Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 2825

The biggest problem I have with splitting channels and content is the fact that one of those channels will be put into a higher tier that the pay-tv provider will try to force you into upgrading to, just to be able to watch what you're already watching. Look at History and H2 for example. Instead of running day-long marathons of their programming because they don't have enough content, why not combine those channels and diversify the programming on one? Heaven forbide that someone miss an episode of Pawn Stars or American Pickers, so lets run it five hours straight! But I guess the extra fees that you get by having two channels instead of one are too tempting.

Syfy.

I "Kicked out my Roommate" six years ago!

Rosemarie DeWitt leaving 'The Newsroom'
by James Hibberd, insidetv.ew.com - Thursday, January 17, 2013

Rosemarie DeWitt is exiting HBO’s The Newsroom.

The United States of Tara and Mad Men actress is leaving the program after shooting only a couple episodes from the Aaron Sorkin cable news drama’s upcoming second season. She will be replaced by another actress and the production plans to re-shoot her character’s scenes. DeWitt was cast in the recurring role of Rebecca Halliday, a litigator who defends Atlantis Cable News in a wrongful termination suit. One source says storyline changes shifted the role’s production timeline and created a conflict for DeWitt (as a recurring character she wasn’t contracted to stay available throughout the whole season like a series regular).

Here’s a statement from HBO: “As the production schedule for season two of The Newsroom has shifted, Rosemarie DeWitt has encountered scheduling conflicts and will no longer be able to continue in her role.”

http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/01/17/rosemarie-dewitt-leaving-newsroom/

^^^ Thanks, I tried to post that story last night but for some reason the EW.com 'Inside TV' website just kept getting stuck in a "Ripper Street" advertisement.

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 Overnights
'American Idol' Thursday Opener Steady With Last Season
By Michael O'Connell, The Hollywood Reporter's 'Live Feed' Blog - Jan. 18, 2013

American Idol continued its premiere week on Thursday night with a 5.6 rating among adults 18-49 and 16.2 million viewers. Compared to Wednesday's opening haul, the show was down just seven percent in the key demo. Compared the Thursday premiere last year, Idol was only off by a tenth of a point and even with its Fast National showing.

Last year's inaugural Thursday Idol averaged 18 million viewers and a 5.7 rating with adults 18-49, which marked double digit drops from the previous year. It also gave an expected 23 percent drop from the Wednesday premiere. This is the strongest retention the show has boasted in its second episode since 2009.

Thursday's retention also leaves Idol tracking much higher the recent run of The Voice, besting its premiere week average by 41 percent in the demo (a 5.8 over a 4.1 adults rating).

Elsewhere, ABC's Last Resort was down 17 percent to a 1.0 rating among adults 18-49. Grey's Anatomy (2.9 adults), tying a season low, was down nine percent. And while it was off seven percent from last week, Scandal (2.6 adults) still topped the 10 p.m. hour. The network averaged a 2.2 adults rating and 7.2 million viewers.

Encores brought CBS a 1.9 rating with adults 18-49 and 8.97 million viewers.

On NBC, 30 Rock was down two tenths of a point for a 1.3 rating among adults 18-49, while Parks and Recreation opened up shop in its new time by jumping four tenths of a point to a 1.9 rating in the demo (a season high for the half-hour and for the series). The Office (2.1 adults) was a tenth of a point shy from last week, while 1600 Penn (1.2 adults) lost 25 percent of its premiere haul. Rock Center With Brian Williams (1.2 adults) was up a tenth of a point, giving the network a 1.5 adults rating for the night and 3.9 million viewers.

The Vampire Diaries (1.4 adults) returned up a tenth of a point on the CW before the network gave another encore of The Carrie Diaries (0.5 adults). The network averaged a 0.9 rating with adults 18-49 and 2 million viewers.

Univision averaged a 1.6 rating with adults 18-49 and 3.9 million viewers.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-american-idol-thursday-413586

TV Sports
Pete Rose on his TV reality show: Nothing was 'off-limits'
By Michael Hiestand, USA Today - Jan. 17, 2013

Pete Rose figures his TLC reality series shows a different side of him. But he doesn't necessarily help his campaign to end his ban from Major League Baseball as he tells USA TODAY Sports: "I doubt (Commissioner) Bud Selig is at home watching reality shows."

Still, TLC's Hits and Mrs., which follows Rose, 71, and his fiancée Kiana Kim, 36, and her two children, probably can't hurt his cause to be reinstated by MLB after being banned for betting. In the first episode, which aired Sunday, Rose said, "All you can hope is to get a second chance" and says he's not "the only guy in Las Vegas who don't gamble." And in an episode airing Monday (10 p.m. ET), he's seen outside baseball's Hall of Fame joking that he won't go in "because they might not let me back out."

Asked in a phone interview Thursday how the show might affect his image, Rose said, "I don't know. But we live in the greatest country in the world. We give people second chances. And I'd be the happiest guy in the world if I got one. (Former president Bill) Clinton got a second chance, (former president Richard) Nixon got a second chance, the guy who shot the pope got a second chance. But that's not why I did the show."

Rose said "nothing was off-limits" for TLC, which filmed the series in July and August and drew 654,000 viewers for Monday's debut. (TLC declined to comment on whether that was an improvement over the time slot's regular viewership.) He says his hope is that viewers see he's changed. "It's not that they remember me as a ballplayer, it's that they just remember me as aggressive and it's not like that since I hung my spikes up. When you ask people about guys they didn't like because they were aggressive, there's me, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, not too many names would come up. ... But you do what you have to do."

