Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 2833

TV Notes
When DVRing Tonight’s 30 Rock Finale, Add Extra Time to the End
By Jesse David Fox, Vulture.com (New York Magazine) - Jan. 31, 2013

Apparently tonight is the hour-long finale of 30 Rock. If you won't be home to watch, 30 Rock producer Jack Burditt tweeted this very important bit of information: "Those planning to DVR the 30 Rock finale tonight, allow extra time at the end. Stuff happens in the tag." Act accordingly.

Let's hope that "stuff" is Tina Fey saying, "Just kidding. See you again next week."

http://www.vulture.com/2013/01/dvring-30-rock-add-time-to-the-end.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thr%2Fvulture+%28The+Hollywood+Reporter+-+Vulture+Inbound%29

Technology Notes
Dish Network’s Hopper DVR Wins CES Award As Trade Group Looks For Partner To Replace CNET
Another Black Eye for CBS
By David Lieberman, Deadline.com - Jan. 31, 2013

Here’s yet more embarrassment for CBS from its heavy-handed decision to bar its tech site CNET from giving the Internatonal CES “Best of Show” award to Dish Network’s Hopper With Sling DVR. CBS said the news site’s editors — who designate the CES award winners — couldn’t recognize the Hopper because broadcasters are suing Dish, alleging that the Hopper’s ability to automatically zip past ads on recorded shows violates their copyrights. But today the trade show gave the award to the Hopper anyway, making it a co-winner with the Razer Edge gaming tablet. (CNET editors made that the winner after CBS forced them to take the Hopper off their list.) “The CNET editorial team identified the Hopper Sling as the most innovative product of the show, and we couldn’t agree more,” says Karen Chupka, who’s the Consumer Electronics Association’s SVP for events and conferences. What’s more, the group says it will look for a new partner to replace CNET in running the annual awards. CBS’ corporate policy could “have a negative impact on our brand,” Chupka says.

The trade group has filed an amicus brief supporting Dish in the court battle with broadcasters, “We are shocked that the ‘Tiffany’ network which is known for its high journalistic standards would bar all its reporters from favorably describing classes of technology the network does not like,” CEA chief Gary Shapiro says “The simple fact is making television easier to watch is not against the law. It is simply pro-innovation and pro-consumer.” CNET lost one of its top reporters as a result of CBS’ editorial interferrence. Dish has also used the controversy to promote the Hopper.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/01/cbs-cnet-dish-network-hopper-dvd-international-ces-award/

WEDNESDAY'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)
Fox cruises to another Wednesday win
Tops other three nets combined on night flush with reruns
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Jan. 31, 2013

With repeats dotting the usually solid lineups on ABC and CBS, Fox had a dominating victory last night.

“American Idol” held nearly all of last week’s rating, averaging a 5.4 adults 18-49 rating from 8 to 10 p.m., according to Nielsen, down very slightly from a 5.5 last week.

Compared to the same night last year, “Idol” was down 9 percent from a 5.9.

It was, of course, the night’s top-rated program, and “Idol”-fueled Fox also beat the combined average of ABC, CBS and ABC on the night.

Between them, ABC and CBS aired only three new programs last night.

ABC had new episodes of “The Neighbors” (1.6) and “Suburgatory” (1.8), which both dropped to series lows without original episodes of their stronger lead-ins (“The Middle” and “Modern Family”).

And CBS aired “Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials,” which averaged a 2.1, up 0.1 from last year and finished second to “Idol” at 8 p.m.

All of NBC’s shows were down from their most recent original outings three weeks ago, before “Idol” returned. But “Chicago Fire” continued to show promise at 10 p.m., averaging a 2.0, building by 18 percent on its “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” lead-in and bettering its season average by a tenth.

Fox led the night among 18-49s with a 5.4 average overnight rating and a 14 share. CBS was second at 1.8/5, NBC third at 1.6/4, ABC fourth at 1.5/4, Univision fifth at 1.4/4, CW sixth at 0.9/2 and Telemundo seventh at 0.4/1.

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-six percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

At 8 p.m. Fox was first with a 5.1 for “Idol,” followed by CBS with a 2.1 for “Commercials.” Univision was third with a 1.7 for “Por Ella Soy Eva,” ABC fourth with a 1.5 for a repeat of “Middle” (1.3) and a new “Neighbors” (1.6), NBC fifth with a 1.2 for “Whitney” (1.3) and “Guys with Kids” (1.1), CW sixth with a 0.9 for “Arrow” and Telemundo seventh with a 0.4 for “Pasion Prohibida.”

Fox was first again at 9 p.m. with a 5.7 for more “Idol,” while ABC moved to second with a 2.0 for a repeat of “Family” (2.1) and a new “Suburgatory” (1.8). NBC was third with a 1.7 for “SVU,” CBS fourth with a 1.6 for a “Criminal Minds” rerun, Univision fifth with a 1.5 for “Amores Verdaderos,” CW sixth with a 0.9 for “Supernatural” and Telemundo seventh with a 0.5 for “La Patrona.”

NBC took the lead at 10 p.m. with a 2.0 for “Fire,” with CBS second with a 1.6 for a repeat of “CSI.” Univision was third with a 1.1 for “Amor Bravio,” ABC fourth with a 0.9 for a repeat of “Nashville” and Telemundo fifth with a 0.4 for “El Rostro de la Venganza.”

Fox finished first for the night among households with a 9.1 average overnight rating and a 14 share. CBS was second at 5.2/8, NBC third at 3.8/6, ABC fourth at 3.0/5, Univision fifth at 1.9/3, CW sixth at 1.6/2, and Telemundo seventh at 0.6/1.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/fox-cruises-to-another-wednesday-win/

* * * *

TV Notes
’30 Rock,’ the unlikeliest survivor
NBC's sitcom became one of the most celebrated shows
By Louisa Ada Seltzer, Media Life Magazine - Jan. 31, 2013

Tonight at 8 p.m. one of the most storied programs in recent television history comes to an end as NBC’s “30 Rock” airs its one-hour series finale after seven seasons.

Frankly it’s a surprise the show ever made it beyond one.

When “Rock” debuted in 2006, it was but an afterthought on NBC’s schedule.

Two shows on the network that season dealt with the behind-the-scenes antics at a late-night sketch show. One was “Rock,” created, written by and starring former “Saturday Night Live” writer Tina Fey.

The other was Aaron Sorkin’s “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” the biggest-buzz drama to launch that year. It starred Matthew Perry, in his first big role since “Friends,” and it premiered behind “Heroes,” then NBC’s biggest hit.

Alas, “Studio” was a bust, yanked before it even finished its first season. But “Rock” was a huge critical hit, and though it drew very low ratings on Wednesday night, paired with the forgettable sitcom “Twenty Good Years,” NBC stuck with the show.

“Rock” moved to Thursdays, where it aired for another six years and helped revive the network’s reputation for offering smart comedies. It also racked up nearly 100 Emmy nominations as it explored the workplace dynamics between Fey’s hapless writer Liz Lemon and her confounding boss, Jack Donaghy (the impeccable Alec Baldwin).

“Rock” has never been a ratings hit, and in fact it’s averaging a series-low 1.3 adults 18-49 Nielsen rating this season, though it ads 0.7 in seven-day DVR playback.

Tonight’s finale probably won’t see a huge uptick in ratings, though it should set a season high. It is airing against “The Big Bang Theory” and “American Idol,” the two highest-rated entertainment programs on TV.

Still, the finale is an event because years from now what will be remembered about “Rock” isn’t its low ratings. It will be the superb acting, outrageous yet hilarious plots, and sharp writing that kept a show with low prospects running for seven seasons.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/30-rock-the-unlikeliest-survivor/

I'll bet a box of Donuts that CBS's cracked out lawyers are the ones behind CBS pulling C/Net off the award ,
hard to sue Dish about the Hopper when your own Company is handing out a award to the Hopper Yah Think ? ?

I haven't been to the movies since 2009. I only went once then. I would rather watch movies at home on my HT.

Critic's Notes
Netflix: Making Great TV - and TV History - with 'House of Cards'
By David Bianculli, TVWorthWatching.com - Jan. 31, 2013

Kevin Spacey sure calls his shots well when playing a recurring character on series TV. The last time was 25 years ago, when he burst onto the scene as Mel Profitt on CBS’s Wiseguy. And now he’s back, in a show that’s a game-changer…

The series is House of Cards – and though it’s an Americanized variation of a 1990 British miniseries (a great one, starring Ian Richardson), it’s also very new, very timely, and potentially very, very important.

