Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 2847

Wow, "Amour" must be more popular with the kids than anybody realized.

Critic's Notes
Bianculli's Best Bets
By David Bianculli, TVWorthWatching.com - Feb. 26, 2013

CHICAGO
Style, 8:00 p.m. ET
If you watched the Oscars Sunday, you saw the live recreation of one musical number from this 2002 film musical. Now revisit the whole thing – and compare and contrast with Les Miserables, the most recent big-screen, big-budget musical. Chicago is the better film, and the Academy agreed, honoring it as Best Picture. It won several other Oscars as well, including Best Supporting Actress, an award won by Les Miserables as well – the latter by Anne Hathaway, the former by Catherine Zeta-Jones. And both the 2013 Oscars telecast and the 2002 Chicago, by the way, were produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.

CULT
The CW, 9:00 p.m. ET
I’m on record as not thinking very much of this show – but the pilot was so obsessed with establishing its show-within-the-show conceit that it was hard to judge whether it was going to go anywhere worthwhile. By the end of tonight’s Episode 2, we should have a clearer idea. But I’m not optimistic.

PARADE'S END
HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET
MINISERIES PREMIERE: HBO is showing its newest, five-hour period miniseries over three nights: two hours tonight, two more tomorrow, and the conclusion on Thursday. Tom Stoppard adapts the WWI-era novels by Ford Madox Ford, and Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch has the central role as Christopher, a man with a wife who’s unfaithful and unpredictable (Rebecca Hall, who’s captivating) and a woman he adores, but never seems to connect with (Adelaide Clemens). Whether or not he’s at war, Christopher is never at peace (“I haven’t a friend in the world,” he says at one point, matter-of-factly), while his wife will say and do horrible or outrageous things simply to shatter his stiff British countenance. “At last,” she tells him after one such outburst, “I’ve changed the expression on your face.” It’s all about people who love each other at the wrong times – and though Cumberbatch and Hall are great together, and the supporting cast is strong, this miniseries veers between two subtle and too obvious. Calling it Downton Abbey with nudity, though, is both an accurate and affectionate assessment – though the nudity is much more upstairs than downstairs.

SMASH
NBC, 10:00 p.m. ET
This second episode of the second season continues to reset the plot, establish and strengthen new characters, and try to reboot a bit under a different show producer. Tonight’s highlight: a planned live musical showcase for diva Veronica Moore, played by Jennifer Hudson – who, in real life, just performed live at the Oscars Sunday night.

JUSTIFIED
FX, 10:00 p.m. ET
The momentum generated by Justified the past two weeks justifies its status as one of the most exciting drama series on TV right now – and tonight, both Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) and Boyd (Walton Goggins) are in a high gear, take-no-prisoners mode. And when Raylan is talking about taking no prisoners, he often means it literally.

http://www.tvworthwatching.com/

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TV Review
CBS' 'Golden Boy' Nicely Primes the Network's Pump
By Ed Bark, TVWorthWatching.com

Adding another crime series to the CBS lineup is roughly the same as using the word "journey" on a reality-competition show.

So what else is new?

The great equalizer, though, is if the newcomer is any good. And Golden Boy is quite good, judging from its first two episodes.

Britisher Theo James, a veteran of one Downton Abbey episode in Season 1, has the potential to be CBS' biggest heartthrob in many a season. But his character, future kid police commissioner Walter William Clark, would be lost without the strong support of Chi McBride as burly mentor Don Owen.

Tuesday's premiere (10 p.m. ET) begins with gunshots and screams from New York City denizens in the vicinity of them. Young beat cop Clark, with just three years experience, emerges as a hero after shooting and killing a hostage-taker before saving the life of his partner with some hasty CPR.

It sounds pretty standard issue. But Golden Boy also makes periodic trips to "Seven Years Later," with the very slightly graying 34-year-old Clark newly serving as NYC's youngest top cop ever.

"Getting here was a long road," Clark tells a guest-starring Richard Kind, who asks in turn, "So you tell me, commissioner, you a master politician or just a savvy cop?"

