Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 2835

There's quite a few things we would have been in hot water for that aren't seen as a big deal today. When it comes to picking battles, there's bigger ones than just a word that someone uttered in excitement on TV.

And to keep it sort-of on topic the game looked awesome here in Orlando, Beyonce's show I thought stunk and I liked The Next Big Thing commercial. And for some reason we did not see the Kate Upton washing cars, which made my son and hubby a bit sad.

Looks like we/they were as prepared as they can be. Never lost the picture. Just the press box. Maybe some cameras, but not all.

I had a chance when the Final Four was in town to sit in with the engineering crew and learned a lot about the setup and contingency plans. The production trucks and more than a handful of cameras are almost never on shore power to begin with. Always on generators. I'm just guessing, but I would imagine running generator lines up to the press box is not an easy task if it's possible at all. Probably some code against it. Most of the press boxes I've been associated with have their own backup power systems, anyway. Surprised this one either didn't or it failed. You can bet that'll get fixed.

That said, the usual course of action when you lose the press box is to throw to New York. Well, for the Super Bowl, the studio crew is also on-site and usually handled by a second production truck. Personally, I think they found 'em all and got them to the sideline set in good order. Though that set is on shore power, too. Had they lost that, we'd have had a lot of Tasker/Wilcots sideline reports and anybody-you-can-grab interviews.

Even when the trucks are on shore power (rare, as I said. The FF here in Detroit was the only time that crew could remember running on shore power, but the generators ran the whole time in case a switch was needed) they only need 30 seconds or fewer to switch power plus whatever time it takes for things that need to boot to boot. I was told everything is fully operational in under two minutes. Since we had picture and graphics, I think it's safe to assume that the trucks were on generators and functioning normally.

I'd really love to know what we'd have seen had the whole stadium gone south. Probably Tasker anchoring coverage from inside the production truck until JB or Nantz could get there. I believe that's what they told me would happen. I have had beer since then.

This being a first for SB coverage, you can bet that Ian Eagle or someone is going to be camped out on the NY set, next time, so they'll have someone to pick it up if they lose the press box.

So, how did 'The Blackout Bowl' do in the ratings?

SUNDAY's fast affiliate overnight prime-time ratings -and what they mean- have been posted on Analyst Marc Berman's Media Insight's Blog
Edited by dad1153 - 2/5/13 at 9:24am

TV Notes
NBC's 'Revolution' Takes Advantage of Super Bowl Blackout
By Philiana Ng, The Hollywood Reporter's 'Live Feed' Blog - Feb. 4, 2013

The Super Bowl may have been broadcast on CBS, but it was NBC that took full advantage when New Orleans' Louisiana Superdome suddenly lost power.

Less than two minutes had elapsed in the third quarter of the Baltimore Ravens-San Francisco 49ers game before parts of the stadium unexpectedly lost power. Soon thereafter, viewers turned to Twitter to voice their conspiracy theories on what had just happened. One of them concerned NBC's high-profile post-apocalyptic drama Revolution, set in a world without electricity.

It was perfect timing.

"Just a taste of what’s to come on March 25. #LightsOut #Revolution," said a tweet from the official Twitter account for Revolution sent out at 6:45 p.m. PST on Sunday, about an hour after power was first lost.

Ten minutes later, another tweet was sent out with a link to an image of a necklace crucial to unlocking the Revolution mystery: "If only the stadium had one of these...

#RevolutionMarch25." The same image was also pushed through on Revolution's Facebook page.

Television heavyweights had some fun taking swipes at what would end up being a 34-minute delay of the game, which the Ravens ultimately won after the 49ers staged a comeback post-blackout.

Late Night With Jimmy Fallon producer Mike Shoemaker wrote on Twitter: "This is just like 'Revolution.' I wonder when the vines start growing." Former Walking Dead showrunner Glenn Mazzara quipped: "Is this the beginning of the apocalypse? Or a lame stunt promoting Revolution?" The Vampire Diaries' Julie Plec joined in on the commentary, tweeting, "NBC and JJ Abrams just 'Revolution' photobombed the Superbowl."

On a grand stage like the Super Bowl, any mention or tie-in could potentially prove beneficial when the freshman NBC drama returns March 25 following a four-month hiatus.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/super-bowl-blackout-revolution-takes-417743

Nielsen Overnights (18-49)
Early numbers: New high for Super Bowl
Averages a 48.1 household rating and 71 share on CBS
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Feb. 4, 2013

The SuperDome lost power last night, but the Super Bowl scored another powerful rating.

The big game on CBS set a new record, according to metered-market numbers.

The Super Bowl averaged a 48.1 household rating and 71 share, according to Nielsen, up 1 percent from a 47.8/71 for last year’s contest on NBC between the New York Giants and New England Patriots.

That was also up from a 47.9/71 on Fox two years ago, which holds the record for best overnight rating.

Of note, last night’s number excludes the half-hour period during which the SuperDome lost power. CBS’s announcers were also without power during part of that delay.

The network scrambled to fill the down time with extended analysis from its pregame team, but there was some speculation that people might tune away from the Super Bowl because of the delay.

That seemed to be true. The game’s rating dipped to a 46.5/68 from 8:45 p.m. to 9:15 p.m., when the game was in the 33-minute delay. That was the third-lowest-rated half-hour block of the night, behind the opening hour when CBS drew a 42.6/67 (6:30 p.m.) and 46.3/71 (7 p.m.).

What had been a dull game, with the Baltimore Ravens leading the San Francisco 49ers 21-6 at halftime, picked up after the power outage, with the Niners pulling within two points during the fourth quarter.

San Francisco had a chance to pull ahead in the final minutes but couldn’t get to the end zone, and the Ravens won 34-31.

The game peaked with a 52.9/75 at 10:30 p.m.

Time zone-adjusted fast nationals for the game will be out later today, and Media Life will post them as soon as they arrive.

Note that metered-market ratings do not always hold up when the later, more accurate numbers come out. Last year’s game came in under 2011’s rating with metered-market numbers, but it ultimately set a record for most-watched Super Bowl ever, with 111.3 million total viewers.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/early-numbers-new-high-for-super-bowl/

* * * *

TV Notes
‘Rules of Engagement,’ back yet again
Comedy returns for season seven doing what it does best
By Louisa Ada Seltzer, Media Life Magazine - Feb. 4, 2013

Too bad CBS already has one show named “Survivor” on its schedule. Otherwise that would be an apt title for “Rules of Engagement.”

The comedy returns for its seventh season tonight at 8:30 p.m. doing what it has always done best, patching a hole in CBS’s schedule.

For most of its seven years, “Engagement” has come off the network’s bench at midseason to fill in for a new show that flopped. It actually launched as a midseason replacement in 2008.

Last year it subbed in for “How to Be a Gentleman” on Thursday nights after “The Big Bang Theory” and earned decent ratings.

This year it takes the place of “Partners,” which managed a mere 2.1 adults 18-49 rating in the 8:30 p.m. timeslot last fall, dropping almost a third of “How I Met Your Mother’s” solid 3.2 lead-in.

“Rules” should do a lot better. Last season it averaged a 2.9 behind “Bang,” and it got a good deal of promotion during last night’s Super Bowl on CBS.

The Super Bowl network usually draws a big audience the night after the game, and that should hold true for CBS’s already-strong Monday comedy lineup. That could propel “Rules” to an eighth season next year, though it will probably keep its role as a bench player.