That’s because it isn’t presented by a broadcast network, or basic cable, or even a premium cable network such as HBO or Showtime. Instead, it’s presented on Netflix, available as a streaming offering beginning Friday. And not just the pilot, either, but all 13 episodes of the first season.

Start watching as soon as Netflix makes them available, and you can see the entire Season 1 of House of Cards before the kickoff of Sunday’s Super Bowl.

I’ve seen only the first two episodes, but they’re excellent – so good that as soon as Netflix makes additional episodes available, I’m diving right in. (Meanwhile, the original BBC version, starring Richardson, is up there, and will remain so.)

In both the original British version and the set-in-D.C. remake, the central character is the majority whip, a career politician who has no problem dealing with, and manipulating, people in the highest positions of power. And in both versions, with equal effectiveness, that sly politico – played, in this new series, by Spacey, with Robin Wright as his equally scheming spouse – peers right into the camera from time to time, whispering his true motivations and withering observations. What a great touch. And in Spacey’s hands, what a great role.

And Spacey, in turn, is in great hands himself. David Fincher, who directed him in Se7en, directs the first episodes here, and the creator of this American version is Beau Willimon, a playwright whose most impressive credits to date are his political credentials. Over the years, he’s served on the staffs of Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean and others. His savvy shows in every scene – as does Spacey’s delight with once again having a TV role as meaty and challenging as Mel Profitt.

House of Cards really is something different, in more ways than one. Media Rights Capital financed the series, assembled the creative team, and once Netflix agreed to buy rights to distribute it in America and a few other countries, had all 13 episodes written before anything was shot.

That’s not the way most TV series are made, just as being able to see all of the first-season episodes in one binge viewing burst is not the way most TV series are shown. This isn’t the first series, even on Netflix, to be presented this way – but when a show is as good as House of Cards, which is the best TV show about American politics since The West Wing, it’s almost bound to catch on.

That’s bad news for the networks, but great news for viewers. I can’t wait to watch this season’s remaining episodes – and in about 30 minutes, when Netflix rolls out Season 1 on February 1, I won’t have to.

(For my Fresh Air with Terry Gross review of House of Cards on NPR, visit the Fresh Air website.)

http://www.tvworthwatching.com/BlogPostDetails.aspx?postId=4210

Nielsen Notes (Cable)
FX's 'The Americans' Debut Tops 'Sons of Anarchy,' 'American Horror Story' Premieres
By Tim Kenneally, TheWrap.com - Jan. 31, 2013

FX's spy drama "The Americans" got off to a strong start with its premiere Wednesday night, besting the premieres of the network's "Sons of Anarchy" and "American Horror" story, FX said Thursday.

The initial broadcast of the "Americans" premiere at 10 p.m. grabbed 3.22 million total viewers, 1.57 million of them in the advertiser-preferred 18-49 demographic. Those numbers narrowly edge out the series premiere of "Sons of Anarchy" in the key demo (the "Sons" premiere drew 1.55 million viewers 18-49) and the "American Horror Story" series premiere in total viewers ("AHS" drew 3.18 million total viewers with its maiden episode.)

Of course, time will tell if "The Americans" will grow to enjoy the popularity that those two shows currently enjoy. The most recent season premiere of "'Sons" drew 5.4 million total viewers, with 3.5 million of them in the key demo, while the premiere of "American Horror Story: Asylum," the second iteration of the series, took in 3.9 million total viewers with 2.8 million in the 18-49 demo.

With two re-airings factored in, "The Americans" -- which stars Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as a pair of Russian spies embedded in '80s America -- drew a total of 4.7 million total viewers, with 2.54 million of them in the 18-49 demo.

“We’re very happy with premiere ratings for The Americans and, just as importantly, we’re proud of the widespread critical acclaim the show has received,” FX president and general manager John Landgraf said of the performance.

The series is executive produced by Graham Yost (of FX's "Justified"), Joe Weisberg ("Falling Skies") and Joel Fields ("Rizzoli & Isles," "Ugly Betty").

http://www.thewrap.com/tv/column-post/ratings-fxs-americans-debut-tops-sons-anarchy-american-horror-story-premieres-75686

TV Notes
Lifetime’s ‘Witches Of East End’ Picked Up To Series
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - Jan. 31, 2013

The first new drama series from Lifetime‘s most recent batch of pilots has emerged. The cable network has given a series order to drama Witches Of East End, starring Julia Ormond, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Rachel Boston and Mädchen Amick. The 10-episode series, produced by Fox 21, will premiere later this year. The Witches Of East End was one of four hourlong pilots Lifetime ordered last summer. Of the other three, two have been completed, the Renee Zellweger-produced Cinnamon Girl, whose fate is still up in the air, and The Secret Lives Of Wives, which Lifetime passed on earlier this month. The fourth, HR, is still casting.

Based on Melissa de la Cruz’s best-selling novel, Witches Of East End centers on the adventures of Joanna Beauchamp (Ormond) and her two adult daughters Freya (Dewan-Tatum) and Ingrid (Boston) — both of whom unknowingly are their family’s next generation of witches. Amick stars as Joanna’s mischievous witch sister Wendy. “This is one of the most exciting ensemble casts we’ve seen and the whole show is fresh, original and just right for Lifetime,” Lifetime’s EVP Rob Sharenow said. Maggie Friedman (Eastwick) wrote the pilot, which was directed by Mark Waters (Mean Girls), and will executive produce Witches Of East End with Erwin Stoff (The Matrix) of 3 Arts Entertainment.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/01/lifetimes-witches-on-east-end-picked-up-to-series/

Critic's Notes
7 TV gripes you should quit complaining about
By James Hibberd, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - Jan. 31, 2013

The world is imperfect. Especially Hollywood. But there are seven online gripes about the television landscape that have worn out their welcome. These all-too-common complaints have peppered EW comment boards for years and must be put to rest. Feel free to disagree, or add your own, but we say it’s time to stop complaining about online spoilers, Firefly’s cancellation and these five other outdated grievances.

“There are TV spoilers online after a show airs!”

How many NFL fans watch a game the week after it airs? Uh, none. Because they know they cannot avoid hearing who won. Thanks to the growing pervasiveness of social media, it’s now the same for must-watch TV shows whether we like it or not. So if you’re really into programs like The Walking Dead, Survivor and Breaking Bad, and a spoiler would devastate your life, watch that season finale the night it airs, just like a sports fan who makes time for the big game. Don’t expect the rest of the Internet to wait for you to catch up (people in uniquely challenged situations — like viewers in Kyrgyzstan who must wait for U.S. shows — are exempt). Now as for those who post TV spoilers online before an episode airs, especially in headlines (like Salon did with last season’s Dexter finale) … yes, I agree, those people should be killed.

“TLC is supposed to be The Learning Channel!”

Whenever TLC presents a new trash-tastic reality offering to its dark, hungry underworld gods, some will complain how low “The Learning Channel” has sunk. Except the network hasn’t been branded The Learning Channel in about 10 years (the network began phasing out the name in 1998). Here’s the misunderstanding: The channel name wasn’t merely shortened, it was changed. It’s not like how NBC is still the National Broadcasting Company. Ask TLC and they’ll tell you the letters don’t stand for anything. The only exception is when the old name gets grandfathered into renewal contracts with affiliates, which sometimes results in The Learning Channel name popping up out there, adding to the confusion. Simply put: TLC officially stands as much for The Learning Channel today as it does for Toddlers Love Cash.

“Firefly was awesome and Fox cancelled it!”

Of all the axed shows in the history of TV, this decade-old title provokes the most outrage. Firefly was wonderful. And its cancellation was tragic because creatively it felt like the show was just getting started. But its ratings really were terrible, particularly for 2002. I did some digging and get this: During Firefly‘s season, The WB’s long-forgotten super-hero show Birds of Prey likewise only survived a few months before getting axed and its adult demo average was actually higher than Firefly’s (which averaged 4.4 million viewers and a 2.0 adults 18-49 rating). That would be like Fox launching a splashy new sci-fi show today that performs worse than The CW’s Ringer. I know, Fox should not have aired Firefly‘s second episode first, but it was hardly a killing move — you probably didn’t see the pilot first, either. As a pricy drama, Firefly would have a tough time surviving with these numbers even with today’s lower standards (which is really saying something in a year where Ben & Kate got a full season). If you still really want Firefly back, I’ll give you a first step toward making it happen: Convince everybody to stop watching Castle.

“I won’t pay HBO to watch Game of Thrones!”

