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Want Gigabit Internet? You Don’t Have to Move to Kansas City.

JULY 30, 2012 AT 12:11 PM PT

Who among us didn’t wish just a little bit that they lived in Kansas City this week?

I mean, come on, who doesn’t want the kind of Internet connection speeds that Google Fiber is offering? A whole gigabit down and up? That’s not just kid-in-a-candy store speed, that’s kid-in-a-candy-warehouse speed. The TV offerings I could take or leave, though certainly in time they’ll improve.

Right now, I’m paying cable company RCN $80 a month for 75 megabits down and 10 up, its fastest Internet package, and Speedtest.net tells me it’s struggling to meet that: The tests I’ve run this weekend are topping out at 69 megabits down and just under 10 up. And I’m paying $10 a month more than Google will charge (not counting the upfront $300 construction fee).

And even if I wanted my own fiber line from, say, Verizon FiOS, I have two problems. First, it’s not offered in my apartment building. I don’t know how these things work, but for some reason my building is RCN-only. I can’t even get service from New York’s dominant cable service provider, Time Warner. And even if FiOS were an option in this building, the top speed offered in its “Ultimate” package is 300 megabits down and 65 up for $210 a month. Nowhere near a gigabit in either direction, and it costs $140 a month more than Google Fiber will.

And, yes, I know it’s barely getting started. Google has yet to select the first neighborhoods where it will offer service, and it’s unleashing a competition in which different areas of Kansas City on both sides of the Kansas-Missouri line will drum up market demand. But still: If Google can offer this level of speed, it makes you wonder why others haven’t.

Well, it turns out others have. If you want gigabit Internet speeds from your own fiber optic line, like the one that Google is offering in Kansas City, you can move to another community that also happens to straddle a state line. It’s called Bristol, and it is situated on the Virginia-Tennessee border.

On the Virginia side of the border, the local power company, Bristol Virginia Utilities, started building a fiber network for its own operations in 1999 after a nasty storm knocked out its operations. The plan was to connect eight substations with a fiber optic ring. When it turned out that adding capacity was cheap and easy, it was a no-brainer to add local government buildings and schools to the network. Bristol area schools have had access to gigabit speeds since 2000, when most schools were happy to have 1.5 megabits.

The next step involved offering Internet, TV and phone services to consumers directly, but it ran up against a state law that had the effect of protecting incumbent carriers — basically Charter and Sprint. BVU took the state to court and won in 2001, arguing that the 1996 Federal Telecommunications Act gave it standing to offer telecom services. It then won approval from state lawmakers to get into the business. After a handful of other legal challenges, it began offering residential triple-play service in 2003. It added residential gigabit service this year, though at $320 a month it’s a lot more expensive than what Google says it will offer in Kansas City.

The network has also encouraged a lot of economic development. Defense contractor Northrop Grumman brought 700 jobs to town basically because the fiber network was available. DirecTV brought 100 more. Eight hundred jobs amounts to serious economic gains in an area with a combined population of 43,000 on both sides of the state line. Today, the network, called OptiNet, has about 12,000 residential subscribers, which amounts to a take rate of about 70 percent within it physical footprint.

And while the story of Bristol’s network is a great one, it’s not the only one like it. Lots of other communities have found ways to build their own super-fast fiber networks. Chattanooga, Tenn., and Lafayette, La., are two others you can read about in this report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. You can get a gigabit in Chattanooga for $350 a month, and in Lafayette for $1,000 a month — which sounds like a lot, until you realize that until recently in that market it cost $20,000 a month for that kind of bandwidth. The first customer was a local school.