“Rules” is a nice fall-back option for CBS, and there’s no reason to change that now.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/rules-of-engagement-back-yet-again/

TV Review
'Monday Mornings': Medical drama
By David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle

A new TV medical drama that looks at a hospital as a place where lives are saved and lost and not just an ersatz Motel 6 for staff hookups? What a concept, as they say.

"Monday Mornings," created by David E. Kelley ("Boston Legal") and based on the novel by CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, finds compelling drama in what the doctors and nurses of the fictional Chelsea General Hospital do, not whom they're doing. That sets it apart from many medical shows, but it may also pose a challenge in finding an audience.

Let's hope not, because the series boasts a superb cast; credible, multidimensional characters; and emotional payoffs far beyond mere sighing over Dr. McDreamy.

The show gets its title from the weekly Monday morning staff meetings held by Dr. Harding Hooten (Alfred Molina, "Spider-Man 2"), the chief of surgery at the Portland, Ore., hospital. The surgeons, gathered in an indoor amphitheater as Hooten goes over recent procedures, consider themselves to have dodged a bullet if they aren't called to the front of the room and subjected to a grilling over what they did or didn't do in the operating room.

Hooten may begin each session with a smile, asking the doctors to recite what happened when, but the very fact that they've been called on means they're in for a withering dressing-down at the end of the inquisition.

The other staff members include neurosurgeons Dr. Tyler Wilson (Jamie Bamber, "Battlestar Galactica"), Dr. Tina Ridgeway (Jennifer Finnigan, "Better With You"), Dr. Sung Park (Keong Sim, "Glee"), trauma chief Dr. Jorge Villanueva (Ving Rhames, "Pulp Fiction"), transplant specialist Dr. Buck Tierney (Bill Irwin, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" on Broadway), Dr. Sydney Napur (Sarayu Rao, "Lions for Lambs"), and resident Dr. Michelle Robidaux (Emily Swallow, "Southland").

Simply human

All of them are flawed simply because they're human, but that doesn't make them lesser physicians - it just means they're probably going to be in the spotlight on Monday mornings.

Wilson is brilliant but brash. He doesn't always follow the rules and makes decisions without consulting with other staff members, but he belies the mythology that surgeons tend to be emotionally detached from their patients. Ridgeway is especially adept at getting through to him, but even she can't always stop him from charging ahead on his own before all the information is in about a patient's history.

For Park, English is a second language, but so is caring personally about his patients. Speaking to the wife of a stroke victim, he explains the need for immediate surgery in blunt terms: "Not do, die."

Tierney is abrasive and arrogant, but that's one of the reasons the hospital's transplant program is so successful: He rejects the charge that he is a "vulture," waiting for likely donors to die, but at the same time, the longer a donated organ is out of the body, the greater the chances it will lose its viability. Napur is even more driven than Wilson, but she doesn't make many errors. She puts her job above everything in her life.

In the three episodes sent to critics, the Chelsea doctors deal with a 7-year-old boy with a brain tumor, an overweight woman who's come into the hospital every couple of weeks with yet another malady, a young piano prodigy who has done all the research on her brain tumor and rejects surgery in favor of wanting to live what's left of her life fully, a young woman with uncontrollable shaking, and the portly stroke victim. Some of the patients make it, others don't.

Not just medicine

While the dominant focus is on medicine, these doctors think about other things. Napur is considering going on a date with a fellow doctor, whom Villanueva says isn't a good match for her (she'll go through him "like crap through a goose," is his poetic prediction), and Ridgeway is crushing on Wilson. There is just enough of the doctors' personal lives in the first three episodes to remind us that they aren't machines, but it would be a big mistake if the show devolves into a game of musical gurneys and nooners in the hospital pharmacy.

There isn't a bad performance in the bunch, although the script challenges Bamber to make a handsome hotshot credibly haunted by a childhood memory and subject to a postoperative hallucination after he's lost a patient. Veterans Molina and Irwin stand out for especially complex and nuanced performances. They hit a level of excellence rarely seen in most TV medical dramas and are just two of the reasons "Monday Mornings" is such a standout.


MONDAY MORNINGS
10 p.m. Monday on TNT.

http://www.sfgate.com/tv/article/Monday-Mornings-review-Medical-drama-4243422.php

TV Review
'Mea Maxima Culpa' looks at Catholic Church's abuse cover-up
The HBO documentary offers a devastating look at the priest scandal, all the way to the Vatican.
By Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times - Feb. 4, 2013

As horrifying as it is to note, the timing of the HBO documentary "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God," which premieres Monday night, could not have been better if divine intervention were involved.

Last week, the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles released documents chronicling how Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and other church officials managed to thwart investigations into the sexual abuse of hundreds of local children to protect the accused priests.

To which this film by Oscar winner Alex Gibney essentially says, "If you think that's bad, watch this."

In "Mea Maxima Culpa," Gibney documents a decades-old effort to protect and in some instances seemingly aid sexually predatory priests, a conspiracy that the film argues, snakes through every level of the Roman Catholic hierarchy including the current and past popes.

The film, which debuted briefly in theaters last year and is nominated for a Writers Guild of America award, is not perfect. Eagerly attempting to explore every avenue of the scandal, the story wobbles at times under the weight of its own ambitions, making U-turns in chronology and using some of the more regrettable techniques of the modern doc, including an overly manipulative soundtrack and unnecessarily creepified reenactments.

But by meticulously stitching together timelines, documents and interviews with a wide variety of sources, Gibney effectively depicts a history of widespread corruption. Recent revelations, which chillingly mirror those of the film, make "Mea Maxima Culpa" that much more devastating and important.

The narrative is framed by the first known case of a priest being publicly accused of molestation — Father Lawrence Murphy of Milwaukee's St. John's School for the Deaf. There, we learn through the signed testimonials of four former pupils — Terry Kouhut, Gary Smith, Pat Kuehn and Arthur Budzinski — the boyish and beloved priest systematically raped and abused more than 200 pupils during his unstoppable 24-year tenure.

The molestation of any child is untenable, but that these children were deaf makes physical some of the issues of silence that allowed this abuse to occur in so many other places to so many other children. St. John's students worshiped Murphy in no small part because he was adept at American Sign Language. Many students came from nonsigning families, so Murphy was one of the few adults in the world they could communicate with freely. Which he used to cruel and perverse advantage.

When the boys became men, a handful did everything in their power to have Murphy arrested and defrocked. Given voice here by actors including Chris Cooper, Ethan Hawke and John Slattery, the men took to distributing copies of Murphy's photo, calling on the community to protect children from him. They went to the police, to the district attorney, to their archbishop, to Rome; complaints against Murphy had been made as early as 1960.

Investigations were held, most in a desultory way, and because Murphy denied all accusations and no current evidence of abuse could be found, the men were told that the statute of limitations had run out. Murphy was eventually removed from St. John's for "health reasons," but though he had made detailed confessions of abuse to therapists provided by the church, he remained a free man, and a priest, until his death in 1998.

Using the Murphy case as a scaffold, the film attempts to follow the inner workings of what would eventually become an international scandal. Interviewing church psychologists, nonpredatory priests and former priests, Vatican scholars and journalists, Gibney's film describes a system in which a near-deification of the ordained creates, as one church psychologist put it, "a perversion of power."

Although none went to the police, some priests attempted, over the years, to take action. As instructed by canon law, they informed their superiors, including the Vatican, but most of the predators were either left where they were or simply sent "on retreat" before being circulated to other, often poorer, parishes.