Game of Thrones costs about $6 million per episode and HBO wants you to subscribe to their service to see it. What greed! What arrogance! Don’t they know that all content should be free in our 21st century utopia? … Okay, gripers have a point. Premium services like HBO, Showtime and Starz need to evolve their distribution and online access so fans can watch programs via different mediums right after their U.S. premieres. HBO, in particular, is a money truck and not eager to radically shake up their business model to make dragon lovers happy. But I’m referring to fans with attitudes like this: “HBO forces me to steal Game of Thrones via ********** because otherwise I have to pay to watch the whole channel.” Even in this shiny digital age, not all content is a la carte. If you subscribe to Spotify, there’s millions of songs that you’re not listening to. And if you want to watch the upcoming season of Arrested Development, you still have to subscribe to Netflix. So you’re never going to actually watch Couples Retreat; it doesn’t mean HBO is robbing you. By the way, you really should avoid Couples Retreat.

“MTV and VH1 don’t play music videos anymore!”

Aww, and Hüsker Dü broke up and your acid jeans no longer fit. Times change. Brands evolve. YouTube happens. Developing original series is where the money is at, and that’s been the main focus of MTV and VH1 for more than a decade. Bonus: This super-common message board gripe isn’t even true. There’s still music video programming every weekday morning on both channels! Bet you didn’t know that. I didn’t either. Because nobody watches music videos on TV anymore. Granted, MTV did keep “Music Television” in its logo way longer than it should have (it was officially dropped only two years ago).

“Syfy’s name is stupid! (And where are the space shows?)”

Syfy’s name IS stupid. And I want space shows too. But The Sci-Fi Channel becoming Syfy and expanding its brand beyond nerd-friendly space operas didn’t hurt the network. Syfy ratings haven’t much changed since the 2009 switch and, let’s face it, we’ve gotten used to “Syfy” and don’t spend our free time hating it now. Still, we’re not letting a network that went from Battlestar Galactica to Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen off the hook. Syfy zigged (hey guys, let’s “Imagine Greater” with female friendly shows like Haven, Lost Girl and a bunch of reality shows), while rivals zagged right onto their turf by making hard-edged genre dramas like The Walking Dead, American Horror Story, Falling Skies and Spartacus — all of which set ratings records for their respective networks. Syfy could have grown their ratings by embracing truly gritty sci-fi/fantasy/horror instead of running screaming from its old brand like it was too cool to hang with the Comic-Con geeks. So, yeah, Syfy arguably messed up, but not because of its name switch.

“This reality show means the apocalypse is upon us!”

Hasn’t surviving 2012 taught us anything? All the Kardashians and Honey Boo Boos and prophetic Mayans can’t bring about the end of the world. It’s just going to keep spinning no matter how many MREs and cases of bottled water we stockpile. Yet whenever a low-rent reality show is announced, there’s a round of oh-the-humanity hand-wringing. It’s like wealthy suburbanites in gated communities who diss their tacky new neighbors. Prime time has gone from a carefully manicured white-picket-fence cul-de-sac run by three white guys to a diverse metropolis with streets bursting with a variety of content. Some shows are amazing and plenty are dreadful, but since nobody can watch it all anyway there’s no point in being mad about shows you’ll never see. More than ever, TV reflects us. And looking in the mirror is always a little scary.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/02/01/tv-gripes/

TV/Business Notes
How Will We Know If Netflix’s House of Cards Was a Hit or a Failure?
By Josef Adalian, Vulture.com (New York Magazine) - Jan. 31, 2013

All thirteen episodes of House of Cards’ first season debut on Netflix Friday, but the folks who run the video service insist they don't give a damn if America rushes to watch the David Fincher–Kevin Spacey series this weekend. Or next weekend, or next month, for that matter. Executives have said they may never reveal any information about how many people watch the $3 million-plus-per-episode political thriller — or the number of viewings of any of the other four original series they'll be unveiling this year, including the highly anticipated return of Arrested Development. This has caused no small amount of head-scratching and even some ire in a TV industry where next-day ratings are a grand tradition: Numbers are how you declare yourself a success or reveal yourself a failure. FX chief John Landgraf earlier this month slammed the lack of transparency, telling a conference of TV reporters that Netflix suits "like the fact that they don't have to have a report card." What's more, Landgraf mused, if Netflix doesn't tell anyone who's watching its shows, "How will you determine if something's a hit?" Indeed, and with apologies to the late Whitney Houston, how will we know?

First, it's worth noting just how unusual Netflix's screw-the-numbers policy is in our society. We live in the age of Big Data, an era in which everything everybody does (and even thinks) is instantly measured, quantified, dissected, and analyzed. Obviously, we saw it in politics, where most of the narratives of the 2012 presidential election were born from polling data. And it is all over entertainment: The response to Taylor Swift’s latest single is tracked via constantly updated iTunes and Amazon sales charts; whereas only a handful of papers used to report box-office numbers, now weekend grosses are forecasted after Friday’s early screenings; and entire websites reduce TV shows to commodities, with each week's ratings treated like NASDAQ quotes, and a show's fate rises and falls based upon each Nielsen fluctuation. Numbers have always been a guidepost for our capitalist system: Casey Kasem made a career out of counting down the Billboard Top 40, and for decades the folks at McDonald's reminded consumers that they were among the "billions and billions served." The difference today is that numbers are released with unrelenting speed and each one is treated with equal significance.

But for now, at least, Netflix is refusing to play the all-American numbers game. In a letter to investors a few weeks ago, company CEO Reed Hastings dropped a pretty big hint about why, and it boils down to this: At least in the near-term, data on how many people stream House of Cards right after it goes up is meaningless. "Linear channels must aggregate a large audience at a given time of day and hope the show programmed will actually attract enough viewers despite this constraint," Hastings wrote. "With Netflix, members can enjoy a show anytime, and over time, we can effectively put the right show in front of members based on their viewing habits … For linear TV, the fixed number of prime-time slots mean that only shows that hit it big and fast survive ... In contrast, Internet TV is an environment where smaller or quirkier shows can prosper because they can find a big enough audience over time. In baseball terms, linear TV only scores with home runs. We score with home runs, too, but also with singles, doubles, and triples." It's not that Netflix doesn't care about how many people watch its original shows; it does, very much so. It just can happen over a much longer period of time. “If they like [a show] they watch more,” Netflix programming chief Ted Sarandos told the The Hollywood Reporter last year. “If they watch more, they will value the service more.” What separates Netflix from ABC or even AMC is that it truly doesn't care if that engagement takes place tomorrow night at ten or six months from now when you come down with a cold and decide to spend the day watching Kevin Spacey sneer at people.

Netflix's indifference to when you watch its programming is rooted in the fact that, unlike traditional TV networks, it's a subscription-based service. Ratings, and the ad revenue that results from increased ratings, aren't part of its equation for success. As long as a home viewer keeps paying his or her $8 per month, Reed Hastings is a happy man. Netfix's business model isn't unique in TV, of course: HBO has become a billion-dollar business by taking a similar watch-when-you-want approach to its content. It regularly brings back shows such as Treme, Enlightened, and, yes, even Girls, despite the fact that all three have failed to attract massive audiences the first time their episodes have aired on HBO. Ditto Showtime, where Californication pulls in barely 1 million viewers on Sunday nights — and was just renewed for a seventh season. What the HBO and Showtime series have in common is that they slowly add viewers weeks and months after they first air, as viewers catch multiple replays or watch via video On Demand. Even these cumulative ratings aren't the be-all at a premium network. The Wire never did well for HBO any way you sliced the ratings, but the network kept it on for five seasons anyway because it kept a certain segment of its subscriber base and contributed to building the network's "we're not TV" brand. When you don't have to worry about advertisers, and subscribers keep shelling out for your service, a show doesn't have to be declared a "hit" by the entertainment press to be considered a success. What matters for HBO, Showtime, and Netflix is that consumers like you think there's a reason to keep (or start) paying that monthly subscriber fee.

It would be easy to dismiss Netflix's no-data-for-you strategy as fear-based, that the company is worried a poor "rating" would prove embarrassing and perhaps even spook investors who've already survived those months in 2011 when Netflix lost nearly half its value in just a few months (remember Qwikster?). And who knows? Maybe that is part of the reason for the lack of hard data. But give the company credit: It agreed to fund 26 episodes (two seasons’ worth) of House of Cards for a widely reported price tag of $100 million, before seeing a single frame of footage, not to mention ratings. That in and of itself seems to show Hastings means it when he says that long-term viewing is what counts. By ordering two seasons at once, Netflix will have plenty of time to see how House plays with Netflix subscribers and how it impacts the company's subscriber base (now at around 30 million globally). While Hastings may say House of Cards’ value won’t be known for a long time, it would seem that May's launch of Arrested Development will be a more immediate test of the original-programming plan: It's a known brand that fans have been clamoring for more of for years, so if its return doesn't result in an instant surge of binge viewing (and an uptick in subscribers), then it's hard to imagine any original series moving the needle for Netflix.