There’s a patchwork of many other examples where gigabit Internet is available either from quasi-public or outright public sources, the notion of which tends to make established carriers and their lobbyists and lawyers irritable. Some private carriers have gotten the job done, as well. Sonic.net is already known for its $70-a-month service in a small area of Sonoma County, Calif. There’s a service coming to Maine. Gigabit service is an option in this small town in Minnesota. And there are lots of other communities with fast fiber service at various speeds on this map. Chances are you don’t live in any of them. But now that Google has thrown down the gauntlet in Kansas City, perhaps the established broadband carriers will in time be forced to respond.

http://allthingsd.com/20120730/want-gigabit-internet-you-dont-have-to-move-to-kansas-city/

links can be found in the above article, just use the one above

Critic's Notes
Bianculli's Best Bets
By David Bianculli, TVWorthWatching.com - Jul. 31, 2012

2012 SUMMER OLYMPICS
NBC Sports Network, 4:00 a.m. ET
If you want to get up early (or stay up late) to watch live coverage of the Olympic Games from London, NBC Sports Network is the first and best place to go. This morning – early this morning – it has coverage, as it happens, of the men’s U.S. basketball team vs. Tunisia, as well as the U.S. women’s soccer team’s next match, vs. North Korea. As for NBC's prime time, expect it to be built around Michael Phelps. Period.

GOLDFINGER
Encore, 8:00 p.m. ET
I recommended, and watched, this 1964 James Bond movie back on July 7 – and I’m doing it again today, only three weeks and a few days later. Why? The answer, as well as a question for you, is in my latest Bianculli’s Blog, which you can read HERE.

FORREST GUMP
Lifetime, 8:00 p.m. ET
Sometimes TV is like a box of chocolates – and here’s a tasty confection from 1994, one that earned Oscars for Best Picture, for Tom Hanks as Best Actor, and four others. Gary Sinise, in a key supporting role as Lieutenant Dan, is one secret ingredient of this historical mash-up. Another is Mykelti Williamson (pictured), who plays the sweet, and slow, Bubba – and who, last season, played the much smarter, and much less sweet, Limehouse on FX’s Justified.

WHITE COLLAR
USA, 9:00 p.m. ET
Here’s a super piece of guest casting: Laura Vandervoort, who played Supergirl on Smallville, guest stars as a beautiful widow who may be a murderess as well. And she also may be appearing in future episodes, because her chemistry with Matt Bomer, as Matt, didn’t escape the show’s producers.

NY MED
ABC, 10:00 p.m. ET
Episode 4 in Terence Wrong’s latest, satisfyingly popular nonfiction medical series is loaded with tense cases, including a 4-year-old girl with a large tumor in her heart (her family is shown here, talking to the pediatric heart surgeon) and a man whose eating disorder compels him to eat metallic objects. (“Honey, have you seen my car keys?”)

http://www.tvworthwatching.com/

TV Sports/Critic's Notes
Coverage of London Games has people talking
By Robert Bianco, USA Today - Jul. 30, 2012

If NBC wanted people talking about London's Summer Olympics, consider that goal achieved.

True, much of the talk inspired by NBC's coverage so far has been less than glowing. We're only four days in, and already there's a Twitter pile-on at #NBCfail (if you follow it, prepare to be deluged) and a growing chorus of complaints aimed at Ryan Seacrest, who seems to have tapped into the deep reservoir of disdain every annoyed sports fan has ever felt about any lightweight, extraneous sideline reporter.

In the long run, NBC would rather the chatter not include concerns about Michael Phelps' struggles or gymnastics missteps: If you think it's hard to get people to watch tape-delayed victories, try selling tape-delayed disappointments. But for now, as long as the Olympics stay in the forefront of the national conversation, NBC will take it.

That includes, by the way, the attacks on NBC for withholding events such as the Opening Ceremony and Sunday's medal races in swimming for taped prime-time broadcast rather than streaming them live — as it does for many less-marquee events. It's certainly true, as the see-it-now crowd insists, that the Internet has changed the way people can access content. But as of yet, it hasn't changed the economics of paying for content.

And for NBC, that's the problem. It has paid $1.18 billion fee to broadcast the Games. It can't make that money back by giving away big-draw events in the close-to-free world that is still the Internet.

Still, if you are going to gather us in prime time to see the Opening Ceremony, then you should show it to us once you have us. Which means not cutting away from a boisterously, Britishly odd opener that was setting new standards for strange, excising a musical tribute in the process, to go to Seacrest. And that certainly means not interrupting Saturday's coverage for a Seacrest interview with Phelps' family that was capped by Seacrest's proclamation that "It's fun to see them in their real lives, because they've got real lives." Thanks — who knew?