Golden Boy spends most of its time charting Clark's wonder years. Offered any squad room he wants after his heroics, Clark demands a spot on the homicide task force. Its best known member, territorial detective Christian Arroyo (Kevin Alejandro), takes an instant dislike to the kid and begins plotting his downfall. The gruff Owen, just two years from retirement, gives Clark guff but means well with his periodic lectures on following procedure.

The task force's other principal members are Arroyo's hard-knocks partner, Deborah McKenzie (Bonnie Somerville), and big lug Joe Diaco (Holt McCallany), who prides himself on getting prime tickets to big events like The Book of Mormon and Knicks games. Clark also has a troubled kid sister named Agnes (Stella Maeve), whom he sets up with a job at a nearby diner frequented by cops.

CBS has seen to it that Golden Boy is typically affixed with a crime-of-the-week that gets solved by episode's end. But its strong suits are the character mix and the building blocks leading to Clark's rapid rise. The first two episodes both end with him as commish. And in the March 5th hour, he's walking with a noticeable limp. How he got it is yet to be seen.

James is both impressive and knock-out good looking as the title character. But the well-worn McBride, this time affixed with a New Yawk accent, is the deep-set anchor of Golden Boy. His very first line is a deadpan winner. "I'm your partner," he tells an initially disappointed Clark. "Don't knock yourself out doin' backflips."

McBride, a survivor of UPN's super-panned 1998 series, The Secret Diaries of Desmond Pfeiffer, has had a tough run of late in short-lived series such as Killer Instinct, The Nine, Pushing Daisies and Human Target. But CBS infrequently fails on the cop series front, so maybe this is finally the one for him.

After a pair of Tuesday outings (Feb. 26 and March 5), Golden Boy will move to its regular Friday, 9 p.m. ET slot on March 8. It's replacing CSI: NY, which has its season finale on Feb. 22.

It'll be a surprise if Golden Boy doesn't stick. The cast is engaging, the premise is intriguing and the genre long has been CBS' ratings-rich specialty. Dead bodies are this network's lifeblood. And it always has room for one more.

GRADE: B+

http://www.tvworthwatching.com/BlogPostDetails.aspx?postId=4384

TV Notes
'Dancing With the Stars' Names Andy Dick, Dorothy Hamill, Jacoby Jones as Contestants
By Tim Molloy, TheWrap.com - Feb. 26, 2013

Unpredictable comedian? Check. Olympians? Check. Bunch of people you've never heard of? Of course.

ABC announced the new contestants for fading reality series "Dancing With the Stars" Tuesday, and went with the usual mix of young Disney talent, athletes, and weirdos.

Andy Dick will provide the unpredictability, given a history of alcohol-related groping and indecent exposure arrests. D.L. Hughley will also represent the comedy world, but is more likely to keep his clothes on.

Wynonna Judd and Kellie Pickler will give country music fans a couple of people to root for. And Judd could be this year's Bristol Palin -- in other words, someone sort of political -- if half-sister Ashley Judd opts to run for the U.S. Senate from Kentucky.

Olympians Dorothy Hamill and Alexandra Raisman will add some respectability to the whole affair. NFL star Jacoby Jones and boxer Victor Ortiz's athleticism make them serious contenders as well, to the extent that anything about "DWTS" is serious.

The show will need lots of competitors who know how to stage a comeback, because it's attempting one as well. Ratings are down, and a recent All-Star season failed to inject new life into the series.

Here's the full list of contenders, as well as their official ABC bios to remind you, in a few cases, who they are: [CLICK LINK BELOW]

http://www.thewrap.com/tv/column-post/dancing-stars-names-andy-dick-dorothy-hamill-jacoby-jones-contestants-79271

I've never watched more than a few seconds at a time of DWTS while switching channels, but I may have to get my wife to give me a shout when Kellie Pickler comes on. I've liked her ever since she was on American Idol and even saw her in concert once. Money well spent...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFQl-rrDryM

Cablevision Sues Viacom:

http://consumerist.com/2013/02/26/sick-of-being-forced-to-pay-for-channels-no-one-watches-cablevision-sues-viacom/

This may be the first time in history Cablevision has done anything to help consumers.