When in 2002, scandal erupted in Boston, resulting in the arrest of priests, the payout of millions of dollars in restitution and the ouster of Cardinal Bernard Law (who, as the film points out, was "punished" by being given a lavish stipend and a high-profile position in Italy), the Vatican attempted to distance itself from the problem, first characterizing the abuse as "an American problem." But similar abuse was soon revealed in churches all over the world, particularly in Ireland, where one notorious predator had been known to the local archdiocese and the Vatican for more than 20 years. He was defrocked only after the demands of angry parents resulted in the priest's arrest.

Gibney takes great pains to point out that every sex abuse case, including Murphy's, went directly to the office of then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1981 until 2005 and now Pope Benedict XVI. Yet year after year, known pedophiles such as Murphy were allowed to remain free and to remain priests, often in parishes where they had access to children. It was only after Kouhut and other victims filed a civil suit against the Vatican, that the church was forced to release documents making it clear that in many cases officials knew about the abuse and refused to act.

The message of "Mea Maxima Culpa" is clear: No member of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church is innocent in this almost unbelievably ubiquitous wave of abuse, and certainly not the man who sits in his cloak of infallibility at its head.

But it took the courage of a few literally voiceless men to finally say so.

'MEA MAXIMA CULPA: SILENCE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD'
Where: HBO
When: 9 p.m. Monday

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-mea-maxima-culpa-20130204,0,6297138.story

TV Sports
Simms Is Short of Analysis, and CBS Is Out of Sync
By Richard Sandomir, The New York Times - Feb. 4, 2013

I was wondering if Sean McManus, the chairman of CBS Sports, slipped into the network’s booth at the Superdome on Sunday night to give Jim Nantz and Phil Simms a pep talk.

Their broadcast of the Super Bowl was decent enough, but it sounded as if they weren’t seeing the big picture. McManus could have told them to be bolder, to tell us what we didn’t see, to make us take notice.

While praising the offense of the Baltimore Ravens, who led, 21-6, at halftime, they were not nailing what was wrong with the San Francisco 49ers’ defense.

Were the 49ers missing assignments or missing tackles? Was the Ravens’ game plan simply so much better?

Was Coach John — as Simms and Nantz insisted on calling him — outcoaching Coach Jim?

Why, after 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver was burned for a touchdown by Jacoby Jones, did neither announcer mention that last week he had to apologize for making antigay comments?

Why, with so much hype about Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis playing his final game after 17 years, did they pay so little attention to what he was doing (or not doing) on the field?

Lewis, that most ubiquitous of men, was rediscovered in the fourth quarter, with a statistic (four tackles) and a discussion of the murder charges against him that were dropped in 2000 and his polarizing personality. That’s a long time not to notice someone so integral to the Ravens.

But Justin and Aldon Smith, two of the 49ers’ defensive stars, stayed missing.

Why did Simms flat-out say that he wouldn’t second-guess Baltimore Coach John Harbaugh’s risky decision to call a fake field goal, which failed to yield a first down? Second-guessing is Simms’s job. More important, he should be first-guessing.

The second half began with Jones’s 108-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and a blackout at the Superdome that gave CBS a chance to replay, ad nauseam, the makeout session between the supermodel Bar Refaeli and the curly-haired nerd in a GoDaddy.com ad.

But it went to commentary from its on-field studio crew in the dim light.

Without a game to televise, James Brown, CBS’s studio host, and the sideline reporters Steve Tasker and Solomon Wilcots competed to tell viewers how long — 15 minutes? 20 minutes? “any moment”? — before the game could resume.

The delay, and the Ravens’ 28-6 lead, conspired against keeping the audience, and approaching viewership records.

(Through the end of the game, Simms and Nantz made no issue out of the failure of an N.F.L. official to appear on the sideline to explain the blackout to Tasker or Wilcots. Even without a full explanation, the N.F.L. should have provided someone to tell CBS what it knew.)

Once the game resumed, Simms did not seem to draw inspiration from Beyoncé or studying highlights in the dark. He offered a trite truism about the 49ers, who were trailing badly: “When you’re down, you have to make great catches.”

Simms then added this tortured analysis: “One thing I’ve taken out of this game, and really all through the playoffs, is if you watch it, the number of big plays in the games are because the quarterbacks are throwing the football.” (Yes, yes!) Arm strength, he emphasized, is important.

Then, after the 49ers had amassed 105 post-blackout yards and 14 points, to the Ravens’ 15 yards, Simms said that the power failure had not hurt the Ravens but that it had helped the 49ers.

That just sounded wrong.

Later, he would all but refute his analysis when he said that the Ravens might have been thinking that they were close to winning the Super Bowl — a reason to play as if stuck in neutral.

At the Super Bowl, a network’s announcers and production crew should be in sync. But when Simms praised how little effort 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick expended on a hot, sharp pass, there was no replay to show that easy delivery.

Simms sounded out of sorts. He said that the Ravens came after Kaepernick with a “bunch group,” but did not say which defenders they were or if that was some sort of strategy.

And with a fourth-and-goal for the 49ers at the Ravens’ 5 and 1 minute 50 seconds left, Simms did not venture a guess about the type of play that San Francisco should call, and he did not interrupt Nantz when he saw the defense the Ravens were setting up, which he said he detected afterward.

He also delayed taking note, for too long, the contact made by the Ravens’ secondary against 49ers receivers in the end zone on Kaepernick’s incomplete pass.

The game, which promised a great finale for much of the fourth quarter, ended without much of a bang — although one of CBS’s strong on-field microphones picked up Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco’s exuberant expletive, which he followed with the word “awesome.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/sports/football/super-bowl-phil-simmss-announcing-was-short-on-analysis.html?ref=media&_r=0

Business Notes
Sports TV Costs Will Continue To Soar As Benefits Still Outweigh Costs: Analyst
By David Lieberman, Deadline.com - Feb. 4, 2013

Pay TV subscribers who don’t watch sports likely will have to cut the cord if they want to escape the rocketing costs for programming rights and new channels. At least that’s one of the conclusions I take away from RBC Capital Markets’ David Bank’s smart, 91-page report this morning about the state of sports media. He notes that programmers have a powerful incentive to engage in an arms race for sports: The rewards for airing games — from rising ad sales and pay TV affiliate fees — still outweigh the rising amounts that football, baseball, and other sports rights holders are charging. As a result, channels offering sports “should be able to expand [profit] margins,” Bank says. Won’t that lead to a war with distributors such as DirecTV and Time Warner Cable, who say that subscribers will bolt if monthly bills continue to rise? Not necessarily, because their hands aren’t clean. “How can these distributors complain about unfair pricing when they are in turn asking for the same kind of pricing on the same kind of content?” Bank asks. DirecTV owns three major regional sports networks (ROOT Sports in Pittsburgh, Rocky Mountain states, and the Northwest) while Time Warner Cable has a new channel for the Los Angeles Lakers. Bank acknowledges that “we must ask ourselves whether the [growing number of regional sports networks] risk damaging the ecosystem.”

Still, Bank’s a fan of News Corp’s unannounced, but widely expected, plan to convert Speed into a national multi-sports network likely to be called Fox Sports 1. It would be a financial success, he says, if Rupert Murdoch’s company can raise the pay TV fee to $1 per subscriber per month from Speed’s current 22 cents, and increase distribution to 90M homes from 81.4M. Although it won’t initially threaten Disney’s ESPN “Fox has succeeded as the insurgent in two other significant cases: broadcast (with the launch of Fox in the mid-80s) and cable news (with the launch of Fox News Channel in the mid-90s).”