As if to compound the problem, the network then had him lead a back-slapping Twitter-walk through Opening Ceremony compliments. Is someone trying to undercut him before he can even get started, or is Seacrest's news judgment truly that awful?

Talk like that, NBC really doesn't need.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/story/2012-07-29/nbc-coverage-of-olympics/56585500/1

Summer 2012 TCA Tour Notes
‘Dexter’ Plot Twist Gives New Life To Showtime’s Star
By The Deadline.com - Jul. 30, 2012

Ray Richmond contributes to Deadline’s TV coverage.

On the eve of Dexter‘s Season 7 premiere, there is the palpable sense — at least inside Showtime — that a series that critics had come to believe was running on fumes is suddenly enjoying a second wind. Earlier today at TCA, the network’s programming chief David Nevins referred to this as “a game-changing year” for the serial killer series — still the highest-rated original program on Showtime — in the wake of an energizing sixth-season cliffhanger. In it, Dexter Morgan’s (Michael C. Hall) sister Debra (played by Hall’s real-life ex-wife Jennifer Carpenter) Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) So excited is Nevins that while he acknowledged the two-year plan for Dexter that would find it wrapping after Season 8 remains the likely scenario, he added, “I’d be stupid if I didn’t leave the door open. Everything is getting rewired this season in an interesting way. We’ll see where that carries us.”

So does that mean that a ninth season is possible? During the Dexter panel at TCA featuring Hall, Carpenter, new castmate Yvonne Strahovski and exec producers Sara Colleton and Scott Buck, Hall was asked if he potentially foresaw extending the show’s run to a ninth season and beyond. “It’s difficult to answer that in the midst of shooting this seventh season, with at least sort of a vague sense that the eighth season will be the final one,” he admitted. “To imagine it going beyond that, I mean, we finished the first season and I thought we should just stop. What are we gonna do now? So I would never say never, but I think the sense is we’re moving toward a definitive end.” As for the idea that the show has been infused with a renewed creative energy at this late date, Hall agreed that in the wake of Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) “It’s been so invigorating to play these scenes and be preoccupied. To have that happen in the seventh season of a TV show is pretty remarkable.”

Hall also believes that it was finally the proper time for Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) he said. “I think it is without a doubt the most fundamentally game-changing development that we’ve had since we started telling this story. One of the things that we’ve always been able to count on is that Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) “Call the police!”

http://www.deadline.com/2012/07/dexter-season-seven-showtime-michael-c-hall-jennifer-carpenter-tca-panel/

* * * *

Summer 2012 TCA Tour Notes
‘Homeland’ Producer Howard Gordon Notes “Stirrings” On ’24′ Movie

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline’s TV coverage.

At today’s TCA panel on Showtime‘s Homeland, co-creator and executive producer Howard Gordon was asked about another on-again, off-again project: Whether there is still a chance of a 24 movie. He says yes — possibly. “My understanding of that is, having gone quiet in a way that I didn’t think boded well for that, there’s been some stirrings recently, so I think it’s something everyone’s gunning for,” said Gordon, also an executive producer of 24. “As far as whether my work on [Homeland] will impede that — not at all. There’s a script that’s been written, and I think the issues now are more about the director’s schedule and Kiefer’s [Sutherland] schedule.”

After the panel, which also included executive producer Alex Gansa and series stars Claire Danes, Damian Lewis and Morena Baccarin, Gordon also had a comment about the failure of the NBC series Awake, on which he was also an executive producer. “I knew it was a very steep challenge,” he said.

But back to Homeland, whose new season will open with two episodes shot in large part in Israel, standing in for Beirut. Aside from questions about the development of the lead characters, questions arose about whether Danes’ pregnancy would affect production. “We’re about midway (through Season 2), we’re shooting Episode 6; this hasn’t run into any interference,” Danes said. She added that the physicality of her role had her a “little concerned” at first, but “it’s proven to be a non-issue. All is well and Carrie remains fervently nonpregnant.”