Their first concern is their own bottom line, if it ends up helping consumers then that's just bonus. Helping consumers was not the priority when CV decided to file this lawsuit.

If they should win and unbundle, I will hold my breath waiting for the cable bill to go down. In fact it is about time for the annual increase.

The problem is, there's nothing illegal about bundling. The owners of the channels and content are free to sell their products any way they wish, be it in bundles or individually. We may not like it, but it's their product to do with as they please.

It's up to the cable provider to either buy the package or not buy it.

If they choose not to buy and the content owner pulls their channels, one of two things might happen: people bail and go to another provider who carries the channels, or people don't care that the channels are gone and stick with the provider.

What likely won't happen is the bill actually going down as a result...

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

Nielsen Overnights (18-49)
‘Bachelor’-fueled ABC wins another Monday
Veteran reality show averages a 2.9 in 18-49s
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Feb. 26, 2013

ABC continued its midseason Monday night surge, finishing No. 1 for the second straight week with a lineup fueled by “The Bachelor.”

The network averaged a 2.7 adults 18-49 rating and 7 share in primetime, according to Nielsen overnights, just ahead of Fox at 2.5/7 and CBS at 2.5/6.

Last week ABC and CBS tied for first for the night, but last night CBS aired a rerun at 10 p.m., which pulled down its nightly average.

The two-hour “Bachelor” was down 3 percent from last week’s season-high 3.0 to a 2.9. It drew a 3.0 in its final hour and finished first in the competitive 9 p.m. timeslot.

Lead-out “Castle” tied last week’s season-high 2.3 at 10 p.m. and finished first in the timeslot.

CBS still had the night’s highest-rated show, “How I Met Your Mother,” which averaged a 3.4 at 8 p.m.

Its 9 p.m. comedy “2 Broke Girls” was the night’s No. 2 show, though it tied a series low with a 3.2.

Fox’s “The Following” was off 4 percent from last week to a 2.7 at 9 p.m., finishing as the evening’s No. 1 drama (against scant competition with CBS’s “Hawaii Five-0” a repeat).

With ABC in first, Fox second and CBS third in primetime, NBC placed fourth at 1.8/5, Univision fifth at 1.6/4, Telemundo sixth at 0.6/2 and CW 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-seven percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

At 8 p.m. CBS led with a 3.0 for “Mother” (3.4) and “Rules of Engagement” (2.6), followed by ABC with a 2.8 for “Bachelor.” Fox was third with a 2.3 for “Bones,” NBC fourth with a 2.1 for “The Biggest Loser,” Univision fifth with a 1.7 for “Por Ella Soy Eva,” and CW and Telemundo tied for sixth at 0.5, CW for “The Carrie Diaries” and Telemundo for “Pasion Prohibida.”

ABC took the lead at 9 p.m. with a 3.0 for more “Bachelor,” while CBS slipped to second with a 2.9 for “Girls” (3.2) and “Mike & Molly” (2.7). Fox was third with a 2.7 for “Following,” NBC fourth with a 2.2 for more “Loser,” Univision fifth with a 1.8 for “Amores Verdaderos,” Telemundo sixth with a 0.9 for “La Patrona” and CW seventh with a 0.3 for “90210.”

At 10 p.m. ABC led with a 2.3 for “Castle,” with CBS second with a 1.4 for the “Hawaii” rerun. NBC and Univision tied for third at 1.2, NBC for “Deception” and Univision for “Amor Bravio,” and Telemundo was fifth with a 0.5 for “El Rostro de la Venganza.”