One of Bank’s most interesting charts shows that sports services account for nine of the 10 most expensive pay TV channels if you compare the amount operators pay for each viewer the network attracts. ESPN is No. 1 at $500 per viewer per month. It’s followed by NFL Network ($424), MLB Network ($307), Fox Soccer ($265), Current ($259), FUEL TV ($257), NBA TV ($247), Golf Channel ($251), ESPN2 ($229), and NBC Sports Network ($238).

http://www.deadline.com/2013/02/sports-tv-programming-rights-costs/

Nielsen Overnights
'Elementary' Falls Short of Post-Super Bowl 'Voice' Ratings
By Tim Molloy, TheWrap.com - Feb. 4, 2013

CBS's post-Super Bowl airing of "Elementary" scored a 12 rating/24 share in metered markets Sunday, faring nowhere near as well as NBC's "The Voice" did in the spot after the Super Bowl last year.

But "Elementary" was at a significant disadvantage: It aired later than any other post-Super Bowl show, thanks to a power outage in New Orleans' Superdome that delated the game by 34 minutes in the third quarter.

Sunday's "Elementary" is comfortably on track to scoring the freshman drama's highest viewership and ratings. The "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," meanwhile, scored a preliminary 3.2/11, much higher than average.

Last year, "The Voice" scored a 19.4 rating/33 share after the Super Bowl in metered markets, which include 56 cities.

The lower ratings for "Elementary" came despite the highest metered-market ratings ever for a Super Bowl. Sunday's game had a metered-market rating/share of 48.1/71.

More complete numbers were expected later Monday.

Networks traditionally use the time after the Super Bowl to promote shows for which they have high hopes. Last year, after NBC used the post-Super Bowl slot to launch the second season of "The Voice," it went on to challenge "American Idol" to be the top-rated non-sports show of the 2011-12 season.

In a testament to football's vast popularity, NBC's "Sunday Night Football" was the top-rated show overall in 2011-12, as it is so far this season.

http://www.thewrap.com/tv/column-post/elementary-falls-short-post-super-bowl-voice-ratings-76081

Agreed. I've watched every episode, usually within a day of airing.

Thirty four minutes of bars and tone.

A quirky show to be sure. I started out thinking it was dumb but I can't look away. There are hits and misses though, I thought the PTA was boring but the everyone coming down with the cold episode was great.

LOL. Doubtful since the trucks, cameras and uplinks are on independent power. I was thinking 1) lots of commercials and 2) lots of outside-the-dome static shots and 3) a disembodied Jim Nantz on a cell phone.

The intellectual equivalent of bars and tone, I guess

Add Ricki Lake to the list of canceled shows. Her show is the third daytime talk show to be canceled this season, after Anderson Cooper and Jeremy Kyle....

http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/the-ricki-lake-show-daytime-tv-series-cancelled-no-season-two/

Nielsen Overnights
Super Bowl Viewership Down for First Time Since 2005
By Andrea Morabito, Broadcasting & Cable - Feb. 4, 2013

CBS' broadcast of Super Bowl XLVII on Sunday averaged 108.4 million total viewers, down 3% from last year's record 111.3 million, according to Nielsen.

It was the first time since 2005 that the Super Bowl didn't top the previous year's overall viewership, though it was still the third-most watched TV program in U.S. history. The game peaked with an average of 113.92 million viewers from 10:30-10:47 p.m.

That excludes from 8:41-9:11 p.m. ET, when the game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens was suspended due to a power outage in the New Orleans Superdome.

The game averaged a 46.3 household rating/69 share in the fast nationals, down 1% from last year's 47.0 rating for last year's New York Giants-New England Patriots match-up.

After the game, Elementary averaged a 12.0 household rating/24 share in the metered markets from 11:15 p.m.-12:15 a.m., down 38% from what The Voice averaged after the Super Bowl last year. It drew a 7.8 (down 52%) rating in the adults 18-49 demo, and drew 20.8 (down 45%) million viewers overall. Because of the 34-minute power outage during the game, the 11:15 p.m. start was the latest for any post-Super Bowl program.

All of the other networks aired repeats.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/491680-Super_Bowl_Viewership_Down_for_First_Time_Since_2005.php

Nielsen Overnights
'Downton Abbey' Comes in Second to Super Bowl
By Tim Molloy, TheWrap.com - Feb. 4, 2013

Talk about your counter-programming: PBS's "Downton Abbey" was second only to the Super Bowl in Sunday night primetime.

A distant second, but still.

The decision to air a new episode of "Downton" -- even as other broadcasters opted for repeats -- paid off for PBS. Sunday's episode averaged 6.6 million viewers, just a hair below the 108.4 million viewers who tuned in for the game.

If just a few of those discriminating "Downton" viewers had deigned to watch football instead, the Super Bowl might have managed to break the record set by last year's game and become the most-watched U.S. TV broadcast ever. Instead, it had to settle for third, behind the 2012 and 2011 games.

An episode of "Elementary" that aired after the Super Bowl -- and well after the conclusion of "Downton" -- had 20.8 million total viewers.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/491680-Super_Bowl_Viewership_Down_for_First_Time_Since_2005.php

TV Notes
NBC Orders ‘Ironside’ Remake Drama Pilot Starring Blair Underwood
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - Feb. 4, 2013

Robert T. Ironside is mounting a comeback. NBC has given a pilot order to a reboot of the 1967 detective drama Ironside to star Blair Underwood.

The new Ironside, written by Mike Caleo and produced by Universal TV, centers on a tough, sexy and acerbic police detective (Underwood) relegated to a wheelchair after a shooting who is hardly limited by his disability as he pushes and prods his hand-picked team to solve the most difficult cases in the city. The project originally had David Semel attached to direct and executive produce but he is no longer involved and just signed on to direct/executive produce CBS’ drama pilot Intelligence. Caleo executive produces Ironside with Teri Weinberg of Yellow Brick Road and John Davis and John Fox of Davis Entertainment.

I hear NBC’s pickup hinged on Underwood playing the lead. The LA Law alum’s casting stems from a development/talent holding deal he signed with Universal TV in August. The actor, repped by ICM Partners and Thruline, recently starred in A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway and his series credits also include NBC’s The Event.

This marks former NBC top programming executive Weinberg’s return to the network and Davis Entertainment’s second pilot this season, joining NBC drama The Blacklist. The original Ironside series, from Universal TV, ran on NBC from 1967 to 1975 with Raymond Burr as the paralyzed Chief of Detectives. Here is the show’s opening sequence to the catchy theme music by Quincy Jones. [CLICK LINK BELOW]

http://www.deadline.com/2013/02/nbc-orders-ironside-remake-drama-pilot-starring-blair-underwood/

Business Notes
Bonnie Hammer to lead NBCUniversal cable entertainment channels
By Meg James, Los Angeles Times - Feb. 4, 2013

In a dramatic reorganization at NBCUniversal, respected programmer Bonnie Hammer has been promoted to lead the company's entire cable entertainment portfolio -- the most lucrative division, which generates approximately 50% of the media giant's operating cash flow.

Hammer will be in charge of all entertainment cable television channels, including USA, Syfy, Bravo, E!, Style,Oxygen and the children's channel Sprout. The management change becomes the third major organizational overhaul in two years in which NBCUniversal Chief Executive Steve Burke has sought to establish a more streamlined structure in a once-Balkanized company.