Danes also said she was not concerned that possible future shooting in Israel would put her and her baby in a dangerous situation. “I think people think of Israel as being incredibly dangerous and volatile — that was not my experience,” she said. “He will have to come with me — he she, whoever he is,” she joked. “It’s been working out for my schnoodle.”

Lewis also cracked a joke playing off Danes’ pregnancy: When asked about the passionate weekend their two characters spent during Season 1, he raised an eyebrow: “And look what happened,” he said. Lewis was also asked to talk about being among a group of British actors invited to dinner at the White House. Homeland is one of President Obama’s favorite shows. Joked Lewis: “Obviously I’m called to consult on matters of homeland security, so then I drop everything and I go.” He said that his being included in the group was “serendipity. It was a British state visit to see the president who happened to have this as his favorite show on TV at the time; I kind of ticked a lot of boxes,” he said. “It was fantastic talking to him about it.”

The actor did get a chance to ask Obama when he has time to watch Homeland. “I did ask him and David Cameron, when do you guys have time to watch television, aren’t you supposed to be running the free world together? He said: ‘On Saturday afternoon, Michelle and the girls go to play tennis, I go into the Oval Office, I pretend I’m going to work, and I switch on Homeland.’ ”

http://www.deadline.com/2012/07/homeland-producer-howard-gordon-notes-stirrings-on-24-movie-tca/#more-310268

All you need to do is look at all the reality shows and other crap on the schedule and you will have your proof.

My favorite moment so far is The Today Show interviewing Evander Holyfield on the street and not knowing he was Evander Holyfield.

I know I'm in the minority, but watching taped coverage of any sporting event is kind of anticlimatic anyway. It's nice not to know who won in advance, but it's not the end of the world if you find out beforehand either. People tend to make big deals out of things that really aren't big deals in the overall scheme of things.

They should just show the stuff live anyways. Especially in today's world. You can't keep anything secret for 15 minutes let alone 6 hours. Who cares if it's not in primetime. If people are that interested they'll watch.

Who goes to adult theaters anymore? And Fred ask Paul Ruebens aka Pee Wee Herman how getting arrested in a porno theater hurts your career. Guys can cheat on their wives/girlfriends 100 times over and girls can do sex tapes that mysteriously get stolen and turn up on the internet and doesn't affect their careers one iota, but get caught watching "naughty movies" and your banned from Hollywood forever.

What, was his VCR broken?

I find it amusing that a company in India would complain about bribing. Isn't bribery an accepted business practice throughout asia? They must not have passed enough money out and are mad about it.

Uhmm... that's the point. Taped sports are irrelevant as sporting events. You are NOT in the minority. People who like sports, don't like TAPE DELAY sports. I love swimming and water polo, but haven't been able to enjoy the swimming portion. Fortunately, some of the water polo has been streamed live.

I watched a few minutes of the opening ceremonies and, as typical for me, I don't like ceremonies. It's even worse when you get the RS affect of taking something that may actually have some cultural depth and it gets reduced to the most basic superficial fluff imaginable. Had to turn it off after a few seconds of that crap.

We did watch some fencing on an alternate channel. It was actually enjoyable. The camera stayed on the participants. No cut-aways during the action. The announcers were subdued but very well informed on the sport, the participants and the explanation of the scoring decisions that come up during the competition. NO BLATHERING ... NO "I had to walk 10 miles to school, uphill both ways while hunting for lunch on my way" ... It was all about the match at hand.

Tried to watch the main channel for Gymnastics and Swimming and just found the coverage nauseating, while treating the actual events as an afterthought.

I love sports and I almost never watch live. Doesn't make it anti-climactic for me. Just makes it about an hour shorter without a billion commercials. I'm obsessed with NBA but I don't think I'd make it through a game live.

It isn’t if you don’t know the outcome. I’ve been able to avoid a lot of the results, so when I record NBC at night I usually don’t know the results. But the bigger advantage is skipping over what I’m not interested in watching. At least we don’t have the endless human-interest stories that used to occupy each and every event the way they did years ago. For every hour it seemed like 45 minutes were of human interest.