ABC was also first for the night among households with a 6.3 average overnight rating and a 10 share. CBS was second at 5.3/8, Fox third at 5.2/8, NBC fourth at 3.1/5, Univision fifth at 2.0/3, Telemundo sixth at 0.8/1 and CW seventh at 0.6/1.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/bachelor-fueled-abc-wins-another-monday/

TV/Business Notes
Nickelodeon Hits ‘Reset’ Button, Orders Toon Series ‘Breadwinners’, Renews ‘TMNT’
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - Feb. 26, 2013

At the Nickelodeon upfront presentation in New York this afternoon, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said that the kids cable network, which has gone through some rough times lately, “has hit the reset button” and is “reinventing itself.” There will be a big investment in animation, including the company’s upcoming feature offshoots of Nick toon series, the SpongeBob Square Pants 3D movie and the Michael Bay-directed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, both slated for a 2014 release. Coincidentally, Nick’s upfront announcements today were all in the animation arena — a series pickup for Breadwinners, a new animated series based on the animated short by animator Gary “Doodles” DiRaffaele and writer Steve Borst (Mad), and a third season renewal for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. DiRaffaele and Borst, who came from Nickelodeon’s Animation Shorts Program, are also behind the Nickelodeon series about two booty-shaking ducks, which has received a 20-episode order. (watch the short below). Breadwinners joins recently picked up new live-action series The Haunted Hathaways, The Thundermans and Sam & Cat.

During the presentation, Nickelodeon Group president Cyma Zarghami acknowledged that the network has had a “tough year” where “new competitors came on strong,” a reference to upstart Disney Jr. She outlined the network’s strategy for getting back on track by targetting “post-millennial kids,” born in and after 2008.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/02/nickelodeon-orders-new-animated-series-breadwinners-renews-ninja-turtles/

TV Review
Boston's Finest (TNT)
By Allison Keene, The Hollywood Reporter - Feb. 26, 2013

After the travesty of the Jersey Shore-esque Boston series Southie Rules that bowed in January, the town’s image is in need of a cleanse. Time to call the Wahlbergs -- Robert, Donnie or Mark -- to the rescue. The trio have always made their hometown love of Boston well known, and Donnie’s latest project for TNT, the unscripted series Boston’s Finest, is an ode not just to his beloved city but also to the police who patrol the same streets they live on.

Boston’s Finest is a sleek and engaging work that is a world away from Southie Rules or even Cops, but it fits in perfectly with TNT's love of Law & Order. It’s genuine and casual, chronicling the banter, the intensity, the humor and the sacrifice that goes into the daily work of the officers of the Boston police force’s many departments. In the first two episodes, the focus is mainly on the highly decorated Gang Unit (day and night shifts), the Fugitive Unit and Patrol, with ride-alongs and case work interspersed with scenes of the personal lives of the officers.

Among the early standouts are Myles Lawton and his “modern-day Brady Bunch” of six kids, as well as Greg Dankers, a former military man who works the day shift while his wife, a fellow officer, works at night. There’s also Jennifer Penton, a tough but fair female officer, who struggles with the reality that her twin sister is an addict who is in and out of jail, something that gives her a particular empathy when it comes to some of the down-and-out personalities she is in contact with on the job..

Bouncing around among departments doesn’t fracture the momentum of the episodes at all, and the work’s high stakes are felt, though the overall product does feel sanitized. Don’t look for this to be a portrayal of the good, bad and ugly of law enforcement. The men and women featured are all ambitious, talented and squeaky-clean. Cases and manhunts are wrapped up successfully in every episode, and there’s a sheen to the show that feels at odds with the crimes and nefarious characters the officers come up against.

Still, there are good stories to tell. Wahlberg and Jarrett Creative (who previously collaborated with him and brother Robert on Boston Metal) have put together a series that feels almost scripted, in the best of ways -- and there are none of those typically stilted reality show conversations. Fans of police procedurals will be drawn to the show’s fly-on-the-wall feeling, with its engaging cases and easy flow of law enforcement lingo. Though Boston’s Finest hints at the darkest corners of American street life, its real aim seems to be a showcase of local heroism. Sometimes, that is enough.