And when it came to what Rose wants viewers to see in his fiancée Kim, he says it's simple: "She's not a bombshell who doesn't have any brains — her biggest assets are her brains and personality."

But in the first episode Rose discusses Kim's breast enlargements with her father and says at one point he didn't give her an engagement ring "because of her breasts. Half of it anyway."

By phone Thursday, Kim, a former Playboy model, said, "I don't think we were totally prepared" for being filmed for a reality show. "When you put Pete in that position, we weren't exactly comfortable with how he'd react. But it was good. It brought us closer. We touched on things we hadn't discussed before."

Like explaining to Kim's children — Cassie, 14, and Ashton, 11 — why Rose isn't in the Hall of Fame. "For me to explain that to the children was difficult, they didn't know about Pete's career. It was a good chance to explain it to them," she said. "For the kids to see his artifacts (at the Hall) made them feel sad, but it gives them something to look forward to because they believe he should be there."

And Kim says she and Rose don't see episodes before they air. She said she found the debut "touching."

Asked about his plans now, Rose said: "We might do Geraldo (on Fox) this weekend."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2013/01/17/pete-rose-reality-show-baseball-hall-of-fame/1842307/

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TV Sports
Pete Rose on Lance Armstrong: 'I hope it's not too late'

Pete Rose, on NBC's Today show Thursday said Lance Armstrong admitting to cheating will "take a load off his shoulders."

Rose said that when it came to his admission to betting on baseball, he said, "I waited too long. ... I'm glad he's coming forward. I hope it's not too late for him."

Asked by show host Matt Lauer if fans might forgive the cyclist, Rose said "most of the time they'll give you a second chance. ... But they have to know you're sincere."

Rose, when asked if Armstrong should be allowed to compete in triathlons, said he doesn't know the details of what Armstrong will admit to. But, he says, "You don't dominate any sport when you're over 40."

Rose, on the show to promote his TLC reality show Hits and Mrs., told Lauer he wants the series to show he's no longer "knocking people down" like he did as a player. "I don't play ball no more. ... But if you were trying to make a double play, Matt, I'd still knock you on your tail."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2013/01/17/pete-rose-lance-armstrong/1841715/

TV Notes
GSN’s ‘American Bible Challenge’ Adds Choir, Kirk Franklin As Co-Host
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - Jan. 18, 2013

Musician and producer Kirk Franklin will join GSN‘s The American Bible Challenge as musical co-host for the second season of the network’s breakout studio-based game, in which contestants compete based on their knowledge of the Bible. Franklin, along with musical director Kris Pooley, will lead a choir that will be featured on the show.

Season 2 of American Bible Challenge, hosted by Jeff Foxworthy and produced by RelativityREAL, will premiere March 21. “The show is a fresh and fun approach to celebrating the Word of God, and being able to provide an element of praise, worship and honor is both exciting and humbling,” Franklin said.

The series premiere last season delivered 1.7 million viewers, a record for GSN.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/01/gsns-american-bible-challenge-adds-choir-kirk-franklin-as-co-host/

Agreed except for the point that SPEED has not shown anything other than scripted reality shows and other junk through the week for several years.

NYC in the hoooouse....

Alicia Keys gets Super Bowl XLVII national anthem.

Everyone has to remember that Pete Rose IS in the Hall of Fame. . .the Celebrity Wing of the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame. All because he took several Tombstone Piledrivers on his head.

Agreed. That or the content provider does not offer one of the channels in HD, forcing you to watch the SD version. Both are bad.

Critic's Notes
Bianculli's Best Bets
By David Bianculli, TVWorthWatching.com - Jan. 19, 2013

LOLITA
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
This 1961 Stanley Kubrick movie was as brave as it was outrageous to film at the time – and even though some of the darkest undercurrents of Vladimir Nabokov’s once-banned satirical novel had to be skirted over (so to speak) at the time, Kubrick still managed to say a lot, and visually suggest a lot, with his wry examination of a proper gentleman’s improper obsession with a young girl. James Mason and Sue Lyon play those roles, respectively, and Peter Sellers all but steals the movie by playing a few others.

AUSTIN CITY LIMITS
PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
Making her third appearance on this fine concert series, Norah Jones returns to perform songs from Little Broken Hearts, her impressively eclectic album produced by Danger Mouse. Also on the bill tonight, making her first appearance: the similarly jazz-flavored, yet wide-ranging, Kat Edmonson. Check local listings.

RIPPER STREET
BBC America, 9:00 p.m. ET
SERIES PREMIERE: Given BBC America’s unprecedented success with Copper, the period detective series concocted by Tom Fontana, it’s no surprise the channel would present other shows in a similar vein – especially one originating from abroad, and written by someone other than an American. Ripper Street gets its name because of its setting: the rough East End neighborhood recently terrorized by Jack the Ripper. He’s nowhere to be found when this series begins, but his elusiveness, and the memory of his victims, haunts the crime-solving team in this series, set in 1889. Matthew Macfadyen stars as detective Edmund Reid, who, like the investigators in Copper, strives to bring new forensic and investigative techniques to their crime scenes. Adam Rothenberg co-stars as Homer Jackson, a Pinkerton agent from the U.S. who imports a lot of those new techniques, and Jerome Flynn plays Bennet Drake, the sergeant who prefers the old ways to the new. One bonus for hard-core film history fans: the pilot episode has a strong nod to motion-studies pioneer Eadweard Muybridge, who figures in all my Film History final exams.

