our interview with new showrunner Bruce Miller for more details about the season (a Civil War episode!): [CLICK LINK AT BOTTOM]

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/06/08/alphas-season-2-trailer/

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

TV Notes
Classic prime-time soap 'Dallas' returns on TNT for another round of Texas maneuvering
By David Hinckley, New York Daily News - Jun. 10, 2012

As we return to Southfork Ranch this Wednesday night, some 20 years after the original epic prime-time soap “Dallas” rode into the Texas sunset, things look downright serene.

J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman), the ultimate capitalist who steered the Ewing family to wealth and influence with little regard for the moral consequences, sits in a chair looking out at the land.

He seems oblivious to everything around him, including the arrival of brother Bobby (Patrick Duffy). For years, J.R. and Bobby had a kind of “Godzilla vs. Megalon”-scale battle, but now that J.R. seems to be out of the game, Bobby graciously tells him he’s still kin and that matters.

Bobby, meanwhile, is arranging to carry out the wishes of their mother, the late Miss Ellie, and sell Southfork to a conservation organization so its rolling fields can be forever preserved as nature, not an ugly patchwork of money-making oil rigs.

And if you believe for one second this is how the second “Dallas” go-round will remain, you have learned nothing from history.

“The thing about everything in ‘Dallas,’ ” says Josh Henderson, who plays J.R.’s son John Ross in this new TNT production, “is that at any moment, it can all blow up in everyone’s face.

“That’s one of the things I like about it.”

TNT is banking on viewers feeling the same way — and that’s certainly how they felt during the first incarnation of “Dallas,” which was one of the TV phenomena of the ’70s and ’80s.

The “Who shot J.R.?” cliffhanger in 1980 kept enough viewers buzzing all summer that the episode in the fall that answered the question drew TV’s highest-ever audience (until “M*A*S*H” edged ahead a few years later).

Hagman himself, however, suggested this year that the success didn’t make his head too big for his Stetson hat.

“You’ve got to realize that when ‘Dallas’ was really hot,” he said, “we were in a major recession, and people couldn’t go out and get a baby-sitter and have dinner and go to a movie. They couldn’t afford it. So they had to stay in on Friday nights and watch something.”

He’s being modest, which isn’t always J.R.’s style.

Nor has the character lost any of his attitude over the past 20 years. Or any of his TV stature.

Henderson, referring to a scene where J.R. slaps him, calls it “an honor.”

Cynthia Cidre, the executive producer who wrote the pilot episode for the new version, said her vow was that it would not “devolve into camp or cheap melodrama.”

Duffy, for one, says he’s buying in.

He says he, Hagman and Linda Gray, who also returns as John Ross’ mother, Sue Ellen, had dinner in early 2011 with Cidre and director Michael Robin.

“They laid out their respect for the original show,” says Duffy, “and their determination to maintain that quality. They have been absolutely flawless in keeping that promise.”

Bringing back the three original “Dallas” principals does create a few challenges, and Cidre says she hopes to integrate the new cast members with the veterans.

That means the show won’t be serving up two separate story lines. As a practical plan, it gives the new show a better shot at attracting a new audience, not just people who watched the first edition.

Of the new characters, the two most prominent are Henderson’s John Ross and Christopher, Bobby’s adopted son, played by Jesse Metcalfe.

It’s not a big spoiler to say that each of these boys has a lot of his father in him, so the J.R.-Bobby rivalry that always fueled the show in some ways now becomes a tag-team match.

Equally intriguing, though, because “Dallas” has always featured strong female characters, are the two younger men’s love interests.

Julie Gonzalo plays Rebecca, Christopher’s fiancée. Jordana Brewster plays Elena, John Ross’ girlfriend and, oh yes, Christopher’s former fiancée.

One would expect no less in a Ewing family drama.

But Elena, says Brewster, isn’t quite like any Ewing women past or present.

“I think she’s a good and moral character,” says Brewster. “She still cares about Christopher, and she’s very loyal to Bobby. But at the same time, she’s in love with John Ross, who is not always a moral character.

“So you have no idea where the character is going.”

Brewster says she understands that concept of uncertainty.

She’s been a regular in the “Fast and Furious” movies, and she says doing movies puts TV in a whole different perspective.

“In a movie, when you start you know where you’re going,” she says. “In TV, you have no idea.”

Henderson adds that viewers shouldn’t assume their first impressions of the new characters will prove accurate.

“John Ross isn’t a bad guy,” says Henderson. “He just feels that his mission is bringing the Ewing name back to the top.

“By all means necessary."

One footnote to this “Dallas” is that three new cast members, including Metcalfe and Brenda Strong as Bobby’s wife, Ann, are from “Desperate Housewives” — a prime-time soap that might not have existed if “Dallas” hadn’t paved the path.

Strong played Mary Alice Young, who shot herself at the beginning of that series and was later heard only in voice-over — which she says helps her enormously now.