Of course it isn’t the end of the world, its sports, but that isn’t the point. I record every Duke BB game, but if I know the score beforehand, the last second shot that won the game takes all of the enjoyment out of it. Even if it isn’t a close game, it isn’t any different than watching it live other than I get to skip through commercials and halftime, giving me the opportunity to watch or do other things.
Edited by Aliens - 7/31/12 at 2:11pm

Yeah, I was wondering when the other shoe (change or cancellation of this program) would happen.

What he has no internet connection ?

he just wasn't in a porno theater that got him arrested, it was his pants down @ his knees that did that ....

and that is somehow worse than Pam Anderson sucking on Tommie Lee's schlong on a boat for the world to see?

As long as you are doing the act for free and with someone of the opposite sex, having a camera there is easily forgiven by the public as a rehearsal video for a television career..

How else do you explain Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian to be role models for girls that parents have no problem with?

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)
ABC’s originals struggle against Olympics
'Bachelor Pad' and 'The Glass House' fall to series lows
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Jul. 31, 2012

Viewers continued to choose the Olympics over other original fare on competing networks last night.

ABC's "Bachelor Pad" and "The Glass House" saw week-to-week declines airing against NBC's highly rated Games coverage.

"Pad" slid 27 percent from last week's season premiere to a 1.1 adults 18-49 rating from 8 to 10 p.m., according to Nielsen, a series low for the three-year-old show.

And lead-out "Glass," which had already struggled against much lesser competition this summer, dipped to a 0.6, off from a 0.8 the previous week and a series low.

ABC's hardly alone in its struggles. CBS's "Big Brother" and "3" also posted series lows on Sunday night versus the Olympics.

The threat of such ratings declines prompted Fox to replace original episodes of "Hell's Kitchen" and "MasterChef" this week with reruns.

Note, a full report on last night's Olympic ratings will be posted later today when final Nielsen numbers are released. Initial ratings indicate NBC's coverage was off slightly versus the same night in 2008, the first time this year there's been a decline.

NBC led the night among 18-49s with a 10.5 average overnight rating and a 28 share. Univision was second at 1.3/4, Fox third at 1.1/3, CBS fourth at 1.0/3, ABC fifth at 0.9/3, Telemundo sixth at 0.5/1 and CW seventh at 0.2/0.

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. NBC was first with an 8.6 for Olympics, while, Fox, ABC and Univision all tied for second at 1.1, Fox for a repeat of "Hell's Kitchen," ABC for "Pad" and Univision for "Por Ella Soy Eva." CBS was fifth with a 0.9 for repeats of "How I Met Your Mother" and "2 Broke Girls," Telemundo sixth with a 0.5 for "Rosa Diamante" and CW seventh with a 0.2 for a "90210" rerun.

NBC was on top again at 9 p.m. with an 11.1 for Olympics, with Univision second with a 1.3 for "Abismo de Pasion" and Fox third with a 1.2 for more "Kitchen." ABC and CBS tied for fourth at 1.1, ABC for another hour of "Pad" and CBS for repeats of "Two and a Half Men" and "Mike & Molly," with Telemundo sixth with a 0.5 for "Corazon Valiente" and CW seventh with a 0.1 for a repeat of "Remodeled."

At 10 p.m. NBC led with an 11.8 for Olympics, with Univision second with a 1.6 for "La Que No Podia Amar." CBS was third with a 0.9 for a repeat of "Hawaii Five-0," ABC fourth with a 0.6 for "Glass" and Telemundo fifth with a 0.5 for "Pablo Escobar: El Patron del Mal" (0.6) and "El Rostro de la Venganza" (0.5).

NBC was also first for the night among households with a 17.9 average overnight rating and a 28 share. CBS was second at 2.6/4, ABC third at 2.1/3, Univision fourth at 1.9/3, Fox fifth at 1.8/3, Telemundo sixth at 0.7/1, and CW seventh at 0.3/0.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/abcs-originals-struggle-against-olympics/

TV Notes
Vince Vaughn Sells Brady Bunch Reboot to CBS
By Kyle Buchanan, Vulture.com (New York Magazine) - Jul. 31, 2012

Here's the story
Of a pitch gone crazy
A reboot sold to CBS by rich Vince Vaughn.
It's a brand-new Brady Bunch,
Like the old one,
About a Brady spawn.