So, back to Landgraf's question: How will we know if House of Cards is a hit? Well, it's possible Netflix will change its mind and release data after all. HBO never really made much of a fuss about its Nielsen numbers until The Sopranos became a huge hit. If House of Cards smashes a slew of previous Netflix benchmarks, the company's PR department could persuade Hastings to change his mind. Barring that, the best and only way to judge the success or failure of Netflix's original programming push is by waiting and watching to see what the company does next, not in the next few months but over the course of a couple of years. Does it keep Spacey's show going beyond the first two cycles, or does it issue a press release one day claiming that producer David Fincher has decided the story reached its “natural conclusion” after 26 episodes? Does it keep investing hundreds of millions of dollars each year in original programming, commissioning new series or resurrecting others that’s old episodes have been perennial favorites on Netflix? Or does it decide to shift more money into locking up exclusive deals with studios for their movie content (like its recent blockbuster agreement to become the exclusive pay TV home for Disney content beginning in 2015)? And, perhaps most important, does Netflix's subscriber count keep going up? Remember, with a subscription costing about $100 a year, adding 10 million subscribers over the next few years would bring in an addition $1 billion to Netflix's coffers. That would buy quite a few more episodes of Arrested Development. If Netflix is writing eight-figure checks for original content five years from now, it'll probably be safe to declare House of Cards a success.

http://www.vulture.com/2013/01/netflix-house-of-cards-was-it-a-hit.html

Critic's Notes
Bianculli's Best Bets
By David Bianculli, TVWorthWatching.com - Feb. 1, 2013

HOUSE OF CARDS
Netflix, Check local listings
SERIES PREMIERE: This new series, starring Kevin Spacey as a career politician with his own self-serving agenda, is available starting today, at any time, on Netflix – and not just the first episode, either, but all 13 hours in this drama series’ first season. It’s a bold way to present a new show that is this good, and I suspect it is, indeed, the wave of the future. And if you can’t find House of Cards on your opening screen when opening your Netflix streaming service, just type in the show’s entire name in the Search box. You’ll find it there – as well as the 1990 British miniseries on which it’s based. Let the binge viewing begin! Kate Mara (pictured with Spacey) and Robin Wright co-star.

MOYERS & COMPANY
Public Television, Check local listings
On some talk shows, guests argue endlessly and at high volume, or have a tendency to drone on. On Moyers & Company, host Bill Moyers always keeps the conversation fluid and cordial. And no one is allowed to drone on – even this weekend, when this new edition presents a discussion about the moral and legal obligations regarding the U.S. use of unmanned drones. Moyers & Company airs from Friday to Sunday on local public TV stations; to find it in your local area, click the BillMoyers.com website.

SHAKESPEARE UNCOVERED
PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET
The first two installments of this series were hosted by Ethan Hawke and Joely Richardson, and were okay. Tonight’s lead-off entry, though, takes things to a higher level: Its host, for an in-depth look at Richard II, is Derek Jacobi, who first played the role three decades ago. Also tonight, an hour later: Henry IV & Henry V with Jeremy Irons. Check local listings.

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER
HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET
Maher’s scheduled guests tonight include actress Eva Longoria and Newark, NJ mayor Cory Booker, both of whom have been on the show before, and are comfortably outspoken. Two of the other guests, though, are sure to tackle the third-rail issue of religion. Alex Gibney is the documentary filmmaker behind Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, which premieres next week on HBO. And Sam Harris is the neuroscientist and author whose best sellers include the provocative The End of Faith.

PORTLANDIA
IFC, 10:00 p.m. ET
Things keep getting strange, and mellowing to the point of rotting, in Portlandia, which presents another multi-plot episode this week. There’s a wedding, and a coffee shop manifesto – and at attempt by the interim mayor of Portland to make the job less temporary. Among the guest stars: Chloe Sevigny. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen star.

http://www.tvworthwatching.com/

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 (18-49)
‘Big Bang’ and ‘American Idol’ both fall
'Bang' is tops in 8 p.m. slot with a 5.3 in 18-49s
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Feb. 1, 2013

As it did at the end of last season, CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory” topped Fox’s “American Idol” in their first real square-off this year.

But “Idol” also appeared to take a bit of “Bang’s” audience, as both shows were down from their previous outings.

“Bang,” which hadn’t aired an original episode in three weeks, averaged a 5.3 adults 18-49 rating at 8 p.m., down 17 percent from a series-high 6.4 on Jan. 10.

“Idol” averaged a 4.1 in its first half-hour against “Bang” and a 4.5 for the full hour, airing opposite CBS’s “Two and a Half Men” in its second half.

“Idol” was off 12 percent from last week’s 5.4 rating.

Clearly the two shows made an impact on each other, but there was also an X factor in the timeslot.

The series finale of NBC’s “30 Rock” spiked to a season-high 1.9 in the hour, jumping 36 percent from last week’s 1.3.

It marked the show’s best rating since March of last year.

The news was not all good for NBC. The new drama “Do No Harm” did poorly at 10 p.m., drawing a 0.9 in its debut.

That was down slightly from what “Rock Center with Brian Williams” had been averaging in the timeslot and marked the network’s lowest in-season drama premiere ever.

Elsewhere on the night, Fox’s “Glee” tumbled 21 percent from last week at 9 p.m. with a 2.1.

And ABC’s “Scandal” continued to draw solid numbers at 10 p.m., averaging a 2.7 and winning the timeslot.

It had its best-ever retention out of “Grey’s Anatomy” (2.8, tying a series low), 96 percent.

It was a strong overall night for CBS, which won the opening Thursday of the February sweeps for the first time since 2006.

The network finished first for the night among 18-49s with a 3.4 average overnight rating and a 9 share. Fox was a close second at 3.3/9, with ABC third at 2.2/6, NBC and Univision tied for fourth at 1.6/4, CW sixth at 1.0/3 and Telemundo seventh at 0.5/1.

As a reminder, all ratings are based on live-plus-same-day DVR playback, which includes shows replayed before 3 a.m. the night before. Seven-day DVR data won’t be available for several weeks. Forty-six percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

At 8 p.m. CBS was first with a 4.6 for “Bang” (5.3) and “Men” (3.9), followed by Fox with a 4.5 for “Idol.” NBC was third with a 1.9 for “Rock,” Univision fourth with a 1.8 for “Por Ella Soy Eva,” CW fifth with a 1.3 for “The Vampire Diaries,” ABC sixth with a 1.1 for a repeat of “Shark Tank” and Telemundo seventh with a 0.5 for “Pasion Prohibida.”

CBS was first again at 9 p.m. with a 3.2 for “Person of Interest,” while ABC moved to second with a 2.8 for “Grey’s.” Fox was third with a 2.1 for “Glee,” NBC fourth with a 2.0 for “The Office,” Univision fifth with a 1.8 for “Amores Verdaderos,” CW sixth with a 0.7 for “Beauty and the Beast” and Telemundo seventh with a 0.6 for “La Patrona.”

ABC took the lead at 10 p.m. with a 2.7 for “Scandal,” while CBS slipped to second with a 2.2 for “Elementary.” Univision was third with a 1.4 for “Amor Bravio,” NBC fourth with a 0.9 for “Harm” and Telemundo fifth with a 0.4 for “El Rostro de la Venganza.”

CBS also led the night among households with an 8.7 average overnight rating and a 14 share. Fox was second at 5.7/9, ABC third at 4.9/8, NBC fourth at 2.6/4, Univision fifth at 1.6/4, CW sixth at 1.3/2 and Telemundo seventh at 0.7/1.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/big-bang-and-american-idol-both-fall/

* * * *

TV Notes
Rundown on Super Bowl programming
What to watch and where to watch it this weekend

These days the Super Bowl isn’t just a four-hour, one-network event.

Starting Friday there will be game-focused programming across more than a dozen networks running all the way up to the 6:25 p.m. kickoff Sunday on CBS.

That reflects in part the large media empires that the broadcast networks belong to.

The CBS-owned CBS Sports Network, for instance, has 50 hours of Super Bowl-related programming on tap this week, much of it crammed into the next three days.

The game is inescapable on CBS, of course.

In addition to game coverage that kicks off at 11 a.m. Sunday, the network this week sent the hosts of daytime talk show “The Talk” to broadcast from New Orleans, the site of the game, and on Saturday night it will air the pre-Super Bowl “NFL Honors” awards program.

There’s also tons of Super Bowl-related programming on cable this weekend, even on networks not actually affiliated with CBS but looking for a Super Bowl-induced ratings bump.