AN IDIOT ABROAD 3
Science Channel, 9:00 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: Karl Pilkington, Ricky Gervais’ finest and most unassuming comic foil, is back for another season of this giddily entertaining travel series. This time Gervais sends the dour but occasionally incisive Pilkington to retrace the voyage of Marco Polo, with actor Warwick Davis along for the trip. It’s even funnier than it sounds. For a full review, see Bianculli’s Blog.

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
NBC, 11:29 p.m. ET
Jennifer Lawrence is the guest host of this new episode, hot on the heels of franchise hits in both the X-Men and Hunger Games franchises – and more. Also on tonight’s show is another hot sensation, the night’s musical guests: The Lumineers.

http://www.tvworthwatching.com/

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Critic's Notes
Like 'Copper'? Try BBC America's New Period Procedural, 'Ripper Street'
By Ed Bark, TVWorthWatching.com - Jan. 18, 2013

Absent cell phones, computers, incriminating security cameras, DNA evidence or even a decent donut, the cops of 1889 East London's H Division are a primitive species indeed.

Charged with keeping a modicum of order in the murky Whitechapel area, they collar wrongdoers in elemental fashion. By-the-book niceties — which hadn't been invented yet anyway — are not suitable in the immediate aftermath of Jack the Ripper's reign of terror. Or is it in fact really over?

BBC America's Ripper Street, with an eight-episode order for its first season, begins throwing its weight around Saturday night at 9 p.m. ET. And the specter of J the R is immediately raised anew when a young woman is found with her throat slashed in addition to various other cuts and bruises.

In a recently posted review of Fox's The Following, I sermonized on prime-time TV's almost epidemic use of young woman as corpses and/or terrified kidnap or assault victims. Thankfully, Ripper Street won't be making a habit of this, judging from the descriptions of upcoming episodes. They include a cholera outbreak, child gangs, a string of "brilliantly masterminded" robberies and a dock strike.

The premiere hour raises the specter of the prostitute-carving Ripper in order to steel Division H boss Edmund Reid's (Matthew Macfayden, top center) determination to find the real killer and move on.

But a muckraking newspaperman would much rather stir this pot. And previous chief inspector Frederick Abberline (Clive Russell) still feels diminished by his failure to collar the Ripper. He'd like another crack, and is disposed to treat the initially available evidence as proof that England's Most Wanted is still on the prowl.

Inspector Reid, a lead detective on the Ripper case, comes equipped with a tortured, mysterious past (a police show constant then and now). He's still in love with wife Emily (Amanda Hale), although the pilot light lately is on flicker after a shared tragedy befell them.

Reid's muscle is Sergeant Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn, top left), who moonlights as a dominant bare-knuckled boxer when not beating the stuffing out of uncooperative suspects or information-holders.

Their third wheel is former American Pinkerton detective Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenberg, top right), who knows his way around a bare bones autopsy slab and is on the run from an undisclosed "incident." Jackson and Long Susan Hart (MyAnna Buring) made their escape from the States together. She now runs a top shelf brothel, and doesn't get along too famously with Homer anymore.

BBC America, being advertiser-supported, no doubt will have to snip most of the recurring nudity from the original BBC telecast. Without giving away too much, let's just say that the key to the real murderer involves a very early vestige of the porn film industry.

Reid brooks no nonsense in his relentless investigations. And it's fun to hear him rage, "Do you think me some boneheaded flatfoot?" Or a bit later on: "If I see this in print, I'll be back here for some ripping of my own."

Ripper Street is pretty ripping good for the most part. Its oft-grimy 1899 setting is effectively re-created and as such is a nice companion piece to BBC America's Copper, which is set in 1860s New York City and will have a second season.

Both series practice their own trial-by-error forms of forensics in order to hasten the speed of the crime-solving. Some of this can be a stretch, but it's often ingenious as well. And when all else fails, a little fist therapy can really move things along.

GRADE: B

http://www.tvworthwatching.com/BlogPostDetails.aspx?postId=4108

Obituary
The Wire’s Robert Chew, a.k.a. Prop Joe, Dead at 52
By Matt Zoller Seitz, Vulture.com (New York Magazine) - Jan. 19, 2013

Rest in peace, Prop Joe.

Robert F. Chew, the actor and teacher best known as rueful gangster Proposition Joe on HBO’s The Wire, died in his sleep yesterday in his Northwest Baltimore home at the age of 52. He was a great character actor who portrayed one of TV drama’s most reliably memorable supporting characters — one modeled, however loosely, on reality. “Like Bubbles, Joe is based on an actual person of the same name, and the real Proposition Joe's preference for negotiation over violence could not keep him from getting gunned down in a Baltimore nightclub in 1984,” wrote critic Andrew Johnston in a 2006 article about the character’s “Br'er Rabbit tactics” and “belief in crime as an honorable profession.”

Prop Joe was one of the few characters to appear regularly in all five seasons of David Simon’s urban drama. Chew was a mountain of a man with a world-class deadpan, always underselling the character’s juiciest lines. “Gotta say I’m proud of y’all for putting aside petty grievances and putting this thing together,” Joe intones during a meeting of the New Day Co-op, a democratic association of drug dealers whose meetings are run via Robert’s Rules of Order. “For a cold-assed crew of gangsters, y’all carried it like Republicans and ****.” If that scene and others like it were your only exposure to Chew’s screen presence, you’d think he was born to play the wary, imposing Joe and nobody else; but he was a skilled and versatile actor — a fact that comes through in this scene of Joe convincingly imitating three people during a phone call that was shot in a single take with no cuts.