"Assembling our cable entertainment assets together in one group under Bonnie Hammer’s oversight is a logical and important step," Burke said in an email to employees on Monday to announce the changes.

Burke, in an interview, said he has been impressed with Hammer in the two years they have worked together. Her fan base includes many of her lieutenants -- known inside the company as "Team Bonnie."

"For a creative executive, Bonnie is as together and organized as anyone I have ever met," Burke said. "She's the whole package."

Separately, Burke is hiring former top advertising executive Joe Uva to be responsible for the company's Spanish-language media operation. Uva spent a rocky four years as chief executive of rival Univision Communications, following that company's 2007 leveraged buyout.

On April 3, Uva will step into the newly created role of chairman of NBCUniversal Hispanic Enterprises and Content, with oversight of Telemundo and the small cable channel mun2.

The realignment appears to be a demotion for Lauren Zalaznick, who until Monday had been in charge of Telemundo and the prominent cable channel Bravo as well as Internet ventures, Fandango and Daily Candy.

When Comcast acquired control of NBCUniversal two years ago, Burke divided the cable television operation into two sprawling pieces, giving Hammer and Zalaznick each considerable turf. His goal at the time was to retain both Hammer and Zalaznick, whom he saw as key executives, during the transition -- even though it meant cleaving the company's cable empire into two parts.

Burke said that Zalaznick's new position -- becoming an executive vice president in charge of digital ventures -- was significant because the area is increasingly important, and infinitely complex. Zalaznick's office will be next to Burke's, and she will be given latitude to become involved in business strategy and other new ventures.

"Lauren is brilliant in a quirky way," Burke said in the interview. "She has a very interesting way of thinking, and she is relentless in terms of getting things done."

All three executives will report to Burke. Monday's management realignment comes after Burke last summer streamlined the NBC News group. In 2011, four months after taking over, he realigned the NBC Sports properties.

NBCUniversal has seen its share of management moves. Just last week, NBC News President Steve Capus resigned, a decision that was foreshadowed last summer when Burke installed administrative executive Pat Fili-Krushel to be chairman of the NBCUniversal News Group, which includes MSNBC and CNBC. The move greatly diminished Capus' clout.

"Now, more than ever, we need to simplify our organization and take advantage of the breadth of our assets," Burke said.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-bonnie-hammer-takes-charge-of-nbcuniversal-cable-channels-20130204,0,7545530.story

Technology/Business Notes
Dell Nears $23 Billion Deal to Go Private
By Ben Worthen and Anupreeta Das, Wall Street Journal - Feb. 4, 2013

Michael Dell is close to finishing a risky $23 billion deal to take private the computer company he founded nearly 30 years ago, in an effort to remake Dell Inc. for a post-PC era.

Late Monday, Mr. Dell was in talks with Microsoft Corp. and private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners to offer shareholders between $13.50 and $13.75 a share, said people familiar with the matter, about a 25% premium to Dell's stock price in January before the possibility of a deal became public.

The buyout, if approved by shareholders, would be the largest such deal since the financial crisis.

It also would be an admission by Mr. Dell that he wasn't able to pull off the changes needed to improve his company's revenue and profit under Wall Street's glare. The buyout would give Mr. Dell the largest stake in the company, ensuring that the 47-year-old is the one who gets to oversee any changes.

The Round Rock, Texas, firm once boasted a market capitalization above $100 billion as the world's largest PC maker. But the company's market share has since dwindled to third behind Hewlett-Packard Co. and Lenovo Group Ltd. as tablets and smartphones became more popular.

Mr. Dell has also had to endure critical comparisons of the financial performance of his company and Apple Inc., a matter of particular frustration, according to people familiar with the matter.

Interviews with current and former Dell executives, plus other people who know the CEO, paint a picture of a man who appeared increasingly worried about his legacy. These people said it has been years since Mr. Dell showed the enthusiasm he did when he reclaimed the title of CEO in 2007 after a short period where he served only as chairman of the PC maker.

Mr. Dell didn't respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the company declined to comment.

Dell shares slipped 2.6% Monday to $13.27 on the Nasdaq Stock Market .

As part of the deal to go private, Mr. Dell would contribute his nearly 16% stake valued at about $3.7 billion, plus $700 million from an investment firm he controls, the people said. Microsoft would invest about $2 billion in the form of a subordinated debenture, a less-risky investment than common stock.

Microsoft isn't expected to get board seats or governance rights in a closely held Dell, one of the people said. Instead, the companies would tighten their relationship regarding use of Microsoft's Windows software, the person said.

Silver Lake Partners would invest more than $1 billion. Four banks are expected to arrange about $15 billion in debt to help fund the deal, and each would handle about a quarter of that amount, one of the people said.

The move to take the computer maker private is as much about Dell the man as Dell the company. "It's pretty simple: His name is on the door," one former company executive said of Mr. Dell.

When Mr. Dell, who started the company in 1984 in his dorm room at the University of Texas, returned in January 2007, he promised to reposition the company for the new age.

Mr. Dell brought in several new executives, including ones to run operations, marketing and lead Dell's consumer push. But while sales grew during Mr. Dell's first year back, he couldn't sustain the momentum. The operations and marketing chiefs left after less than two years. The consumer chief left in 2010, after failed attempts at music players, phones and high-end laptops.

Mr. Dell began taking a step back from public scrutiny. In 2011, he stopped making prepared remarks on Dell's earnings calls, leaving that to his finance chief and other lieutenants.

Mr. Dell still dominated operational reviews, said people who attended the meetings, and he sometimes appeared to focus more on minutiae than big strategic decisions. Several years ago, Mr. Dell wrote a four-page memo after he first played with the XPS One, a high-end desktop that embedded all its parts inside the monitor. Mr. Dell's notes, sent late the night he received the machine, included his thoughts on the Styrofoam used to package the computer.

By late 2010, Mr. Dell had largely abandoned his efforts to develop products for consumers and advocated a new path to become a one-stop shop for businesses. He spent billions acquiring makers of security software, storage systems and other products, with an eye toward reinventing itself as a smaller International Business Machines Corp.

The products for businesses have a higher margin than PCs, but so far haven't been able to offset declines in the PC business, which still accounts for half of Dell's annual $62 billion in revenue. Overall, PC sales dropped 13% in the first three quarters of the company's fiscal 2013. Total revenue was down 7% over that period.

While Mr. Dell hasn't said what he might do with a closely held Dell, analysts said Dell now has most of the pieces it needs to become a one-stop technology shop. But it has to make those pieces work together, both technologically and organizationally.

A private Dell could focus on that and possibly exit some lower-margin parts of the PC business, such as retail sales to consumers, they said.

Mr. Dell has tried to position Dell as something other than a PC company, pointing out that the machines account for just a third of Dell's profits.

The people who have worked with him expect some changes to the PC business, but don't anticipate Mr. Dell will stop making PCs altogether.

Indeed, Mr. Dell has appeared wedded to PCs. When Hewlett-Packard briefly considered spinning out its PC business in 2011, Mr. Dell in private conversations derided the idea as a big mistake.

Mr. Dell has said that some of the PC industry's changes caught him unaware.

When asked in a 2011 interview with The Wall Street Journal what surprised him most since he returned as Dell CEO in 2007, Mr. Dell said the rise of tablets had been unexpected for him.

"I didn't completely see that coming," he said, before adding that he didn't anticipate business users would give up PCs soon.