BOSTON'S FINEST
The Bottom Line: This well-made inside look at the Boston PD will draw in fans of police procedurals.
Airdate: 9 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 27 (TNT)

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/bostons-finest-tv-review-424447

Nielsen Notes (Cable)
Positive Signs For CNN, Despite Declines
By Alex Weprin, TVNewser.com - Feb. 26, 2013

New CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker’s first full month in charge shows some promising signs for the cable channel, even as inflated ratings from 2012 meant that most of the network’s programs (and most of cable news in general) were down compared to February of 2012.

The ratings for February 2013 (Nielsen Live + Same Day data):

■Primetime (Mon-Sun): 659,000 Total Viewers / 193,000 A25-54
■Total Day (Mon-Sun): 424,000 Total Viewers / 130,000 A25-54

Compared to February 2012, CNN was down -19% in total viewers in primetime and -32% in the demo, it was also down -11% in total viewers and -20% in the demo in total day (Note: percentages are based on a blend of Nielsen Live + 7 and Live + 3 data). That said, because February 2012 was so anomalous with major Republican primaries, debates and the coverage of Whitney Houston‘s death, the numbers were almost certainly inflated last year. That said, CNN is extremely close to MSNBC for second place in a number of categories, including total viewers in total day.

The good news for CNN is that a number of program managed to grow their ratings dramatically, despite the (relatively) slow news month.

7PM’s “Erin Burnett Outfront” was up +15% in total viewers and +11% in the demo compared to last year, while 8 PM’s “AC360″ was up +42% and +27% in those categories, respectively. “Starting Point,” which will soon be canceled to make room for a new morning show, was up +27% and +21% in total and demo viewers, respectively. The 5 and 6 PM hours of “The Situation Room” were also up in both categories.

At 9 PM, “Piers Morgan Tonight” was down -3% in total viewers and -25% in the demo compared to last year, while the 10 PM re-air of “AC360″ was down -21% and -34% in those categories. Morgan can say, however, that his program saw the smallest drop-off of any of the cable channels at 9 PM.

CNN’s February ratings release is below. [CLICK LINK TO READ]

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/february-2013-ratings-positive-signs-for-cnn-despite-declines_b168601

Yeah and what's even funnier is that CV files the lawsuit right after they reach a new carriage agreement with Viacom. Viacom hit the nail on the head in its response - they're trying to get the courts to undo an agreement that CV just made.

I don't like forced bundling at all but if the FCC or Congress are not going to step in (or can't) there's nothing the courts can say about it IMO. This will get rejected just like other suits before it.

Critic's Notes
Bianculli's Best Bets
By David Bianculli, TVWorthWatching.com - Feb. 27, 2013

MY LEFT FOOT
Showtime, 6:30 p.m. ET
The first of Daniel Day-Lewis’ record three Best Actor Oscars was won for his stirring, difficult performance in this 1989 biographical docudrama. He plays Christy Brown, an Irish spastic quadriplegic who eventually achieved acclaim as a poet, using his one controllable limb to write down his thoughts. Brenda Fricker also won as Oscar, as Best Supporting Actor, portraying Christy Brown’s dedicated mother.

MODERN FAMILY
ABC, 9:00 p.m. ET
Mitch and Cam re-encounter an old friend, Sal (Elizabeth Banks), who returns to visit, and with big news. She’s getting married: like, imminently.

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT
NBC, 9:00 p.m. ET
Tonight’s episode spins off a controversial series of headlines: the brutality-tinged romance of Rihanna and Chris Brown. And eventually, it ends up in court, where one of the feisty defense attorneys is played by Arrested Development star Jeffrey Tambor.

PARADE'S END
HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET
PARTS 3 AND 4: In these two parts of this new HBO miniseries, the three primary characters – Benedict Cumberbatch as Christopher, Rebecca Hall as his unfaithful wife Sylvia, and Adelaide Clemens as Christopher’s apparent true love – circle one another like planets in orbit. They rarely touch, but when they do, it’s incendiary.