Chew also appeared in the Baltimore-based Homicide (as violence-averse drug kingpin Wilkie Collins), The Corner (as a shoe salesman), and in the HBO movie Something the Lord Made. Born and raised in Charm City, he gave back to his community by mentoring grown-up and child performers. He worked extensively with local childrens' theater companies, including Playworks USA, the youth theater division of The Arena Players, the nation’s oldest continuously operating African-American theater company. And Simon put him in charge of training the young actors at the center of season four, which was built around the failures of America’s public education system. Chew’s tutelage produced a number of raw yet affecting performances, many given by actors with little or no professional experience. The graduates of Robert F. Chew’s one-man academy of dramatic arts include Felicia Pearson (Snoop), Tristan Paul Mack Wilds (Michael), Julito McCullum (Namond), Maestro Harrell (Randy), and Jermaine Crawford (Dukie).

"Robert was not only an exceptional actor, he was an essential part of the film and theater community in Baltimore,” Simon told Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik. “He could have gone to New York or Los Angeles and commanded a lot more work, but he loved the city as his home and chose to remain here working. He understood so much about his craft that it was no surprise at all that we would go to him to coach our young actors in season four. He was the conduit through which they internalized their remarkable performances."

http://www.vulture.com/2013/01/seitz-on-the-wires-robert-chew-aka-prop-joe-rip.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thr%2Fvulture+%28The+Hollywood+Reporter+-+Vulture+Inbound%29

Legal/Business Notes
CBS and 'NCIS' Creator Settle Lawsuit Over 'NCIS: L.A.'
By Tim Kenneally, TheWrap.com - Jan. 18, 2013

CBS Television Studios and "NCIS" and "JAG" creator Don Bellisario have settled a lawsuit over the "NCIS" offshoot "NCIS: Los Angeles," the network and Bellisario said Friday.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, though Bellisario said in a statement that the suit had been resolved "amicably." CBS Television Studios president David Stapf praised Bellisario in a statement announcing the settlement.

While admitting a difference of opinion between the two parties, CBS Television Studios president David Stapf praised Bellisario as "one of the best creative talents of his time and a valued member of the CBS family.”

Bellisario sued CBS Television Studios in April 2011, claiming that he had been fired in 2007, but was given first opportunity rights to "participate creatively and economically in the development" of any shows spawned from those he created. Bellisario contended that those series would include "NCIS: Los Angeles," which was launched in 2009.

" scrupulously replicates that which has made NCIS so popular and it does so with near clone-like fidelity to Bellisario's recipe, thereby capturing the distinctive 'look and feel' of 'NCIS,'" Bellisario's complaint read.

CBS disagreed.

"Don Bellisario has no rights to what he is claiming in this suit," CBS told TheWrap after the suit was filed. "The contract is clear, the facts are undeniable and the courts won't need Naval intelligence to conclude that the case has no merit. We continue to honor all of our obligations to Mr. Bellisario under the actual agreement."

This week, "NCIS" and "NCIS: Los Angeles" hit season highs in viewership, amassing 20.9 million and 17.8 million total viewers, respectively.

http://www.thewrap.com/tv/article/cbs-and-ncis-creator-settle-lawsuit-over-ncis-la-73656

TV Notes
Two Injured On The Set Of ABC’s ‘Castle’, Stuntman Hospitalized In Serious Condition
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - Jan. 18, 2013

I’ve learned that there was an accident on the set of ABC‘s crime dramedy Castle last night. It happened during the filming of the show on the Paramount lot. A male crew member and a guest actress were injured and taken to the hospital. The woman has since been released, but sources say the stuntman, who fell out of a car, suffered a head injury and is still in the hospital. There is conflicting information on his condition. We will update with more information as we get it.

UPDATE: I’ve learned more details about the accident on the set of Castle last night. According to talent manager William Blaylock, the actress injured in the accident is his client Karen David. “Karen was the actress in the scene with the stuntman,” he said. “They fell from a moving van when a door would not shut. Karen was in the emergency room for hours being treated. She has been released but is in serious pain and has to wear a neck brace.” The stuntman, who sustained a head injury, is still hospitalized in serious condition.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/01/castle-stuntman-in-hospital-after-on-set-accident/

Nielsen Notes (Cable)
'Anger Management' ratings fall; 'Archer' returns to series high
By James Hibberd, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - Jan. 18, 2013

Maybe there is some order in the comedy universe?

FX’s cult favorite animated series Archer returned Thursday night to its biggest adult demo rating ever. The spy comedy’s 10 p.m. season four premiere was seen by 1.6 million viewers (its second most-watched telecast of all time) and 1.3 million adults 18-49 (a series high) at 10 p.m. Nice to see this consistently clever show actually gain momentum four years into its run.

Meanwhile, the return of Charlie Sheen’s Anger Management dropped sharply compared to last year’s series debut. The 9 p.m. telecast delivered 1.8 million viewers (903,000 adults 18-49) and the 9:30 p.m. airing had 1.7 million (994,000 in the demo). The premiere was down 67 percent from last summer, which was FX’s biggest series debut ever. Anger Management was definitely expected to come back lower given all the hype surrounding Sheen’s move to cable last year. Plus, the series faced steeper competition last night than it had during the summer. This is still a semi-decent number for an FX comedy. The premiere begins the network’s whopping 90-episode commitment to the show.

Also, the 10:30 p.m. series premiere of FX’s new comedy Legit delivered only 650,000 viewers, shedding the bulk of its Archer lead-in.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/01/18/anger-management-ratings-2/

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Nielsen Notes (Cable)
Lance Armstrong delivers 4.3 million viewers for Oprah

Oprah Winfrey’s exclusive interview with Lance Armstrong delivered extremely strong ratings for her cable network OWN, but they weren’t quite high enough to set a new single telecast viewership record.