Ian Sherr and Don Clark contributed to this article.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323926104578281003807379998.html

TV Notes
TV comedies that lingered far longer than expected
By Jayme Deerwester, USA Today Staff - Feb. 4, 2013

Rules of Engagement may be the Energizer bunny of sitcoms; the middling CBS comedy starring David Spade and Patrick Warburton flat-out refuses to die. After canceling it last spring, the network changed its mind, went back to the TV scrapyard and slotted it as a midseason replacement. As it returns for its seventh season (Mondays, 8:30 ET/PT), USA TODAY's Jayme Deerwester looks at a few other series that may have seen their days, but outlasted their expected shelf lives and stuck around to plug holes in network lineups. They're all shows that made us stop and ask, "Wait, that's still on?"

ABC's 'According to Jim'

Seasons: 2001-09. Throughout its run, ABC shuffled Jim around the 8 p.m.-9 p.m. blocks on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, as well as running it during the regular season, midseason and summer.

The situation: Suburban schlub of a dad (Jim Belushi); his hot, smart wife, Cheryl (Courtney Thorne-Smith); and their three cute kids.

Ratings peak: The show saw its highest ratings (10.3 million) during the 2002-03 broadcast year, when it aired Tuesday at 8:30 for the full season.

Ratings low: The show dropped to 3.8 million for its final two seasons, when it ran from April to June.

Historical footnote: Jim was considered canceled in late 2008 and the sets were struck, yet ABC broke up the episodes, airing the last dozen the following spring.

* * * *

CBS' 'Dave's World'

Seasons: 1993-97. Dave's aired Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, in various time slots.

The situation: Pulitzer Prize winner Dave Barry's humorous columns brought to life, with Night Court vet Harry Anderson in the starring role.

Ratings peak: The show ranked fairly high its first two years (No. 21).

Ratings low: It dropped to No. 70 and then, finally, No. 94.

Historical footnote: Dave's World marked the first series regular role for future Rules of Engagement star Patrick Warburton.

* * * *

ABC's 'Coach'

Seasons: 1989-97. During those nine years, it jumped around the ABC schedule 16 times, in four different time slots on four different nights.

The situation: The trials and tribulations of Minnesota State football coach Hayden Fox (Craig T. Nelson), who is not-so-ably aided by dippy assistant Luther (Jerry Van Dyke).

Ratings peak: Coach scored 15.7 million viewers during the 1989-90 season.

Ratings low: Its final season only saw 8.1 million viewers, low in those days.

Historical footnote: The Aug. 6, 1997, series finale played on Luther's dimwittedness, with actor Van Dyke denying Coach was finally over. "I'm still coming to work on Monday," he announced.

* * * *

NBC's 'Wings'

Seasons: 1990-97. Its peak years were spent in the Thursday 9:30 time slot. However, it jumped around the NBC lineup with great frequency, with stints ranging from one to six months.

The situation: Pilot brothers Joe and Brian Hackett (Timothy Daly and Steven Weber) try to keep their small airline aloft on the resort island of Nantucket, and interact with the other denizens of their private airport.

Ratings peak: The show spent four seasons in the top 30 and saw its highest numbers during the 1991-92 season, with 14.6 million tuning in.

Ratings low: Wings didn't make the top 30 in either its first or last two seasons.

Historical footnote: Wings lifted the careers of two future Oscar nominees: Thomas Haden Church (Sideways) and John Hawkes (Winter's Bone). And it gave the first big TV role to Tony Shalhoub, who would go on to become Monk.

* * * *

ABC/CBS' 'Family Matters'

Seasons: 1989-98. A Friday/Saturday night family staple, it originated as part of ABC's storied TGIF lineup; it was sold to CBS for its final year.

The situation: Carl Winslow (Reginald VelJohnson), an African-American Chicago cop, tries to keep his family in line and limit the damage incurred during the visits of nerd-next-door Urkel (Jaleel White).

Ratings peak: The show's second season ranked No. 15 among broadcast series for 1990-91.

Ratings low: The show petered out at No. 99 for its ninth and final season (1997-98).

Historical footnote: Family Matters was a spinoff of Perfect Strangers, where Winslow family matriarch Harriette (Jo Marie Payton) labored as the elevator operator at the Chicago newspaper where Cousin Larry (Mark-Linn Baker) worked.

* * * *

NBC's 'The Facts of Life'

Seasons: 1979-88. The show premiered on Fridays, spent its peak years on the Wednesday lineup, then finished out its run on Saturdays.

The situation: After leaving her post as the housekeeper on Diff'rent Strokes, Mrs. Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae) went on to serve as the housemother at Eastland Academy, a girl's boarding school outside New York City. When she left that job to run a gourmet food shop, her former students came along.

Ratings peak: Its fourth and fifth seasons (1983-85) averaged 14.4 million viewers, good enough for No. 24. Overall, it was a solid ratings performer, averaging between 14 million and 15.5 million viewers for all but the first and last seasons.

Ratings low: Viewership for the ninth and final season (1987-88) never rose above 12.7 million, low by network standards in those days.

Historical footnote: Facts was only the second regular series role for George Clooney, a cast member from 1985-87. In 2012, Facts alumna Lisa Whelchel (who played Blair Warner) competed on Survivor: Philippines, where she tied for runner-up and won the fan vote for Player of the Season.

* * * *

Fox's 'King of the Hill'

Seasons: 1997-2010. Like some other shows on this list, Hill aired in spurts. However, most of Hill's spurts occurred on Sundays, which theoretically made this animated comedy easier to find; theoretically, because it was frequently pre-empted by NFL games in overtime. The show was canceled in 2008, but Fox relented, putting it back on the air until May 2010.

The situation: When not selling propane and accessories, Texas family man Hank Hill (voiced by creator Mike Judge) knocks back beers with his three best friends. Those sessions (and many six-packs of Alamo beer) help him cope with a narrow urethra, sassy substitute-teacher wife Peggy, non-jock son Bobby, snooty Laotian neighbor Kahn, and bitter, legless WWII veteran dad Cotton.

Ratings peak: The show crested the ratings hill in Season 2 (1997-98), which drew 16.3 million viewers.

Ratings low: Hill's final season was not its lowest-rated; in Season 9, it managed only 4.8 million.

Historical footnote: Hank's niece, Luanne, was voiced by actress Brittany Murphy, who died about three months after the series wrapped.

* * * *

NBC's 'Just Shoot Me'

Seasons: 1997-2003. It premiered in the Tuesday 9:30 slot, but saw action on Wednesday and Thursday nights before being shifted to Saturdays to finish out its run.

The situation: Serious journalist Maya Gallo (Laura San Giacomo) is fired from her highbrow gig and is forced to slum it at Blush magazine, her dad's (George Segal) Cosmopolitan-like women's rag.

Ratings peak: Though its highest ratings (15.6 million) came in Season 5, when it followed Will & Grace in the Thursday 9:30 slot, it was more valuable on Tuesdays, where it was often the top-rated show of the night.

Ratings low: Season 7, which saw the show flip-flopping between Tuesdays and Saturdays, drew only 6.4 million viewers.

Historical footnote: Just Shoot Me was the post-Saturday Night Live landing spot for David Spade, who would go on to star in Rules of Engagement.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2013/02/04/rules-of-engagement-according-to-jim/1891249/

TV Notes
Shunning the Safe, FX Indulges Its Dark Side
By David Carr, The New York Times' 'Media Equation' Blog - Feb. 4, 2013

The FX channel can be a rugged place, full of prostitutes, charlatans, spies, bikers and thugs. But it’s a nice place if you are trying to make a show.