CMT, VH1, CNN, ESPN and NFL Network are among those with specials planned.

Here’s a rundown on all the Super Bowl-related programming starting Friday night and running through Sunday’s game:

FRIDAY

6 a.m.

NFL Network – “NFL AM,” which runs to 10 a.m., will air a joint press conference at 9:30 a.m. between brothers/rivals Jim Harbaugh, coach of the San Francisco 49ers, and John Harbaugh, coach of the Baltimore Ravens.

7 a.m.

ABC – ABC isn’t televising the game, but it still dispatched “Good Morning America’s” Sam Champion and Josh Elliott to New Orleans, where they’re hosting a “Super Tailgate Party.”

NBC – NBC’s “Today” will look in on the two cities with teams playing in this year’s game, San Francisco and Baltimore, as part of its regular Friday feature “Today Field Trips.” Al Roker and Natalie Morales will be on location with NFL fans.

CBS Sports Network – “Super Bowl Live Presented by Mercedes-Benz” airs an encore presentation.

3 p.m.

CBS Sports Network – “Eye on Football: Live from Jackson Square” takes a look at the game live from host city New Orleans.

4 p.m.

CBS Sports Network – “Inside the Super Bowl Presented by Taco Bell” examines Sunday’s matchup.

ESPN – “NFL Live” updates the latest news on the game.

5 p.m.

ESPN2 – “NFL32,” the daily NFL talk show, examines the big issues in Sunday’s game.

7 p.m.

CBS Sports Network – Yet more “Super Bowl Live.”

ESPN – “NFL Kickoff” includes the most up-to-date news about the game.

8 p.m.

NFL Network – “NFL Top 10” counts down the best Super Bowls.

9 p.m.

CBS Sports Network – “Super Bowl Chronicles” reairs its Monday episode.

VH1 – Proving that even a music network can get in on the Super Bowl hype, VH1 airs “Best Super Bowl Concert Ever,” featuring Train.

11 p.m.

NFL Network – “NFL Total Access: Super Bowl XLVII” airs live.

SATURDAY

8 a.m.

NFL Network – The network reairs the classic Super Bowl XXIII matchup between the 49ers and Cincinnati Bengals.

11 a.m.

CBS Sports Network – “Super Bowl Live” airs yet again.

Noon

NFL Network – A one-hour rundown on the best Super Bowl commercials.

5:30 p.m.

NFL Network – The Hall of Fame announcements air live.

4 p.m.

CNN – CNN, which is pushing more sports news per the recent purchase of Bleacher Report by parent Turner Networks, will air “Kickoff in New Orleans: A CNN-Bleacher Report Special.” This precedes the start of daily Bleacher Report-sponsored updates on CNN and HLN starting Tuesday.

8 p.m.

CBS Sports Network – You guessed it: More “Super Bowl Live,” which airs encores through the remainder of the night.

9 p.m.

CBS – The “NFL Honors” ceremony, hosted by Alec Baldwin, doles out the league’s biggest awards, including MVP and coach of the year.

10 p.m.

NBC Sports Network – From New Orleans, celebrities and athletes who didn’t make the Super Bowl play in the annual flag football game “Celebrity Beach Bowl.”

10:05 p.m.

HBO – Technically “Girls” is not Super Bowl related, but the show, which usually airs on Sunday nights, has been moved to Saturday for one week only so as not to compete with the game. It’s a first for HBO, which also switched usual Sunday lead-out “Enlightened” to 10:35 p.m. tonight.

11 p.m.

CMT – CMT also gets in on the Super Bowl concert action with “CMT Crossroads: Super Bowl Crossroads,” featuring Journey and Rascal Flatts.

NFL Network – “NFL Total Access: Super Bowl XLVII” airs live.

SUNDAY

6 a.m.

ESPN2 – A special edition of “Mike and Mike in the Morning”

7 a.m.

NFL Network – “First on the Field” kicks off morning coverage of the game.

9 a.m.

ESPN – “Super Bowl Sunday Countdown” marks four of ESPN’s planned 120 hours of coverage of the big game.

NFL Network – “NFL GameDay Morning” begins the first of more than eight hours of coverage.

11 a.m.

CBS – “Road to the Super Bowl,” an NFL Films presentation.

Noon

CBS – The network examines the host city with the short profile “New Orleans: Let the Good Times Roll.”

1 p.m.

CBS – Phil Simms names his 2013 NFL All-Iron Team.

2 p.m.

CBS – “The Super Bowl Today,” a special edition of the network’s regular pregame show “The NFL Today,” breaks down the big matchup with host James Brown and analysts Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason, Bill Cowher and Shannon Sharpe.

4:30 p.m.

CBS – “CBS Evening News” anchor Scott Pelley interviews President Barack Obama.

5:30 p.m.

NFL Network – “Ray Lewis: A Football Life” profiles the soon-to-retire superstar Ravens linebacker.

6 p.m.

CBS – “Super Bowl Kick-Off Show,” sponsored by Hyundai, which also has a spot in the game.

10:30 p.m.

ESPN2 – “NFL Primetime” breaks down the game, which may or may not be over at this time.

After the game

CBS Sports Network – Coverage continues on “The Super Bowl Live: Post-Game Show,” hosted by Brown, Marino, Esiason, Sharpe and Cowher and airing on CBS Sports Network for the first time.

NBC Bay Area and Comcast SportsNet Bay Area – They will simulcast “49ers Postgame Live,” a postgame show focusing on the hometown San Francisco 49ers.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/the-rundown-on-super-bowl-programming/

TV Notes
NBC News Chief Steve Capus Steps Down
By Marisa Guthrie, The Hollywood Reporter - Feb. 1, 2013

Steve Capus, whose career at NBC News has encompassed two decades and myriad world-changing events, announced Friday that we would step down as president of NBC News.

The move comes six months after Comcast consolidated the company's various news assets under a centralized unit encompassing NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC, and put the new division under the control of former NBCUniversal executive Patricia Fili-Krushel.

In an email to NBC News staffers, Capus admitted "it is an extremely difficult decision to walk away from a place that has been the backdrop for everything in my life since 1993."

He continued: "Twenty years ago this month, I was handed my first NBC News ID card by Sharon Houston and Cheryl Gould. What a thrill for this NASCAR-loving kid from suburban Philadelphia who aspired from a young age to be a DJ at a rock 'n' roll radio station."

Capus has been president of NBC News since 2005, which made him the longest-tenured network news president in an industry that has been roiled by change. He signed a new three-year deal with NBC News last year. But he was known to have been rankled by the shakeup last summer that put Fili-Krushel in the management structure above him. Previously, Capus and CNBC president Mark Hoffman reported directly to NBCUni CEO Steve Burke. And that was technically a breach in Capus' contract that allowed him to exercise an option to leave. Sitll, Capus and Fili-Krushel, a Burke confidant, were said to have achieved a workable relationship and some allies within the organization thought Capus had weathered the worst of the storms.

But his future at NBC News was nevertheless the subject of industry-wide speculation. And the end of Capus' presidency is marked by a slip on the stranglehold of dominance that NBC News enjoyed for so long. Last April, ABC's Good Morning America snapped Today's 852-week winning streak in the morning news race. And the messy ouster of co-host Ann Curry two months later produced a cascade of negative headlines with many critics - and viewers- blaming Today co-host Matt Lauer. Today executive producer Jim Belll did a series of interviews last summer taking responsibility for the decision to move Curry out of the job. But the damage was already done and Bell, who was pulling double duty as executive producer of NBC's coverage of the London Olympics, exited Today in November.

Capus, who came up through the ranks of NBC's Philadelphia affiliate where he first forged an enduring friendship with Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, maintained good relationships with the news divisions anchors. Williams is said to be particularly upset; Capus was Williams producer when the anchorman was at MSNBC and then briefly at Nightly before being tapped to run NBC News.

In addition to Williams, Capus has close relationships with Tom Brokaw, Richard Engel, Lauer and Curry. It was Capus who gave Curry the Today co-host job over the objections of Bell. Curry, of course, had already been passed over as co-host when Meredith Vieira replaced Katie Couric in 2006. And Curry's contract, say sources, stipulated that she would get the job when Vieira left or she could walk. After Curry was moved out off of Today, it was Capus who spearheaded a new role for her at NBC News that included her own unit. "He's the only one Ann likes these days," quipped one NBC News insider. Capus will remain at NBC News during a transition period.