The Oprah’s Next Chapter special “Oprah and Lance Armstrong: The Worldwide Exclusive Part 1″ delivered 3.2 million viewers for its 9 p.m. premiere last night. A repeat of the episode at 10:30 p.m. scored an additional 1.1 million viewers. All told, 4.3 million watched the fallen champion’s doping confession. The interview was also streamed live on Oprah.com.

By comparison, Winfrey’s interview with Whitney Houston’s surviving family members last March delivered 3.5 million for its Sunday night premiere telecast (compared to 3.2 for Armstrong).

OWN had high hopes that the scoop would help the network break through to a new level. Still, the numbers are strong enough to give OWN its highest-rated weekday telecast in the network’s history across key demos. Part 2 of the interview airs tonight on OWN.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/01/18/lance-armstrong-oprah-ratings/

Nielsen Notes (Cable)
A Boost for 'Suits,' 'Nerds' Opens on TBS
By Michael O'Connell, The Hollywood Reporter's 'Live Feed' Blog - Jan. 18, 2013

Lance Armstrong wasn't the only big doings on cable Thursday night. Primetime saw the return of Suits, Anger Management and Archer, TBS' launch of geek competition King of the Nerds and another episode of MTV's remarkably consistent Buckwild.

Suits bested its summer opener, rising just 3 percent in total viewers for 3.6 million -- a best for all of cable. In adults 18-49, the series was up 11 percent to a 1.7 rating. In adults 18-34, the USA drama surged 34 percent.

TBS debuted the Ben Silverman-produced King of the Nerds. The reality competition, the first of several unscripted efforts coming to the network this year, brought in 2 million total viewers and a 1.0 rating among adults 18-49 following the network's popularly syndicated Big Bang Theory.

Buckwild continued its steady streak for MTV. The backwoods reality show averaged 2.5 million viewers and a 1.3 rating with adults 18-49. That's just a shade lower than its Jan. 3 premiere -- and a tenth of a point stronger than Oprah Winfrey's Armstrong interview in the demo.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/cable-ratings-a-boost-suits-413683

TV Notes
TV trims its coverage of second Obama inauguration
By Martha T. Moore, USA Today - Jan. 18, 2013

CBS newsman Bob Schieffer compares a second presidential swearing-in to a second trip down the aisle: The veil has been lifted.

"The first wedding is always the fairy tale setting – there's high hopes and expectations, and the bride's dad spends a lot of money. The second time around, reality kind of sets in,'' he says. "Everybody realizes it's kind of harder than we thought it was.''

FULL COVERAGE: The upcoming presidential inauguration

Schieffer knows, not because he's had more than one marriage (he hasn't), but because Obama's second inauguration Monday will make an even dozen he has covered. (At President Richard Nixon's ceremony in 1969, he covered the Yippies' "counter-inauguration" of a pig. It escaped.)

Television coverage similarly will be less of an all-out event than the historic inauguration four years ago of the nation's first African-American president. Then, even broadcast networks, which for many news events cede wall-to-wall coverage to cable networks, stayed on the air for most of Inauguration Day and aired evening specials.

There will still be a flock of TV reporters on the ground. Beginning Saturday, networks will air shows from locations in Washington including the National Mall, Lafayette Park and in the case of MSNBC's Morning Joe, the Dubliner pub a few blocks from the Capitol. CNN will deploy 44 correspondents and commentators to report and discuss the inaugural events from Saturday through Monday evening, and ABC will have 35 on-air personnel and a broadcast booth in the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue.

However, there will be fewer hours of coverage. In 2009, the three broadcast networks devoted prime-time hours on Inauguration Day to coverage of Inaugural Balls, special programs on Obama's rise to the presidency, and the president and Michelle Obama's first dance. This year, ABC will air live from the event all day starting at 7 a.m. but will limit evening coverage to its regular news program and Nightline, which airs at 12:35 p.m. ET. CBS has trimmed its Inauguration Day coverage by an hour, ending at 4 p.m. instead of 5 p.m. NBC will halt its day of coverage at 4 p.m. but expand its nightly newscast to one hour to cover the day's events.

On cable, Fox News Channel plans coverage from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday and again for an hour in the evening, according to the online news site TV By the Numbers. MSNBC will return to regular programming at 4 p.m. CNN will be devoted to the inauguration for all of Sunday, when the president will be sworn in at a private ceremony, and Monday through the Inaugural Balls in the evening.

Four years ago, TV networks were rewarded for their efforts with high viewership: Obama's inauguration in 2009 drew more than 37.8 million viewers, the most since 1981, when President Reagan's swearing-in was viewed by 41.8 million people, according to Nielsen ratings figures. If Obama's second inauguration is like previous second swearings-in, viewership will drop: 29 million people watched President George W. Bush take the oath in 2001; four years later, 15.5 million watched his second inauguration.

At least for those in Washington, brutal months of fiscal cliff wrangling, Superstorm Sandy, the Newtown, Conn., school shootings and the prospect of more arguing over the debt ceiling have dampened the traditional high spirits that come with the pomp of a presidential inauguration, Schieffer says.

"I sense less enthusiasm for this inauguration than any one that I can remember,'' he says. "Still, it will be exciting. The ceremony and all of that, in my view, is more important than the players themselves. It's just an affirmation of who we are and what we stand for.''

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/01/18/obama-inauguration-media-coverage/1842069/

TV Sports
Media buyers’ primer to the NHL season
The strike is over, but will the fans come back?
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Jan. 18, 2013

After a nearly four-month lockout, the National Hockey League returns on Saturday.