How come? Because the guy who is greenlighting the shows, John Landgraf, the president and general manager of FX Networks, spent many years making them himself, or at least trying to make them.

He learned early on that the guidance he received from the networks was not going to lead to remarkable television.

“I always got the same dumb note from the networks. ‘Can you make the character more likable?’ ” he recalled last week in a phone interview. “Not make them more exciting, more compelling, more interesting, no, it was always make them more likable.”

Mr. Landgraf, who worked as a network executive at NBC during the ’90s and had a hand in “Friends,” “ER” and “The West Wing,” went on to form a television production company with Danny DeVito. He had 53 projects in development from 1999 to the early 2000s — nine that became pilots, six that were made into shows and one, “Reno 911!” that made it beyond a single season, albeit on Comedy Central.

“It was crazy-making,” he said.

He became convinced that network television was broken — that in an effort to make characters more likable, the industry made television that not anyone much liked.

Mr. Landgraf’s turn on the other side of the table came in 2004 when he became president of FX, the basic cable channel owned by News Corporation. He inherited “Nip/Tuck” and “The Shield,” but they were aging and he needed to replace them, so he went on a spree — of saying yes.

“We wanted to adapt our process to what the creatives needed and have a more efficient outcome,” he said. “We write a check to fund the production and they send us the shows. By trusting the people you work with — sharing the authority — and being willing to fail, things have gone pretty well for us.”

He said yes to a lot of dark and spicy fare — it is not as lurid as pay cable can be, but it is only technically less naked. And it is clearly intended for adults.

With that in mind, he said yes to the comedian Louis C.K., who had been flailing on HBO and then tried to come up with something that networks would swallow. In exchange for producing a pilot for almost nothing, Louis C.K. had complete freedom. The result was a brutally funny mash-up of sitcom and stand-up that clicked for FX.

He also said yes to “Archer,” an animated period-spy series — nothing about those three things says television gold — about an agent with high testosterone and a low I.Q. It contains some of the most remarkable, densely funny writing on television.

“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” has improbably lived, going into syndication with, you guessed it, the least likable group of characters you could conjure. Last week, I happened to see the comedian W. Kamau Bell in New York and thought, this guy is funny, somebody should give him a show. Somebody already had, on FX.

Mr. Landgraf spent money on “Justified,” a Southern gothic inspired by Elmore Leonard that featured a laconic, trigger-happy marshal chasing charismatic, speechifying villains who belong in the television pantheon. He gave the go ahead to “American Horror Story,” a lurid, scary weekly trip to the dark side. And he said yes to “Sons of Anarchy,” a wildly popular drama that would be described, in industry speak, as Hamlet on Harleys.

Mr. Landgraf is not just a yes man. He has shunned reality shows because, as he succinctly explained, “I don’t like them.”

He has had his failures, including “Dirt,” “The Riches” and “Terriers.”

“In our industry, shows are ‘not renewed,’ never ‘canceled.’ ” he said. “I’ve canceled shows and I think you have to own those failures to learn from them.”

Mr. Landgraf is treasured by writers on the beat because, in an industry built on euphemism, he says what he thinks.

It’s not that the rest of the industry lacks taste, it’s just most are so busy living in fear that a creative risk seems out of the question.

“Back when we were pitching ‘Justified,’ FX was our last meeting,” said Graham Yost, the show’s executive producer. “John asked questions nobody asked, good, smart questions that demonstrated an understanding of what we trying to do.”

When a television executive talks about brave programming decisions, it’s usually from the bottom of the ratings heap, but Mr. Landgraf has used original programming and aggressive spending on big movies — rather than network reruns — to climb out of the pile.

January was the best rated month in the channel’s history, and the network is up 28 percent in total viewers from a year ago, and up 37 percent in the treasured 18-to-49 demographic.

Sometime in the next year, FX will be on pace to earn half a billion in profit. Those aren’t Fox News numbers, but it is quite an improvement for a channel that did not have meaningful profits when Mr. Landgraf took over. He and his team will soon get control of FX2, a perennial basement dweller, and reapply the operational lessons to try to replicate the success.

“Being ‘talent friendly’ is a trite old Hollywood cliché that is often spoken but seldom lived,” said Peter Rice, chairman of Fox Broadcasting. “What makes John unique is that you can see those beliefs in the adventurous choices that he makes.”

Mr. Landgraf said that failure is a fact of life in entertainment, but that he and his team had been experiencing less of it lately.

“Power is only of value if you give it away,” he said. “You have to be willing to give it away, to entrust your career, your reputation and your future to others, to make something that is remarkable.”

In that sense, Mr. Landgraf and FX are not unique. HBO, which hit pay dirt with “The Sopranos,” is built on finding and backing the modern auteurs of television. Showtime is finding traction the same way, and AMC broke new ground in basic cable with “Mad Men.”

Last week, FX unveiled its own version of a modern period drama with “The Americans,” about a spy couple living on the sly in suburban America.

“House of Cards,” another shiny bit of original programming, started streaming on Netflix last week, a rare entrant from off the established television grid. Mr. Landgraf does business with Netflix and is happy to compete with the service, but it drives him crazy that its executives say they will not release ratings or any metrics on viewing of the highly promoted show.

It’s clear that what is at stake for him is winning, and you can’t do that without keeping score.

Mr. Landgraf is an odd mix for a television executive, lavish in his praise of his competitors while making it clear he would like to run them over. He is not short on ambition.

“If you make one show that works, you might have gotten lucky, but we now have half a dozen shows that are working,” he said. “And we’ve done it by making small bets with big risks.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/business/media/at-fx-a-playbook-that-gives-its-series-free-rein.html?ref=media&_r=0

"2nd Annual 90th Birthday Special"

What? did she turn 90 twice?

Congrats though... I wish I can get to 90 .... twice

Critic's Notes
Bianculli's Best Bets
By David Bianculli, TVWorthWatching.com - Feb. 5, 2013

PIONEERS OF TELEVISION
PBS, 8:00 p.m.
SEASON FINALE: The fourth and final of this season’s documentary studies is devoted to Miniseries – but, like the other installments, dilutes the power of its subject by being maddeningly superficial. Except for a one-minute mention of NBC’s Shogun, the entire hour is devoted to three ABC miniseries: Roots, The Thorn Birds and Rich Man, Poor Man. Though all three deserve inclusion and study, this hour isn’t a history of the genre, it’s a TV fanzine. Why in the world wouldn’t you start with the real pioneers of the miniseries form? Why not salute the multi-part dramatic biographies of Abraham Lincoln and John and Quincy Adams on CBS’s Omnibus in the Fifties? Or super-early miniseries Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier on ABC’s Disneyland? Or CBS’s surreal The Prisoner series from 1968? Or the original public TV importations of The Forsyte Saga and Upstairs, Downstairs in the early Seventies? All of those miniseries predated the “pioneers” shown in this hour. What’s here isn’t worthless – but what’s missing is a shame, and a waste. Check local listings.