Read Capus' entire memo below: [CLICK LINK BELOW]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/nbc-news-chief-steve-capus-417428

TV Reviews
Fantasies About Evil, Redux
By Nancy DeWolf Smith Wall Street Journal - Jan. 31, 2013

Netflix decided to release the first 13 episodes of its new original series "House of Cards" all at one time on Feb. 1. Some people prefer streaming television over the real thing precisely because they can gorge themselves on huge helpings of their favorite programs. Given its relentless theme, "House of Cards" might go down better in smaller portions and thus be enjoyably prolonged. If the first two episodes are enough to judge by, it's unfortunate that some viewers may instead treat the series like a bag of M&Ms.

The Netflix drama, which stars Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright and the luminous Corey Stoll, among others, is a riff on a 1990 British series of the same name. That one memorably featured Ian Richardson as an MP and Conservative whip whose plummy voice and silky manner hid monstrous political ambition and a diabolical skill at manipulation. It won't be topped.

Yet that was then and this is now and the politician on the make today is Mr. Spacey as Francis Underwood, a congressman from South Carolina. He's majority whip in a Democratic administration, but that's hardly relevant. Underwood is a pathological specimen who could be the wolf in sheep's clothing in any party. As the series opens, the man Underwood championed has just been elected president, and it's time for the reward for services rendered.

When he doesn't get the job of secretary of state, Underwood is enraged. But everything that happens in the rest of the series—which is the story of Underwood systematically eliminating every obstacle between him and the presidency—would not be possible without the congressman's other half. That is Ms. Wright as Claire Underwood, a short-haired blonde who manages to be masculine and demasculinizing at the same time.

Benign though they may seem—and their harmless air is what makes the Underwoods so effective as political plotters—this is a power couple with the same malignant chemistry as pairs of serial killers, where each needs the other in order to become lethal. "I love that woman," Francis Underwood says to the camera at one point about his wife. "I love her more than sharks love blood."

He talks to the camera a lot, in a signature style of the 1990 series. It is artifice that generally works well here to loosen our bearings. Although "House of Cards" is set in the present, it feels static, claustrophobic, as if everyone in it is trapped in a time and place and can't get out. Underwood's comments to the camera force us into bed with him as he lays waste to assorted political rivals or other hapless souls whose demise will further his advancement.

The pins begin falling early on, as Underwood sets in motion a master plan so complex and well-calibrated to take advantage of human nature that you abandon hope for his targets early on. They don't have to literally die. Underwood knows how to exploit even the good qualities in people to set them up for various kinds of manipulation and demolition.

Some will fall because they are honest; some will get into trouble, like the feisty newspaper blogger Zoe Barnes (played by Kate Mara), because they are so eager to get ahead. Others, like the womanizing, substance-abusing congressman Peter Russo (Mr. Stoll), will be blackmailed into service as Underwood's proxies.

There are annoying things about "House of Cards," which was written by Beau Willimon, among others, and whose executive producers include David Fincher (who also directed the first two episodes). Some of those things, like Mr. Spacey's mild but sometimes missing Carolina accent, don't matter. The ambitious female reporter, and a number of other elements here, are political-drama clichés—though, to be fair, some of this may be because the original "House of Cards" invented them.

Also distracting is the unrealistic patter of Washington corridors and newsrooms that exists only in the heads of screenwriters, and here includes lines such as "Make me squeal like Monica Lewinsky." The drumbeat of quips—"I never make big decisions so long after sunset and so far before dawn"—can become numbing after awhile.

Then again, to keep company with a devil, no matter how witty, is bound to be numbing. One must be anesthetized for the series to have its desired effect of making us root for Underwood or at least feel suspense until each of his miniplots pans out to successful competition.

Yet rapacious viewing will be numbing too, and not in a useful way. People who inhale too many episodes at once will have no time to savor scenes like the one of the ruthless Underwoods standing at an open window in their home, carefully blowing cigarette smoke into the night air lest it taint the indoors. Let it all sink in, and take you down slowly.

HOUSE OF CARDS
Available Friday at 3 a.m. ET on Netflix

* * * *

If the marvelous "Shakespeare Uncovered" had been around when all of us were first introduced to the Bard, the world might be a better place, or at least a happier one. Here, in fresh and exciting ways, some ofShakespeare's greatest works are examined and, yes, revealed, in ways that will make all but the expert fan rush to read or see them again.

The three-part, six-hour PBS series picks up this week with Derek Jacobi investigating "Richard II," followed by Jeremy Irons exploring the worlds of "Henry IV" and "Henry V." We visit some historical sites where the plays were set, see clips of many different movie performances, and hear and watch contemporary actors wrestling with varied interpretations of the main characters. The hosts also look at Shakespeare's historical sources and the effect that his plays had on contemporary audiences and politics.

Was "Richard II," the king deposed by Henry Bolingbroke, simply an evil tyrant deluded by absolute power—600 years before Gadhafi or Saddam Hussein? Or did the ever-ambiguous Shakespeare mean for us to question how or whether appointed leaders can be brought down without tainting the usurper? As the many questions at the heart of each play become clear, we're treated to wonderful excursions, from Agincourt to the room where the real Henry IV died, surrounded by the initial "R," carved in wood all around, of the king he overthrew.

A descendant of Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl Of Oxford, makes a charming and briefly persuasive appearance to argue for his ancestor as the true author of Shakespeare's plays. A polite Oxford professor then shoots this down with spectacular effect. Along with such entertainment, "Shakespeare Uncovered" is a royal feast. Only the worst kind of snob would deliberately pass it by.

SHAKESPEARE UNCOVERED
Fridays at 9 p.m. on PBS

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323701904578275630824939470.html?mod=WSJ_ArtsEnt_LifestyleArtEnt_6

The answer:

It doesn't friggin' matter. All that matters is whether Netflix thinks it's worth continuing it. If they can justify the cost, the show continues. If they can't, they cancel it.

HBO works much the same way, though they do pay a little bit of attention to ratings because a hit series is more likely to gain them customers.

In the case of Netflix, they know exactly who is watching it, not just how many of some share of viewers.

That means they'll know if some guy in Omaha who just signed up last week is watching it (along with a bunch of other new subs). They'll also know if it's just being watched by streaming only customers or if it's dominated by customers who also have disc plans. They also know if it's only being watched by customers who have been with the service for a while and are unlikely to leave if it's cancelled.

None of that means anything to anyone but Netflix - and whatever they make of it is how they'll decide to proceed.
Edited by NetworkTV - 2/1/13 at 11:56am

These are 2 must dvr shows.
Road to SB is a 28 time sports emmy winner taking over 1.7 million feet of film & breaking it down to only 980 feet of awesome footage & the HOF show is just always great tv.

You beat me to it and said it better than I had planned to.

Basically, Netflix will look at the numbers and decide if the investment generates an acceptable ROI. And part of the ROI might be based on intangibles like marketing impact. So it might not be an easy calculation if the numbers are close.

Our CBS affiliate is showing this, preempting a paid religious show. But it doesn't preempt for the 2nd half hour of Face the Nation in the same time slot. Proves sports is way more important than news.

Face the Nation is a news program?

 

I always took it as more of a political talk show.

Edited by Rammitinski - 2/1/13 at 6:02pm

Given that it airs on CBS it's basically just a dryer version of shows like Entertainment Tonight. In my eyes, CBS has zero credibility as a news organization anymore, not that they've been very high on my list for over a decade now.

ARRRGGGHHH!!! (yeah, pirate like)

This is just freakin' lazy. The complaint is that you have to pay for cable/satellite channel OTHER than HBO to get Game of Thrones. All people are asking is for HBO GO *without* a cable/sat subscription. This is just lazy journalism (hopefully) or fraking corporate paid-for journalism.

I pay for cable and HBO and am *tortured* by stupid ass tuning adapters, CCI protection etc... While it is much more convenient to just use SickBeard and not pay for anything.

Sorry for the rant, but it is ridiculous! Let me pay for what I want to watch!!!

xnappo

TV Notes
Binge-viewing is transforming the television experience
Services like Netflix and Hulu let fans watch multiple episodes or even entire seasons of shows all at once, giving life to new series such as 'House of Cards.'
By Dawn C. Chmielewski, Los Angeles Times - Feb. 1, 2013

When Thomas Toth contracted pneumonia, he became inseparable from the cool, stylish Don Draper.

Toth watched all five seasons of the AMC series "Mad Men" from his sickbed in a two-week viewing binge . He became so captivated by its fictional admen that he began sporting skinny ties and drinking Old-Fashioned cocktails.

"The nuances of the story lines are getting so complicated — they're introducing characters in Episode 2 and that character comes back in Episode 6 — I can digest things a lot quicker and easier when I binge on them," the 44-year-old Denver resident said.

Toth has lots of company. Services such as Netflix and Hulu, as well as digital video recorders, have transformed the TV viewing experience by enabling viewers to devour multiple episodes or even entire seasons of "The Wire" or "Downton Abbey" in marathon viewing sessions.