The big question, and the one that matters most to media buyers, is whether the fans will be back as well.

It took years following the previous NHL lockout, which knocked out the entire 2004-’05 season, for the league to fully regain its following.

TV ratings bottomed out and the league couldn’t even secure a paid broadcast rights deal until two years ago.

This recent lockout ended quickly enough to save the season and, perhaps, save face with fans.

As the recent NFL and NBA lockouts have show, fans are usually willing to forgive a labor dispute as long as some sort of season is played, even if it’s delayed or shortened.

The NFL returned to record ratings last year after a brief lockout that didn’t cancel any games, while the NBA returned with a shortened season but very strong ratings and attendance.

On the eve of the NHL’s season opener, here’s a media buyers and planners primer on the new season.

The new collective bargaining agreement reached earlier this month is for 10 years, with an opt-out clause at eight years. Owners won a greater share of revenue from players.

The season will be truncated to 99 days. Each team will play 48 games, 34 fewer than usual.

The league was so eager to get the season started that there were no training camps, just a few days of skating. That has some worried that there will be a higher incidence of injuries this season.

In addition to the lost games, the lockout cost the league two of its best platforms for promotion, the Winter Classic, an outdoor game that airs to much hype in January, and the NHL All-Star Game.

The season will be televised by two cable networks and one broadcaster.

Like MLB, NBA and NFL, the NHL has its own branded network, NHL Network-U.S., which will air 78 games this season, largely on Thursday, Friday or Saturday. It opens with coverage of the New York Rangers at the Boston Bruins Saturday at 7 p.m.

NBC Sports Network, entering its eighth year of carrying the NHL, and parent company NBC will combine to televise 70 regular-season games this year, including 14 on the broadcaster.

Since the start of last season, NBCSN has added 5 million homes to its distribution and is now available in almost 80 million households.

TV ratings were mixed for the league last year. The postseason averaged 1.0 million total viewers across regional networks, NBC and NBCSN, according to Nielsen, the best total since the league aired on ESPN in 2002.

But the Stanley Cup finals fell to their least-watched series since 2007, averaging 3 million in six telecasts.

The 2010 series was the most watched since the NHL lockout, averaging 5.1 million viewers.

With the lockout, NBCSN has seen ratings fall this winter, airing lots of filler in the place of its usual hockey games. December primetime viewership plummeted by 63 percent, to an average 74,000.

The NHL signed a new 10-deal with NBC in 2010 worth $2 billion. It increased the number of nationally televised games from 100 to 77, though obviously the lockout reduced that number this year, and added a Friday after Thanksgiving game to NBC’s lineup.

At the time, the league said hockey ratings had shot up by 84 percent over the previous four seasons.

This year the regular season will end April 27, three weeks later than usual. The Stanley Cup playoffs could last until June 28, if the finals go to seven games.

And the NHL draft will take place two days later, on June 30.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/media-buyers-primer-to-the-nhl-season/

Four years ago it seemed like every TV and Radio Station was carrying the Inauguration, but I found an "Escape" (No, Not my DVDs and CDs). I had a pass to 'The Mouse House" so I used it to spend a day at EPCOT. The Park was PACKED! I was not the only one who thought "Nuts to the Politics, I'm going to a Theme Park! I later read that Disney stated all four of their parks had the greatest attendance ever for a work and school day.

I used to go to Disney all the time but now the mouse is so expensive I refuse to give him any more money. I can pay my cable bill for half the year for what he wants for a day of fun.

Well yeah but what else were they going to show? There's no live racing during the week (usually) and they weren't going to get much of an audience for anything beyond stuff like Pinks, car auctions, and NASCAR shows anyway. They did a good job with F1, MotoGP, AMA Pro and secondary NASCAR event coverage for many years (and even covered a lot of lower tier stuff like K&N Pro, sports cars etc.). Nobody else bothered with this stuff.

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

Nielsen Overnights
'Fringe' Gets a Steady Sendoff, 'Undercover Boss' Tops Friday
By Michael O'Connell, The Hollywood Reporter's 'Live Feed' Blog - Jan. 19, 2013

CBS took Friday in adults 18-49 (1.7 rating) and total viewers (10.5 million), starting with a small boost for the night's top performer across the broadcast nets: Undercover Boss. The series was up a tenth of a point to a 1.9 rating in the demo, matching its season high. CSI: NY (1.6 adults) was even with last week, and Blue Bloods (1.5 adults) was off by a tenth of a point.

Comedies Last Man Standing (1.3 adults) and Malibu Country (1.1 adults) both slipped on ABC, losing a respective two and three tenths of a point from last week. Shark Tank (1.5 adults) gave a solid encore before 20/20 (1.2 adults) fell three tenths from last Friday. The network averaged a 1.3 rating in the key demo and 5.4 million viewers.

An encore of Betty White's Off Their Rockers led into a two-hour Dateline (1.2 adults) on NBC. The news magazine was down two tenths from last week, giving the network a 1.1 rating in the demo and 4.6 million viewers.

Fox said goodbye to Fringe with a two-hour sendoff. Pulling a 1.0 rating among adults 18-49, the drama was even with its season four ender -- and with 3.2 million viewers, it gave its largest audience in a year.

Nikita returned to The CW even with its last showing of a 0.4 adults rating. The network averaged a 0.4 in the demo with 1.1 million viewers.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-fringe-gets-a-413925

TV Sports
Dodgers leaning toward TV deal with Time Warner Cable
By Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times - Jan. 18, 2013

The Dodgers are leaning toward moving their television broadcasts from Fox Sports to Time Warner Cable starting in 2014, according to people familiar with the matter but not authorized to discuss it.