“I feel extremely blessed that I’m not associated by face, because I think it’s given me the opportunity to step into this really cleanly,” says Strong.

“I am aware that I’m filling some big shoes in being Bobby’s wife. People love Bobby Ewing, and they want this man to have some joy in his life. So I’m very excited to be a part of this, and I think people will forgive my past history on that other show.”

Metcalfe’s reflection on his “Housewives” connection is more succinct.

“I’ll outrun it eventually,” he says. “Not to say I’m not thankful.”

Since the original “Dallas” ran 357 episodes over 14 seasons, even a fraction of that could rebrand a guy nicely.

Or, of course, it could blow up in everyone’s face.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/television/classic-soap-dallas-returns-tnt-texas-maneuvering-article-1.1089537

TV as an app: new distribution model threat to studios

Australian TV show goes straight to iTunes as an app



An Australian TV production shot by Russell Boyd, the Academy Award-winning cinematographer of the film Master and Commander is set to make its world premiere as an app, reports The Sydney Morning Herald. Users will be able to either purchase the series as a virtual box set in an app for $8.99 or by episode for $1.49 on iTunes. The show will skip a traditional TV airing or even web delivery in a move that will by-pass TV studios all together.




For more

Nielsen Overnights
Belmont Stakes’ Ratings Up 13% From 2011
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - Jun. 10, 2012

Despite the last-minute pullout of Triple Crown-hopeful I’ll Have Another, NBC’ broadcast of the Belmont Stakes, which was won by Union Rags, drew a 5.4 overnight rating/13 share for the race portion, up 13% from last year’s race on NBC and up 74% from the 2010 race on ABC. Yesterday’s Belmont had the highest overnight for the race in a non-Triple Crown year since 2005 on NBC (6.0/13).

One could only imagine what the numbers would’ve looked liked with I’ll Have Another in the race….

http://www.deadline.com/2012/06/belmont-stakes-ratings-up-13-from-2011/

TV Notes
Andy Whitfield documentary 'Be Here Now' seeks fans' help to finish the film
By Sara Vilkomerson, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - Jun. 9, 2012

Spartacus: Blood and Sand fans and Andy Whitfield fans alike were devastated when the actor passed away 18 months after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma at the age of 39.

The popular star of the Starz series fought valiantly (“We were fortunate to have worked with Andy in Spartacus and came to know that the man who played a champion on-screen was also a champion in his own life,” said Starz president and CEO Chris Albrecht at the time of Whitfield’s death), as you can see below in the moving trailer for a documentary about the actor’s battle, called Be Here Now.

Whitfield was given only a 25% chance for survival when his lymphoma came back, right before he was due to return to his hit show. He and his wife Vashti set out with filmmakers to explore his medical and alternative healing options, and the movie takes an unflinching look at one man’s struggle against illness.

The filmmakers, led by Lilibet Foster, now need to raise the last bit of funding to finish editing the film with the hope it will eventually get distribution and are asking fans to donate to the cause through Kickstarter. Take a look at the footage below for a sense of the project (but maybe keep some tissues nearby before you press play).

http://www.deadline.com/2012/06/belmont-stakes-ratings-up-13-from-2011/

Last time there was a triple crown shot the race got a 10.5 so a 12 probably would have been attainable.

TV Sports
Pac-12 Networks Prep for Upcoming Launch
InDemand, CMC, Ooyala Supplying Technical, TV Everywhere Support as Seven Linear Nets Eye Aug. 15 Kickoff
By Mike Reynolds, Multichannel News - Jun. 10, 2012

With the kickoff of its ambitious seven-channel launch just a little more than two months away, Pac-12 Networks' is revealing bits and pieces of its rollout strategies.

Last week, Pac-12 Enterprises announced that InDemand will team with Comcast Media Center to provide an array of technical support, including expansive TV Everywhere and video-on-demand plans for Pac-12 Networks coming out of the gate. It also inked a deal with Ooyala to develop the Pac-12 Digital Network.

Gary Stevenson, president of Pac-12 Enterprises, also provided a time frame for its consumer marketing initiatives and its initial scheduling game plan.

The Pac-12 Conference, in an unprecedented push, will launch seven channels, a national feed, as well six regional networks mapping the conference footprint: in Northern California (Stanford and Cal); Southern California (USC and UCLA); Oregon (Oregon State and Oregon); Washington (Washington State and Washington); Arizona (Arizona State and Arizona); and Mountain (Utah and Colorado) areas. Content includes football, basketball and myriad Olympic sports that member schools are renowned for worldwide.

Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Cox Communications, which together own InDemand, have all made distribution commitments to the TV services that together will total 40 million homes. An enhanced broadband offering is also being put into play.

Pac-12 Enterprises is the new content and multiplatform media company for the Pac-12 Conference, representing 12 universities that have captured a nation-leading 450 NCAA titles across 27 sports. It is the parent of Pac-12 Networks (TV) and Pac-12 Digital (online, social media).