Now Netflix is making a massive bet that it can satisfy the addiction that it helped create. At 12:01 a.m. Friday the service debuted its first original series, a political drama called "House of Cards" that stars actor Kevin Spacey as a ruthless, scheming House majority whip.

In a departure from television tradition, the entire season of "House of Cards" — all 13 episodes, nearly 13 hours of tense Capitol Hill drama — will be available at once, with the click of a button.

Millions of Americans are binge-viewing serialized dramas and comedies, including those that can no longer be found on the network prime-time schedule. Hits like the espionage thriller "24" and cult favorites such as "Arrested Development," which both ran on the Fox network, have found new life on Netflix, as have past seasons of FX's "American Horror Story" and ABC Family's "Pretty Little Liars."

The phenomenon is so pervasive that a majority of Americans ages 8 to 66 say they've engaged in this sort of copious TV consumption, according to a study conducted by media consultant Frank N. Magid Associates Inc.

"We're finding that people who binge-view once binge-view again," Magid Executive Vice President Jack MacKenzie said. "It's the 'you can't eat just one' kind of thing."

This instant-gratification approach flouts network scheduling traditions.

Hollywood has always fed audiences a diet of, "Wait a week and we'll give you new episodes, then wait a season, we'll give you another season," Netflix Chief Content Office Ted Sarandos said.

"The Internet is attuning people to get what they want when they want it," Sarandos said. "'House of Cards' is literally the first show for the on-demand generation."

Netflix committed a reported $100 million for two seasons of "House of Cards," based on a strong script and the pedigree of the creative team of director David Fincher ("The Social Network" and "Fight Club") and writer Beau Willimon, who received an Oscar nomination for the 2011 political drama "The Ides of March."

"We wanted to go all-in," Sarandos said. "It's important to signal … that we're moving into this space in a meaningful, big way. So we did it loud."

If successful, the gambit could begin to unwind 60 years of serialized television convention — especially if others begin to emulate Netflix's approach. So far, broadcast and cable programmers have shown no inclination to release multiple episodes simultaneously.

"I don't think one show changes the television industry," said Richard Greenfield, media analyst with BTIG. But "if this become replicated multiple times over by Netflix and others, absolutely."

The instant-availability formula dispenses with cliffhangers designed to prevent the audience from fleeing during commercial breaks and woo them back for next week's installment. There is no need for comprehensive recaps of the previous week's episode because Netflix assumes that viewers won't miss a beat.

The absence of ads means that each episode has more time for story lines and relationships — as much as 15 more minutes of story per television hour.

"We've been impacting how people watch and when they watch," Sarandos said. "But 'House of Cards' is the first thing on Netflix that's ever been actually crafted to be watched in multiple episodes. So there's no catch-up. There's no exposition. There's no 'previously on' or 'next on.'"

Modi Wiczyk, co-chief executive of Media Rights Capital, the independent studio that financed and produced "House of Cards," said Netflix won the right to distribute the series because it gave the creators total artistic freedom.

Its two-season, 26-episode commitment created a huge canvas for storytelling and gave the creators a shot at being a network-defining show, in the mold of HBO's "The Sopranos" or FX's "The Shield."

"This is going to be part of the continuation of this story of the change in how people consume content," Wiczyk said.

Fox executives first noticed the binge-viewing phenomenon with "24" as fans bought DVDs of the Kiefer Sutherland drama, with some people watching multiple episodes in a single weekend.

Netflix said the practice exploded with "Breaking Bad," the AMC drama starring Bryan Cranston as a cancer-ridden chemistry teacher turned meth dealer. The service found that 74% of subscribers who began with a single episode of the first season ended up watching the entire run. The percentages were even higher when Netflix studied subsequent seasons.

Vince Gilligan, creator of "Breaking Bad," said these changing viewing habits are liberating writers from the conventional wisdom that individual TV episodes should be self-contained and stand on their own. "Breaking Bad" broke those rules and has seen its viewership grow every season, which is unusual for a serialized drama.

"I'd love to attribute that to how wonderful a show we have," Gilligan said. "But if I'm being honest, I realize we're riding a wave, a very new wave, that has been very beneficial to us and to other serialized shows."

To be sure, all-you-can-eat viewing is not a new phenomenon.

Networks broadcast TV "marathons" to provide catch-up viewing and create anticipation for a new season of a returning show. The boxed set, containing a complete season's worth of TV shows, has made for countless lost weekends.

The DVR made it possible for viewers to record an entire season's worth of a show, to be watched in big gulps later. Some viewers even record a whole season of a new show without watching a single episode until they're all recorded. If they don't like the first episode they abandon the series. If they do, they spend a weekend bingeing.

But binge-viewing threatens to shake up television's status quo. Along with the DVR, it's another harbinger of the end of the time-honored network schedule, when executives dictated when viewers could watch a favorite show, said Jeffrey Cole, director of the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future.

"It's the viewer saying, 'I will watch it how I want to watch it — in some cases without commercials,'" Cole said. "It's television on my terms."

Many television executives embrace the new opportunities for shows to find audiences. On-demand services like Netflix and Amazon.com's Amazon Prime build anticipation and viewership for the new seasons of serialized dramas, AMC President Charlie Collier said.

Some advertisers may encourage the binge-viewing habit too. Viewer obsession with serialized dramas could fuel production of the next "Friday Night Lights," a show whose loyal following was too small to keep the show on the prime-time schedule.

With the chance of another life, more dramas could get made, said David Scardino, entertainment specialist with the ad agency RPA.

But amid these changes, Collier says the nightly prime-time lineup is still a potent way to reach viewers.

"We put a lot of credence into the fact that the water-cooler event still exists on live, linear television," Collier said.

"We're seeing five years of growth in a row on 'Mad Men' and 'Breaking Bad,'" he added. "Millions of people are coming to our air to celebrate that event."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-binge-viewing-20130201,0,4625452,full.story

Technology/Critic's Notes
BlackBerry, Rebuilt, Lives to Fight Another Day
By David Carr, The New York Times - Jan. 31, 2013

I’m sorry. I was wrong.

This apology is for the bespectacled student at my talk in Cleveland, and the lady in the red dress in Florida, and anyone else who’s recently asked me about the future of the BlackBerry. I told all of them the same thing: that it’s doomed.

That wasn’t an outrageous opinion. Once dominant, the BlackBerry has slipped to a single-digit percentage of the smartphone market. The company’s stock has crashed almost 90 percent from its 2008 peak. In the last two years, the BlackBerry’s maker, Research in Motion, released a disastrous tablet, laid off thousands of employees and fired its C.E.O.’s. The whole operation seemed to be one gnat-sneeze away from total collapse.

The company — which changed its name on Wednesday to simply BlackBerry — kept saying that it had a miraculous new BlackBerry in the wings with a new operating system called BlackBerry 10. But it was delayed and delayed and delayed. Nobody believed anything the company said anymore. Besides — even if there were some great phone, what prayer did BlackBerry have of catching up to the iPhone and Android phones now? Even Microsoft, with its slick, quick Windows Phone, hasn’t managed that trick.

Well, BlackBerry’s Hail Mary pass, its bet-the-farm phone, is finally here. It’s the BlackBerry Z10, and guess what? It’s lovely, fast and efficient, bristling with fresh, useful ideas.

And here’s the shocker — it’s complete. The iPhone, Android and Windows Phone all entered life missing important features. Not this one; BlackBerry couldn’t risk building a lifeboat with leaks. So it’s all here: a well-stocked app store, a music and movie store, Mac and Windows software for loading files, speech recognition, turn-by-turn navigation, parental controls, copy and paste, Find My Phone (with remote-control lock and erase) and on and on.

The hardware is all here, too. The BlackBerry’s 4.2-inch screen is even sharper than the iPhone’s vaunted Retina display (356 pixels per inch versus 326). Both front and back cameras can film in high definition (1080p back, 720p front).

The thin, sleek, black BlackBerry has 16 gigabytes of storage, plus a memory card slot for expansion. Its textured back panel pops off easily so that you can swap batteries. It will be available from all four major carriers — Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile — and Verizon said it would charge $200 with a two-year contract.

Some of BlackBerry 10’s ideas are truly ingenious. A subtle light blinks above the screen to indicate that something — a text, an e-mail message, voice mail, a Facebook post — is waiting for you. Without even pressing a physical button, you swipe up the screen; the Lock screen lifts like a drape as you slide your thumb, revealing what’s underneath. It’s fast and cool.