See, the story's
'bout Bobby Brady,
Who's divorced, with some kids of his own.
He's remarried to a lady
But their exes
Won't leave them all alone.

CBS is lacking any family sitcoms
And the network thought it much more than a hunch
That this show
Could be their Modern Family.
That's the way Vince pitched an all-new Brady Bunch.

The Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch
That's the way Vince pitched an all-new Brady Bunch.

http://www.vulture.com/2012/07/vince-vaughn-sells-brady-bunch-reboot-to-cbs.html

TV Notes
'Knight Rider' Producer Survives Round One in Universal Fraud Lawsuit
By Eriq Gardner, The Hollywood Reporter's 'Hollywood Esq.' Column - Jul. 31, 2012

Television producer Glen Larson has jumped the first hurdle in his multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Universal over money from a string of hit shows from the 1970s and 1980s.

Larson, whose work includes Knight Rider, The Six Million Dollar Man, Magnum P.I. and Battlestar Galactica, claims that the series generated hundreds of millions of dollars for the studio yet he hasn't received any profit participation statements and "as the shows make more money for Universal, the deficit that Larson Productions must overcome continually increases."

In a detailed ruling issued this week, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Dunn is allowing most of Larson's claims to move forward over objections made by the studio at the initial stage.

When Larson filed the lawsuit in July 2011, Universal said it was "surprised" and that Larson hadn't notified the studio about his claims. Studio litigator Scott Edelman declined comment on the latest ruling.

In defense of the lawsuit, Universal has claimed that the statute of limitations has passed, but Dunn has decided that it is too early to rule on this issue.

The judge did address the specific causes of auction, including breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, accounting and fraud. He has found that Larson has sufficiently pled these allegations to survive the demurrer (motion to dismiss).

In getting there, Dunn looked at the ambiguity of Larson's agreements with Universal. The contracts allowed the studio to use "standard accounting practices" without defining that and included "catch-all" language that guided the studio to the "same practices and procedures" it normally used in dealing with gross receipts, distribution expenses and production costs.

Both sides attempted to use the ambiguous language to their advantage. For example, on the issue of whether Universal could report only 20 percent of the home video receipts, the contracts say nothing because it was not a media form available at the time.

If the issue is what's permitted versus what's not permitted, the silence of the contracts favors Larson at this stage of the litigation. "Nothing in the agreements suggest that only a percentage, rather than the entire receipts from such 'subsidiary rights,' should be taken into account," wrote the judge.

Dunn also found that Larson can go forward on his claim that Universal didn't administer the agreements in good faith, finding sufficient support in the plaintiff's allegation that Universal was "manipulating the 'order of recoupment' in such a way that it only benefits Defendants and completely frustrates and defeats Plaintiff's right to receive contingent compensation."

Universal didn't walk away empty-handed, though. The judge trimmed from the lawsuit Larson's claims of conversion, unjust enrichment and unfair business practices.

Larson is represented by Neville Johnson, Douglas Johnson and James Ryan of Johnson and Johnson in Beverly Hills.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/knight-rider-producer-glen-larson-lawsuit-universal-356300

TV Sports
NBC apologizes for Olympics spoiler: 'This will not happen again'
By James Hibberd, The Hollywood Reporter's 'Live Feed' Blog - Jul. 31, 2012

NBC has issued an apology for spoiling the results of teen swimmer Missy Franklin’s gold medal-winning race.

In the latest controversy during the network’s highly rated Summer Olympics coverage, NBC ran a Today show promo on Monday night that revealed the outcome of the heavily anticipated 100-meter backstroke before the event was actually telecast. Now NBC’s sports division, which has been pretty adamant about the merits of its tape-delay strategy as public criticism mounts, has issued a statement admitting the network screwed up.

“Clearly that promo should not have aired at that time,” said an NBC Sports spokesperson in a statement. “We have a process in place and this will not happen again. We apologize to viewers who were watching and didn’t know the result of the race.”

NBC’s Today show ad announced last night, “When you’re 17 years old and win your first gold medal, there’s nobody you’d rather share it with,” and showed footage of Franklin holding the gold medal and with her parents.