Stevenson said senior vice president of affiliate sales and marketing Art Marquez and his current 11-member team have been engaged in conversations with distributors. "The response from distributors is that they love our content. We'll have 35 football and 140 basketball games and our conference is the best in Olympic sports," he said. "This year, conference members added eight more NCAA championships."

At this point, though, those talks have yet to yield any additional agreements. Stil, Stevenson replied "absolutely," when asked if other carriers would be on board when the networks debut in mid-August.

The Pac-12 Networks' distribution game plan calls for expanded-basic carriage within the home markets for the six RSNs, and digital-basic positioning for those networks and the national service, within the conference's six-state footprint. Beyond the conference territory, the Pac-12 will be looking for carriage for all seven services, perhaps on sports tiers. "We might do better in some areas," said Stevenson, who would not discuss rate-card specifics.

However, sources indicate that Pac-12 Networks is seeking a monthly license fee of between 90 cents and $1 within conference markets, and as much as 50 cents in other areas.

Stevenson said that while Pac-12 Networks "over the next two months will be working on producing classic games and preview shows," its freshman year focus is "event-centric. We're going to have 850 live events. Plus we have re-air rights to the games that air nationally on Fox and ESPN, so there is going to be a lot of event focus."

He said that during the upcoming football season, Pac 12 Networks will have the top or second choice of games in seven of 13 weeks. The initial wave of football contests, Stevenson said on June 7, is expected to be announced over the next seven to 10 days, while details of the schedule for fall sports could be divulged on June 15.

Consumer marketing will begin to manifest at that time, "before ramping up as we approach August 15," he said.

Relative to TV Everywhere, InDemand president Bob Benya said there would be no staging of platform rollouts, that Pac-12 Networks from the outset would be "all in" on computers, tablets, connected TVs and smartphones whether on Apple or Android-based operating systems.

"No question it's ambitious," noted Stevenson. "We do expect a few bumps in the road, but it's important to make our services available to subscribers on all platforms."

Working with Ooyala, the Pac-12 Digital Network will enable subscribers of Pac-12 Network distributors to watch live content on connected devices via TV Everywhere authentication, when the services bow Aug. 15. According to the Pac-12, this will mark the first time such technology has been designed alongside the linear network experience at launch. Additionally, Pac-12 Enterprises and Ooyala are collaborating on a suite of applications for iOS and Android tablets and smartphones that each individual user can customize to create a personalized content experience, specific to their favorite Pac-12 teams, sports and related content -- including stats, press conferences and documentaries -- extending beyond the telecasts.

As to the conference's VOD plans, Benya expects it to be "one package, mostly the best of the national feed. We'll do the encoding and the 20 hours of free-on-demand will be refreshed every month."

In addition to VOD and TV Everywhere, InDemand and CMC, a subsidiary of Comcast Cable, will provide network distribution services. The infrastructure of the linear networks will be grounded through fiber connectivity between the Pac-12 studio in San Francisco, which will be completed on July 9, plus all 12 of its member universities and the CMC in Denver.

Moreover, master control origination services will run through CMC, while compression and satellite front-haul services, satellite receiver authorizations and disaster recovery will also be provided by the parties, which last year completed a rebuild of their new HD live-event environment and an MPEG-4 HD distribution platform.

"This fiber connectivity between the 12 schools, the state-of-the-art Pac-12 studio in San Francisco and the CMC is a technical structure that, I believe, is unique to the industry," said Benya, emphasizing that Pac-12 member institutions are very sophisticated relative to infrastructure and media acumen.

Pac 12 announcer Rick Neuheisel, In Demand CEO Bob Benya, Pac-12 Enterprises topper Gary StevensonTo that end, Stevenson said Pac-12 Networks will be drawing from student resources. "Cal is redoing its football stadium. When we cover a game, it makes sense to find out about the seismic shift in engineering and what the feeling/energy was on campus," he said.

Stevenson added that UCLA's music department will be helping with the networks' on-air music; that Arizona State has one of the top digital imaging libraries in the country; and that the USC Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism would also be making contributions.

Benya said In Demand has worked with Comcast Media Center for 15 years on live sports and pay-per-view events, and that it has a dedicated team working at the facility in Denver. He said the technical alliance with the Pac-12 was in the works for a long time, but "the Is needed to be dotted and Ts crossed. There certainly is a lot prep work ahead."

Benya believes "working with the Pac-12 Networks is a natural extension of what we can do. We have a massive infrastructure that can provide reliable and quality services, more efficiently, for new and existing networks."

As InDemand -- which will hire additional staff in Denver -- readies for the multiplatform launch, it also continues to negotiate to offer more services.

"We're in deep discussions to provide other services to support the launch of the Pac-12 Networks," he said.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/485717-Pac_12_Networks_Prep_for_Upcoming_Launch.php