There are no individual app icons for Messages or Mail. Instead, all communication channels (including Facebook, Twitter and phone calls) are listed in the Hub — a master in-box list that appears at the left edge when you swipe inward. Each reveals how many new messages await and offers a one-tap jump into the corresponding app. It’s a one-stop command center that makes eminent sense.

The BlackBerry’s big selling point has always been its physical keyboard. The company says it will, in fact, sell a model with physical keys (and a smaller screen) called the Q10.

But you might not need it. On the all-touch-screen model, BlackBerry has come up with a mind-bogglingly clever typing system. Stay with me here:

As you type a word, tiny, complete words appear over certain on-screen keys — guesses as to the word you’re most likely to want. If you’ve typed “made of sil,” for example, the word “silicone” appears over the letter I key, “silver” over the V, and “silk” over the K. You can fling one of these words into your text by flicking upward from the key — or ignore it and keep typing.

How well does it work? In this passage, the only letters I actually had to type are shown in bold. The BlackBerry proposed the rest: “I’m going to have to cancel for tonight. There is a really good episode of Dancing With the Stars on.”

I type 20 characters; it typed 61 for me.

But wait, there’s more. The more you use the BlackBerry, the more it learns your way of writing. When I tried that same passage later, I typed only one letter: the I in “I’m.” Thereafter, the phone predicted each successive word in those sentences, requiring no letter-key presses at all. Freaky and brilliant and very, very fast.

There’s speech recognition, too. Hold in the Play/Pause key to get the Z10’s Siri-like assistant. Siri-like in concept, that is — you can say “send an e-mail to Harvey Smith,” “schedule an appointment” and a few other things — but it’s slower, less accurate and far narrower in scope. You can also speak to type, but the accuracy is so bad, you won’t use it.

The camera software is terrific. One feature, Time Shift, is mind-blowing. You take a photo of people — then, with your finger on a face, you can dial forward or backward up to two seconds in time, seeking that perfect expression. You repeat with the next face, and the next, until you’ve dialed up the perfect fraction of a second, independently, for each person in the shot. Admit it: that’s brilliant.

The BlackBerry 10 neatly solves a huge problem for corporate techies: how to keep employees’ work phones secure in a world where people also use their phones for personal things. If a company has BlackBerry’s corporate software suite, separate worlds can be created on each phone: personal and work, with distinct calendars, address books, wallpaper and even app collections. They appear together — but without the work password, only the personal stuff is visible.

When the employee leaves the company, one stroke deletes the whole corporate or personal half.

The popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service now lets you make free phone calls and video calls over the Internet. You can even screencast — share what you’re doing on your screen with your conversation partner, like a map, an app or a photographic snap. (BlackBerry 10 required; older BlackBerry models can use BBM only for texts.)

Thanks to NFC (near-field communication), you can shoot a photo, map, Web page, app, file or song to another BlackBerry 10 owner, wirelessly, on the spot. Other phones do NFC sharing, but rarely as simply.

There are some missteps. There’s no physical silencer switch (only a software function). In the Mail app, you can’t move from one message to the next without returning to the in-box in between. The calendar views don’t rotate when you turn the phone, and you can’t drag appointments to reschedule them. When you’ve used the faux Siri to dictate a message or e-mail, you can’t edit it, even manually. And the battery barely makes it through a day.

But the usual Achilles’ heel for a new type of smartphone is the apps. Who could catch up with the 750,000 apps available for iPhone or Android? (The BlackBerry Z10 doesn’t run older BlackBerry apps.)

Incredibly, BlackBerry says that there will be 70,000 apps available on Day 1. The company shrewdly wrote a utility program that can convert Android apps, making it simple for programmers to adapt their wares.

That’s a well-stocked salad bar, but it’s not the whole grocery. Most of the big-name apps are already there (Skype, Yelp, Twitter, Spotify, Foursquare, Dropbox, Angry Birds and so on), but a few important ones are still missing: Netflix, Draw Something, Pinterest, Hipstamatic, Instagram and most airline and bank apps.

Those apps will surely materialize if BlackBerry 10 is a success. The question is, Will it be one?

The software is simple to master, elegantly designed and surprisingly complete. It offers features nobody else offers, some tailored to the corporate world that raised BlackBerry aloft in its glory days.

Remember, too, that 80 million people still carry BlackBerrys, and many have a deep love for the BlackBerry Way.

On the other hand, wow, is this horse late to the race. The BlackBerry music, movie and app stores are just getting under way. If you choose BlackBerry over iPhone or Android, you give up some very attractive ecosystems, like the way Apple synchronizes your calendar, messages, and photos on all your gadgets. Or, for Android, the similar conveniences of Google Voice and Google Maps.

These days, excellence in a smartphone isn’t enough. Microsoft’s phone is terrific, too, and hardly anyone will touch it.

So then, is the delightful BlackBerry Z10 enough to save its company?

Honestly? It could go either way. But this much is clear: BlackBerry is no longer an incompetent mess — and its doom is no longer assured.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/technology/the-blackberry-refreshed-lives-to-fight-another-day.html?ref=technology&_r=0

TV Notes
'NCIS' Renewed as Mark Harmon Extends Contract
By Tim Kenneally, TheWrap.com - Feb. 1, 2013

CBS's hit drama "NCIS" has been renewed for another season, after the network extended its contract with series star and executive producer Mark Harmon, the network said Friday.

"In a world gone niche, 'NCIS' keeps getting bigger, and Mark Harmon continues to define the role of leading man on the #1 show on television," CBS Corporation president and CEO Leslie Moonves said of the renewal. "NCIS is the type of franchise every company wants in today’s global content ecosystem – high-quality storytelling that generates passionate viewers and drives revenue on every conceivable platform."

A ratings bockbuster for CBS, "NCIS" -- which airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. -- has been television's top scripted drama since the 2009-2010 season. In its current 10th season, the program has been averaging a 4.2 rating/12 share in the 18-49 demographic most important to advertisers, and 21.5 million total viewers, a 7 percent increase over last year.

On the series, Harmon stars as special agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, who leads a team of special agents who investigate crimes involving the Navy and Marine Corps.

http://www.thewrap.com/tv/article/ncis-renewed-mark-harmon-extends-contract-75861
Edited by dad1153 - 2/3/13 at 7:05am

Critic's Notes
Bianculli's Best Bets
By David Bianculli, TVWorthWatching.com - Feb. 2, 2013

CASABLANCA
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
In golf, a double bogey is bad. On TCM, it’s very good. Tonight in prime time, Turner Classic Movies presents two of Humphrey Bogart’s best performances and most iconic roles – beginning with this 1942 film noir classic. He’s Rick, Ingrid Bergman is Ilsa, and things in Casablanca are, to quote the Talking Heads, the same as they ever was.

RIPPER STREET
BBC America, 9:00 p.m. ET
In this third episode of this new British import (already renewed for a Season 2, by the way), there’s a killer on the loose, stacking up bodies in the East London morgue. But this time the serial killer in this period drama isn’t a Jack the Ripper-type madman – it’s cholera. Even so, its source is a case our intrepid detectives desperately rush to solve.

AN IDIOT ABROAD 3
Science Channel, 9:00 p.m. ET
SEASON FINALE: If it seems like Season 3 of this endearing travel series, starring Karl Pilkington and less grumpy traveling companion Warwick Davis, just got started, that’s because it did. This is the only the third episode of this new season – yet, apparently, that’s all we get, as the pair of bickering tourists visit China. Last time, Pilkington didn’t even think the Great Wall was all that great – but this time, he and Davis get to interact with pandas. Or, at least, dress up as them. And you know what that should lead to, right? That’s right: Panda-monium. If you’d like to see all three of this season’s shows, tune in at 7 p.m. ET, and watch the entire batch.

THE MALTESE FALCON
TCM, 10:00 p.m. ET
Here’s the second half of TCM’s Double Bogie prime-time feature: The 1941 film in which he stars as Sam Spade, with director John Huston also providing the screenplay adaptation for Dashiell Hammett’s book. Among the delectable villains in this piece: Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre.

SILVERADO
Encore, 10:20 p.m. ET
Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn and Kevin Costner are among the tough cowboys, along with Danny Glover and a few others, in Lawrence Kasdan’s 1985 Western that also makes room for, and great use of, Brian Dennehy, John Cleese, Jeff Goldblum and Linda Hunt.

http://www.tvworthwatching.com/

Maybe it's just me, but a lot of the features this guy's bedazzled with have been available on other phones - most notably Windows Phones - for over a year, now. Consolidated inbox, guess-what-I'm-typing, voice texting, speech recognition and a version of Siri. Welcome to 2011, Blackberry. Don't get me wrong, I'll still GET one. But, dude, put down you iProduct and branch out a little.