NBC attempt to herd viewers to primetime with tape-delayed coverage from London while covering a competition of global interest has sparked plenty of online outrage since the Games got underway on Friday (one critic dubbed the 2012 games “the last great buggy-whip Olympics”). Yet ratings continue to be strong, with 31.6 million viewers watching Monday’s primetime coverage, the biggest audience for a non-U.S. Summer Games in 36 years.

Meanwhile one vocal critic of NBC whose Twitter account was suspended after he tweeted a network executive’s email address has been given his account back. “Oh. My Twitter account seems to have been un-suspended,” tweeted Independent journalist Guy Adams. “Did I miss much while I was away.”

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/07/31/nbc-olympics-apology/

TV Notes
‘Community’ Creator Dan Harmon Nets Script Deal At CBS
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - Jul. 31, 2012

Dan Harmon is a wanted man this development season. On the heels of a blind script deal at Fox for a multi-camera comedy, the Community creator has signed a second blind script deal at CBS, also for a multi-camera comedy project, which will be produced by CBS TV Studios.

Harmon has fielded interest from networks ever since his May firing from his NBC/Sony TV comedy series Community. The deals with CBS and Fox signal a change in direction for the writer-producer after creating/co-creating two consecutive single-camera comedies that have developed cult followings but have been branded as having narrow appeal: Comedy Central’s Sarah Silverman Program and NBC’s Community. Having achieved critical acclaim with his single-camera shows, Harmon is now looking to show he can go for wide audiences too with multi-camera comedies.

Harmon is currently at the Montreal Just For Laughs comedy festival scouting for talent. He is usually at his best when writing with talent in mind as he did with Silverman. Harmon also rewrote the characters on Community after the pilot was cast so they better fit the actors. In addition to his broadcast development, UTA-repped Harmon has animated pilot Rick & Morty in the hopper for Adult Swim.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/07/community-creator-dan-harmon-nets-script-deal-at-cbs/

Technology Notes
Apple TV–Hulu Plus Deal Speaks to Future of Apple TV
By Julia Boorstein, CNBC.com - Jul. 31, 2012

The launch of subscription service Hulu Plus on Apple TV is more than just another incremental video distribution deal.

It should be a win-win for both companies, and most importantly — it gives us a glimpse of what Apple has planned for its Apple TV service.

CEO Tim Cook is clearly looking to make Apple TV the destination for premium content without a cable subscription, even if that means opening the door to more competition for Apple’s iTunes. This announcement is a big deal, in that it’s the first time ad-supported TV content is available through the Apple TV box.

Bottom line: The future of Apple TV may be less about a gadget, and more about access to premium content.

Apple is making a carefully calibrated tradeoff. It’s giving Apple TV owners easy access to Hulu Plus content, which competes with some of Apple iTunes’ video-on-demand offerings. But it’s willing to make that compromise to amass the kind of premium content to help it sell more Apple TV devices.

Plus, it’ll earn some incremental revenue from selling access to Hulu Plus through iTunes — we can assume it’ll get a cut of the $8-a-month subscription. And it’ll get access to more information about all those subscribers.

Hulu should benefit too — the device should drive new subscribers to its service. Plus, even more important, all those extra viewers will provide additional TV ad revenue.

Since Hulu is serving up those ads within its app, it’s unlikely that the video streaming service will have to share its ad revenue. This isn’t the first app with ads — WSJ Live, which was added to Apple TV last October, had ads. But this is certainly the biggest video app to launch with ads.

With this deal Apple TV’s content is catching up to competitors like Roku and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. We’ll see what Apple launches next — either in terms of functionality or in terms of content — to distinguish its Apple TV from the other “over-the-top” set top boxes.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48422776

TV Notes
Cable News: WE TV Renews Four Series, Nat Geo Adds Pair, Laura Innes Joins 'Warehouse 13' and More
By The Hollywood Reporter Staff - Jul. 31, 2012

WE TV has renewed four series, National Geographic has added two new entries, while Lifetime and Syfy both made casting announcements Tuesday. Here's what's happening on cable:

• WE TV has renewed Braxton Family Values for a third season and set Sept. 20 at 10 p.m. as the premiere date for its spinoff, Tamar & Vince. In addition, the women's-themed network picked up Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best? for a third season and My Fair Wedding With David Tutera -- with a new title, Unveiled, for a fifth season. Docuseries Mary Mary will also return for a second season.