The Dodgers have not made a final decision, the people said.

The Dodgers also have yet to reach agreement with Major League Baseball on how the structure of a deal would affect the team’s contribution to the MLB revenue-sharing system, according to a person familiar with the discussions but not authorized to comment on them.

With the Dodgers expected to sign the most lucrative local television contract in baseball history – perhaps worth close to $7 billion – the sides are analyzing whether the team’s revenue-sharing bill should be closer to $1 billion or $2 billion.

Mark Walter, the Dodgers’ controlling owner, and MLB Executive Vice President Rob Manfred discussed the issue at the owners’ meetings in Arizona last week. Walter did not respond to several messages; Manfred declined to comment.

The Dodgers would prefer to resolve the matter with MLB rather than refer it to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, which is empowered to settle any disputes as part of the settlement between the league and former owner Frank McCourt.

The Dodgers’ current contract with Fox expires after the 2013 season. The team had discussed a new deal with Fox last fall, worth at least $6 billion over 25 years. However, as MLB and the Dodgers discussed their differences over the revenue-sharing issue, the Fox exclusive negotiating window expired, enabling Time Warner to initiate negotiations with the team.

Fox Sports launched a second local cable channel – now called Prime Ticket – to carry the Dodgers in 1997. Fox Sports previously lost the Lakers to Time Warner Cable, and the departure of the Dodgers would leave Fox with the Angels, Clippers, Ducks and Kings as the anchor teams for two channels.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgersnow/la-sp-dn-dodgers-time-warner-fox-tv-20130118,0,2289117.story

Technology Notes
How long will Flash survive?
By Rob Perogaro, USA Today

Question: How long it will take for Flash to finally go away? This seems to be something that will take a long time.

Answer. The prediction a reader left in a comment on an earlier column sounds about right. The Web multimedia system that helped usher a herd of earlier online audio and video formats into irrelevancy is dead on mobile devices, but it's far from being dumped from the desktop.

That's not quite what I forecast after Adobe gave up on making Flash work on mobile devices in late 2011. The Web developers who can no longer expect phone and tablet users to play Flash animations, sound clips or videos haven't all moved to open-standard formats at the speed I guessed.

In some cases, they seem to have decided that a combination of mobile apps for Android and iOS plus an unchanged desktop site works just fine.

One key reason: On the desktop itself, there's still no universal alternative to Flash video. When people talk about "HTML5 video" as the next step, they overlook how that term for next-generation, Web-standard media covers two non-Flash formats.

And this dissension is baked into our browsers. Apple's Safari and Microsoft's Internet Explorer play only the more popular sort of HTML5 video, a format called h.264; Google's Chrome plays h.264 and an open-source, no-cost option called WebM; Mozilla Firefox only supports WebM unless you add plug-ins (except, to confuse things just a little more, in some of its mobile versions).

Meanwhile, the desktop Flash plug-in doesn't seem to have lost many users. Adobe cites stats showing this software on 99 percent of "Internet-enabled PCs" in 2011, and most computer vendors and browser developers still ship Flash.

Apple, no fan of Flash, stopped bundling Adobe's software on MacBook Air laptops in late 2010. But one install of Google's Chrome restores that playback option, thanks to Google embedding Flash in its browser.

Considering all that, if somebody hires you to put up a desktop site with video, the smoothest, easiest-to-explain-to-the-boss option is to stick with Flash.

The persistence of Flash wasn't so obvious to me until I held off from installing Flash on the MacBook Air I bought last summer. It's rare for me to get through a day without having to flip over to Chrome to view one or two Flash items. Even some older clips at Google's HTML5-friendly YouTube remain Flash-only.

I still hope that Web designers will stop leaning on Flash for simple animations, slide shows and other low-stress tasks that standard HTML code handles fine except on grotesquely antique browsers. But firing that format for video feels farther off than it did two years ago.

Apple's Safari browser has settled down a bit from the bouts of instability I saw last summer, but a serious case of page indigestion can persist even after a reboot when Safari attempts to reload all the pages you last had open. To stop this browser from returning to the troublesome site, hold down the Shift key before you open Safari.

(This is not an intuitive solution, but longtime Mac users may remember that rebooting with the Shift key held down would prevent the "Classic" Mac operating system from loading possibly unstable system extensions. That same startup command lives on in OS X as a "Safe Mode" boot option.)

Mozilla Firefox will also attempt to reopen whatever pages you had open before a crash. But if it wipes out a second time, it will instead present a dialog — humbly titled "Well, this is embarrassing" — in which you can choose which pages to restore.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Google's Chrome avoid this problem by opening each open page in a separate software "process;" if one crashes, the rest of the browser continues unaffected.

If you run your browser with unusual or unproven plug-ins or extensions, troubleshooting options in Firefox and pre-Windows 8 Internet Explorer can start each browser without that extra software active. To run Firefox in its "Safe Mode," hold down the Shift key (in Windows) or the Option key (on a Mac) as you launch the browser. In IE, type "No add-ons" in the Start menu's search box or look in the System Tools folder. Windows 8's version lacks that option, but it's also far more closed to add-ons.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2013/01/11/rob-pegoraro-flash-player/1815553/

TV/Business Notes
New Tribune Chief Signals Greater Television Focus
By Brian Stelter, The New York Times- Jan. 18, 2013

Two-thirds of the Tribune Company’s revenues currently come from the newspapers it owns. But that most likely won’t be true a year from now.