BOSTON'S FINEST
TNT, 10:00 p.m. ET
SERIES PREMIERE: This new documentary series, whose executive producers include Donnie Wahlberg, plays like a real-life, Boston-set Hill Street Blues. Cops are seen on and off duty, doing everything from the mundane to the dangerous. And before sending his team out in search of a dangerous suspect who shot at one of the night duty cops a few hours earlier, one cop even gives the Boston equivalent of the old Hill Street “Let’s be careful out there” warning. Only this time, with a thick Boston accent, it’s a more concise “Be smahht.”

http://www.tvworthwatching.com/

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TV Notes
'Boston's Finest': The Right Formula for Reality
By Eric Gould, TVWorthWatching.com - Feb. 27, 2013

Mark Twain once wrote: "Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't."

Truth also often makes for better television. Case in point is the upcoming series, Boston's Finest. At first it seems to be a typical reality show about a typical subject — cops — but unspools to become something more. And, as in most cases, the true stories trump the scripted ones.

From the outset, the new TNT series (premiering Wednesday, Feb. 27, at 9 p.m., ET) isn't just a rehash of the Cops-style antics. Nor does it have the hyper-compressed drama of one of our scripted cop favorites, Southland, which airs on TNT immediately following. That doesn't mean it doesn't have its share of arrests and raids, but there's an equal amount of air time spent on the personal stories of the people doing the work.

"We've watched shows about cops, but it's our first time making this type of show," said Julie Insogna-Jarrett, co-producer of the series along with her husband, Seth Jarrett, speaking on the telephone from their New York offices last week. They're producing the show along with Donnie Wahlberg, (older brother of Mark) who knows a thing or two about law and disorder growing up in the once-rough neighborhood of nearby Dorchester.

As a reality series that's much more a documentary, Boston's Finest achieves something difficult — a worthwhile look at what it takes to do the job of law and order, and the inherent routine that is intertwined with constant threat of danger. It's a continual state of cognitive dissonance for the beat officers, detectives, and the highly decorated Gang Unit that's all too regular, and all too real.

As we follow one detective in the Fugitive Unit, Greg Dankers, (right) through the Charlestown neighborhood on the trail of a crook who's wanted in New Hampshire, he says, "we go after the worst of the worst — murderers, rapists, burglars, armed robbers. There's going to be people that want to kill you. If you're mentally prepared, physically prepared, emotionally prepared to go to work, you'll survive."

It's then that you realize that as the cops in Boston's Finest strap on a gun for work, it's for a good reason. Their firearms are not just the TV accessory we're used to seeing, and with that realization there's a kind of forced, involuntary awareness of Hollywood scripted conventions that seem impossibly shallow when stacked against the real thing.

The series goes well into the formula of combining the personal with the professional, as did last summer's reality show, NY Med, which followed ER nurses and doctors and showed the personal effects of working their high-pressure jobs. Its vérité style created a portrait of uncharacteristic clarity, as does the TNT police docu-reality series when it shows Officer Dankers dropping his kids at daycare before going on surveillance.

"It was about seeing how you take work home with you, and how you take home to work with you," said Seth Jarrett. "A lot of these officers are not only from Boston, but they're from the exact neighborhoods they're patrolling."

One of the more compelling stories follows Jenn Penton (top photo, second from right), a military veteran who has served in Afghanistan and is now a patrol officer. She takes her physical training to the limit, working hard in the gym to be prepared for any situation. "Being a female police officer comes with certain challenges and obstacles," she says. "There are people that just don't respect a woman in a role of authority. I've dealt with quite a few people that just cannot handle the fact that it's a female telling them what to do."

Penton's police world is colored by a surprising slant to her own story, which unfolds in the second episode. She finds her twin sister, who has taken a very different route in life.

The real strength of shows like Boston's Finest and NY Med is that the camera captures the odd blend of highs and lows — the routine ordinariness contrasted with heart-wretching danger that creates an ongoing atmosphere of uncertainty.

"You come to realize is that, very often, if the arrest is easy, that's because they did incredible police work," says Seth Jarrett. "They figured it out. They knew where he was going to be, they were in the safest possible place to arrest them. It's the chaotic scenes that are not necessarily the ones you brag about, or that you strive for."