SMASH
NBC, 9:00 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: This two-hour season premiere, overseen by new show-runner Josh Safran, essentially hits the reset button. By the time the two hours are over, several old plots (and characters) are dismissed, and new ones set into action. And the future of Bombshell, the Marilyn Monroe musical at the heart of all this, continues to be in doubt, while formerly competing leading ladies Ivy (Megan Hilty) and Karen (Katharine McPhee) continue to find their respective paths. And early on, an established star is introduced in the character of new Broadway sensation Veronica Moore, played by Jennifer Hudson. Hudson, like McPhee, is a losing finalist on American Idol – and both of them have proven themselves as true winners since.

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: "SILICON VALLEY"
PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET
Instead of being a profile of Silicon Valley in the modern era, this documentary tells only the early story – starting in 1957, when a small team of physicists and engineers went out to start a new industry in a new setting. Check local listings.

JUSTIFIED
FX, 10:00 p.m. ET
I don’t know why it happens, I just know that it does: In tonight’s episode, for the first time all season, Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) and Boyd (Walton Goggins) share the same scene. Stand by, sports fans. When these two actors are together, the results are never less than championship level.

CABARET
TCM, 10:15 p.m. ET
Whatever your opinion of the recent Les Miserables movie, or even of the less recent Chicago, neither of those musical films would exist without this groundbreaking predecessor, Bob Fosse’s brilliant 1972 big-screen version of Cabaret. Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey are brilliant, as is the way this entire film is edited and presented. Oh, and the music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb? More brilliance. One verse alone, from the title song, proves that point: “Start by admitting from cable to tomb isn’t that long a stay / Life is a cabaret, old chum / Life is a cabaret.” Indeed.

http://www.tvworthwatching.com/

Don't know where but I heard today that a writer (possibly a blog) absolutely eviscerated the CBS effort while the lights were out. Nothing good to say about anything or anyone called on during the dark time.

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

Once ain't bad. I'll take the first one and see what it looks like for the next 90.

Nielsen Overnights (18-49)
Super Bowl boost for CBS’s ‘Mother’
Veteran CBS show averages a 4.0 in 18-49s
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Feb. 5, 2013

CBS won Monday night in adults 18-49, getting a Super Bowl boost for “How I Met Your Mother,” which hit a season high in the demo after several promotions during the big game.

“Mother” was the night’s highest-rated show, averaging a 4.0 in 18-49s, according to Nielsen overnights, up 8 percent from its most recent original two weeks ago.

The recently renewed sitcom won its timeslot, leading off a night in which CBS finished first in every half hour among 18-49s.

Undoubtedly “Mother” was helped by the theme of the episode, the return of the popular Robin Sparkles storyline.

“Mother” provided a solid lead-in for the seventh-season premiere of “Rules of Engagement,” which drew a 3.1, a point higher than former timeslot occupant “Partners” averaged during its brief run last fall.

“Rules” was down 14 percent from last year’s season premiere, when it aired behind the higher-rated “The Big Bang Theory” on Thursday night.

“Mother” was actually CBS’s only sitcom to see gains versus its most recent episode, even though all received Super Bowl promotion.

“2 Broke Girls,” which aired a much-buzzed-about pole dance ad during halftime of the game, averaged a 3.6 at 9 p.m., off 3 percent from its last original, and lead-out “Mike & Molly” drew a 3.1, flat with two weeks ago.

The return of original competition had an impact on Fox’s “The Following,” the new drama that premiered to strong numbers two weeks ago and actually grew in its second outing, the only new show to do so this year.

“Following” averaged a still-solid 2.9 at 9 p.m., off 12 percent from a 3.3 last week. Lead-in “Bones” was also off 12 percent from last week’s season high, to a 2.3.

In the showdown of two-hour 8 p.m. reality shows, ABC’s “The Bachelor” fell 4 percent from last week, to a 2.4, finishing ahead of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” which dipped 13 percent from the previous week to a 2.0.

On the CW, new midseason drama “The Carrie Diaries” hit a season high in several demos, including 18-49s (0.7), 18-34s (0.8) and women 18-34 (1.1).

CBS led the night among 18-49s with a 3.1 average overnight rating and an 8 share. Fox was second at 2.6/7, ABC third at 2.2/6, NBC fourth at 1.8/5, Univision fifth at 1.7/4, and Telemundo and CW tied for sixth 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-seven percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

CBS finished first during each hour of the night, starting with a 3.6 at 8 p.m. for “Mother” (4.0) and “Rules of Engagement” (3.1). ABC and Fox tied for second at 2.3, ABC for “Bachelor” and Fox for “Bones,” with NBC fourth with a 2.0 for “Loser,” Univision fifth with a 1.8 for “Por Ella Soy Eva,” CW sixth with a 0.7 for “Carrie” and Telemundo seventh with a 0.5 for “Pasion Prohibida.”

At 9 p.m. CBS was first with a 3.4 for “Girls” (3.6) and “Molly” (3.1), followed by Fox with a 2.9 for “Following.” ABC was third with a 2.5 for more “Bachelor,” NBC fourth with a 2.1 for more “Loser,” Univision fifth with a 1.8 for “Amores Verdaderos,” Telemundo sixth with a 0.6 for “La Patrona” and CW seventh with a 0.4 for “90210.”

CBS led again at 10 p.m. with a 2.3 for “Hawaii Five-0,” while ABC moved to second with a 1.8 for “Castle.” Univision was third with a 1.5 for “Amor Bravio,” NBC fourth with a 1.2 for “Deception” and Telemundo fifth with a 0.5 for “El Rostro de la Venganza.”

Among households, CBS was first for the night with a 6.3 average overnight rating and a 10 share. ABC and Fox tied for second at 5.4/8, NBC was fourth at 3.1/5, Univision fifth at 2.0/3, CW sixth at 0.8/1 and Telemundo seventh at 0.7/1.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/super-bowl-boost-for-cbss-mother/

* * * *

TV Notes
For ‘Smash,’ still finding its range
NBC musical drama returns looking to reach its potential
By Louisa Ada Seltzer, Media Life Magazine - Feb. 5, 2013

Plenty of first-year shows get renewed for a second season based largely on their potential, and NBC’s “Smash,” which returns tonight at 9 p.m. with a special two-hour bow, is one of them.

The first season of “Smash” showed promise. But it was never a smash. It wasn’t even a hit.

After months of hype, there were outsized expectations for the musical drama’s launch. “Smash” debuted last February behind the then-red-hot reality show “The Voice,” which was coming off a humongous post-Super Bowl episode.

“Voice” boosted the series premiere of “Smash” to a 3.8 adults 18-49 rating, second-best for any new drama last season yet still deemed underwhelming by those who expected the show to live up to its moniker.

The high expectations really weren’t fair. Broadcast dramas airing in the 10 p.m. timeslot had been in decline for years, and “Smash,” while receiving critical praise, has a limited audience to begin with because of the musical premise.

By its season finale in May, the show had fallen to a 1.8.

Yet, working in its favor, the show grew by 47 percent when seven-day-DVR-playback numbers were added. Partly because of that, NBC decided to give the show a second season contingent on some changes, including a new showrunner and a few creative changes in the show’s direction.

This season also starts off with a guest starring arc by Jennifer Hudson, the former “American Idol” contestant who won an Oscar for her performance in “Dreamgirls.”

“Smash” may not see much ratings improvement this year, airing in a Tuesday 10 p.m. timeslot where NBC’s “Parenthood” has long toiled with middling numbers.

Then again, facing weak competition on ABC and CBS, “Smash” could be No. 1 in the timeslot without living up to its potential again.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/for-smash-still-finding-its-range/

What a typo.

The word is cradle, not "cable."  Bianculli's flub totally blew it.