Peter Liguori, who was named the new chief executive of the company this week, said Friday that he was open both to selling some of the newspapers and buying more television stations. While he made no definitive statements on the matter, his sentiments lined up with investors’ expectations that Tribune will focus more on television and the Internet in the future.

Tribune emerged from bankruptcy at the end of December. It is now controlled by a number of private equity firms and banks. The company’s new board elected Mr. Liguori, a longtime television executive, to be chief executive on Thursday.

“I do think you’re going to see more television focus,” he said in a telephone interview on Friday, calling TV a “great opportunity” for the company. Tribune owns stations in big cities across the country, and operates a cable channel called WGN America that reaches about 75 million homes.

Mr. Liguori said he wanted to introduce more original programming on WGN America, including in prime time, and on the local stations. The stations, he said, “are a platform to introduce fresh, original content. If we own or co-own the content, that provides new revenue streams for us. We’ve yet to begin that fight, really.”

Then he brought up the statistic about two-thirds of the company’s revenue emanating from newspapers. Tribune owns The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun and an assortment of other smaller papers. Newspapers are the tradition of Tribune, going back to its founding more than 150 years ago, he said, “and on a daily basis we’re going to have to focus on furthering that.”

Mr. Liguori spoke of being more “digitally focused” with a “deadline every minute mentality.” He described the company’s reporter bylines as brands. But he didn’t back away from the possibility that Tribune may sell off some of the newspapers in the months to come.

“People have called about the newspapers,” he said. “There are suitors. As the chief executive I have a fiduciary responsibility to hear these suitors out — to kind of weed out the contenders from the pretenders. And to see if in fact these suitors are willing to recognize the true value of these newspapers.

“With all that being said, I still think job one is managing the newspapers well; creating the best possible journalism; being as efficient as possible; creating programs for advertisers. And by concentrating on running the newspapers on a daily basis, we’re going to create the greatest value for the company.”

Separately, Mr. Liguori said Tribune is “certainly open” to acquiring more television stations.

“There are opportunities for us to look into duopolies and there are opportunities for us to horse-trade stations with other groups,” he said.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/18/new-tribune-chief-signals-greater-television-focus/?ref=media

TV Review
'Prosecuting Casey Anthony' on Lifetime doesn't convict either
Rob Lowe stars as prosecutor Jeff Ashton in Lifetime's 'Prosecuting Casey Anthony,' which offers no compelling evidence of character study or story.
By Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times - Jan. 19, 2013

If you have been yearning to return to the days of the Caylee Anthony case and the waves of tabloid hoo-ha that erupted around it, or simply don't get enough of Rob Lowe on "Parks & Recreation," Elizabeth Mitchell on "Revolution" or Oscar Nuñez on "The Office" — it's like a delegation from NBC — Lifetime has a TV movie for you.

"Prosecuting Casey Anthony," which premieres Saturday, is based on a book called "Imperfect Justice: Prosecuting Casey Anthony," by Jeff Ashton (played by Lowe), who prosecuted Casey Anthony, imperfectly, on a murder charge in the death of her 2-year-old daughter. Ashton is therefore the person we care about and the only one we follow home, not that we learn much about him there, or anywhere.

It's no spoiler to point out, as history has recorded and the film points out right off the bat, that Anthony was found not guilty. The defendant, who didn't report her daughter missing for 31 days and was seen during that time after partying around town, was clearly peculiar/damaged/a piece of work; but all the evidence against her was circumstantial and the police and prosecution blundered. Nevertheless, the team — Mitchell and David Richmond-Peck play Ashton's co-counsels — stayed sanguine about a victory right up until the moment it proved to be defeat.

The movie tacks all the big facts into place, and if you knew nothing about the case beforehand you would know enough afterward. But it's curiously undramatic, even with frequent lashings of the professionally over-dramatic HLN hosts Nancy Grace, who dubbed Anthony "Tot Mom," a moniker the prosecution privately adopts, and Jane Velez-Mitchell, flown in via contemporary clips as a kind of Greek chorus.

The tale unrolls in office scenes, press conferences, courtroom scenes, Ashton's house and a variety of places where food is eaten (which includes the office and Ashton's house). The number of scenes staged in coffee shops and diners may have been to achieve visual variety on a low budget — the stars are the big expense in films like this — but having the characters eat is also a cheap way to make them look human as they reel off reams of expository dialogue, breaking every so often to say, "Could I get a coffee please" or "Jeff, you're such a slob."

We learn that this is a big last case for Ashton, who "got the first conviction in the entire world based on DNA evidence," whose boss "doesn't think I'm a team player" and who is "tired of not being able to throw my fast ball," and that he regards defense counsel Jose Baez (Nuñez) as "smarmy." Lowe signals Ashton's shifting mental states by varying the tension in his jaw and brow; clicking his ballpoint pen denotes anxiousness.

Only Kevin Dunn as Casey's father, George Anthony, who may have sexually abused Casey as a child — the defense claimed he did, and that it explained everything — gets much emotional material to play, and he is good. Casey (Virginia Welch) herself remains mostly offstage; there are no dramatic re-enactments of either side's version of events.

None of this ever threatens to break into an interesting character study or story or examination of ideas. Still, given that Anthony was acquitted — rightly or wrongly, but not arbitrarily and certainly legally — the fact the film does no better a job of convicting her than did the state of Florida, speaks to its integrity, in a way.

'PROSECUTING CASEY ANTHONY'
Where: Lifetime
When: 8 p.m. Saturday

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-prosecuting-casey-anthony-review-lifetime-20130119,0,4651938.story