• ER alum Laura Innes will guest star on Syfy's Warehouse 13 in the Sept. 17 episode as Emma Jinks, the estranged mother of Aaron Ashmore's Agent Steve Jinks. She's repped by CAA and Wishlab.

• Lifetime has tapped Aunjanue Ellis to star in its original TV movie Abducted: The Carlina White Story. The Blue Bloods and The Help actress will star as Ann Pettway, a woman who abducted White as an infant and posed as her biological mother for more than two decades. She's repped by ICM Paartners and TMT management.

• Current TV has scheduled hourlong series Joy Behar: Say Anything, Tuesday, Sept. 4 at 6 p.m. The former View host's new entry will air four nights a week, Monday-Thursday, with repeats airing later the same evening.

• National Geographic will air Martian Mega Rover, a special following the Mars Rover, on Thursday, Aug. 9 at 10 p.m. with footage of the Curiosity rover as it hits the top of the Martian atmosphere three days after the historic effort is scheduled to take place. In addition, the network announced a new series -- Abandoned -- that will follow a team of collectors searching abandoned buildings for lost relics. The 12-part series will premiere Wednesday, Aug. 22 at 9 p.m.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/we-tv-braxton-family-values-renewed-joy-behar-current-tv-national-geographic-channel-lifetime-356406

Critic's Notes
Bianculli's Best Bets
By David Bianculli, TVWorthWatching.com - Aug. 1, 2012

2012 SUMMER OLYMPICS
NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET
The fringe events are all over the dial today, or what used to be called a dial, and you can find on TV what also can be found on the Internet: table tennis on MSNBC, wonen’s water polo during the day on NBC, and archery and badminton on NBC Sports Network. But in prime time, in the repackaged NBC showcase, you can get reliably full coverage of the day’s big events, even if you can’t watch during the day: men’s swimming and women’s beach volleyball.

SCARFACE
AMC, 8:00 p.m. ET
Sunday’s episode of AMC’s Breaking Bad included a scene in which Bryan Cranston’s Walter White, all but forcing his way back into his old home, watched Al Pacino mow down rivals with his “little friend” in Scarface, to the delight of Walt’s son and the horror of Walt’s wife, who saw in Walt way too much of Scarface – exactly the road map laid out by series creator Vince Gilligan when Breaking Bad began (“Mr. Chips turns into Scarface”). But during that same hour of Breaking Bad, AMC ran promos for this week’s “Mob week” movies, in which Pacino and his “little friend” were featured prominently. Don’t blame Gilligan: he wrote and filmed his Pacino TV scene long before AMC decided to cash in on it. But here’s the 1983 movie remake of the classic gangster film from half a century earlier – the first film in which Michelle Pfeiffer proved she had major talent as well as exceptional beauty.

THE BIG LEBOWSKI
Flix, 8:00 p.m. ET
In my current Bianculli’s Blog story about “spider-web” movies that snare you every time they’re televised (read it HERE), my son, Mark, identified 1998’s The Big Lebowski as one of his. And here it is: a Coen Brothers film that gave Jeff Bridges one of his best roles, and served up a loopy cult classic at the same time. Dude!

DAMAGES
DirecTV Audience Network, 9:00 p.m. ET
The deposition scene in last week’s episode was an intense cat-and-mouse game – and this time, Ellen (Rose Byrne) was the cat, not the mouse, and got Patty (Glenn Close) and her lying client right where she wanted them. But that was last week, and just a preliminary round. The main bout is still ahead – and flash-aheads suggest things won’t end that well for either of the two rival attorneys.

HIT & MISS
DirecTV Audience Network, 10:00 p.m. ET
Chloe Sevigny’s conflicted assassin survived a particularly dangerous assignment in last week’s show – but this week, has another tough confrontation ahead of her. And this one is personal…

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