And sure enough, in the premiere episode, a bust starts with a team walking up to a house in vests emblazoned with "Gang Unit" across them, and with the point man simply knocking on the front door. The arrest goes down in such an oddball, innocuous way, it's the strange cousin to a scripted arrest, or the usual, low points on Cops. The real thing has much more tension because the potential for the situation to ignite is there — but it doesn't.

Not exactly what you would expect from TV cops, but infinitely more interesting.

And real.

http://www.tvworthwatching.com/BlogPostDetails.aspx?postId=4392

TUESDAY'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)
Decent premiere for CBS’s ‘Golden Boy’
New drama draws a 1.8 in 18-49s, winning its timeslot
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Feb. 27, 2013

The new CBS drama “Golden Boy” won its admittedly very weak timeslot in its debut last night, posting an okay rating.

“Boy” averaged a 1.8 in adults 18-49, according to Nielsen, improving a solid 20 percent on former timeslot occupant “Vegas’” 1.5 last week.

“Boy” doubled the rating for NBC’s competing “Smash” and finished 50 percent ahead of ABC’s “Body of Proof” in the 10 p.m. timeslot.

Still, it wasn’t a remarkable rating even considering the late hour. “Boy” dropped 38 percent of its strong lead-in, “NCIS: Los Angeles,” which averaged a 2.6.

Elsewhere last night, the return of ABC’s “Celebrity Wife Swap” posted a series-high 2.3 at 8 p.m., finishing second in the hour against CBS’s “NCIS.”

In fact, “Swap” had ABC’s best number in the hour in more than a year, since Feb. 7, 2012, up 14 percent over last year’s bow. Last night’s episode featured Kate Gosselin and Kendra Wilkinson.

CBS was first for the night among 18-49s with a 2.7 average overnight rating and an 8 share. ABC and Fox tied for second at 1.7/5, Univision was fourth at 1.5/4, NBC fifth at 1.1/3, Telemundo sixth at 0.6/2 and CW 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-seven percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

At 8 p.m. CBS led with a 3.4 for “NCIS,” followed by ABC with a 2.4 for “Swap.” Univision was third with a 1.8 for “Por Ella Soy Eva,” Fox fourth with a 1.5 for “Raising Hope,” NBC fifth with a 1.3 for “Betty White’s Off Their Rockers,” CW sixth with a 0.6 for “Hart of Dixie” and Telemundo seventh with a 0.5 for “Pasion Prohibida.”

CBS was first again at 9 p.m. with a 2.9 for “NCIS: Los Angeles,” while Fox moved to second with a 1.9 for “New Girl” (2.3) and “The Mindy Project” (1.6). Univision was third with a 1.5 for “Amores Verdaderos,” ABC fourth with a 1.4 for “The Taste,” NBC fifth with a 1.1 for “Go On” (1.1) and “The New Normal” (1.0), Telemundo sixth with a 0.9 for “La Patrona” and CW seventh with a 0.3 for “Cult.”

At 10 p.m. CBS was first with a 1.8 for “Boy,” with ABC and Univision tied for second at 1.2, ABC for “Body of Proof” and Univision for “Amor Bravio.” NBC was fourth with a 0.9 for “Smash” and Telemundo fifth with a 0.5 for “El Rostro de la Venganza.”

CBS also finished first for the night among households with a 10.1 average overnight rating and a 16 share. ABC was second at 3.8/6, NBC third at 2.3/4, Fox fourth at 2.3/3, Univision fifth at 2.0/3 and CW and Telemundo tied for sixth at 0.8/1.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/decent-premiere-for-cbss-golden-boy/

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Nielsen Notes (Cable)
‘Duck’ takes a quack at broadcast
A&E smash about a family who make duck call devices

It often seems like cable networks are competing to find the strangest, most unbelievable people on Earth to feature on their reality shows.

With all due respect to Honey Boo Boo, the stars of A&E’s “Duck Dynasty” may just be the oddest yet. And viewers love them for it.

“Duck,” which follows a family that made millions in the duck call business but continue to live like backwoods folks, returns for its third season tonight at 10 p.m. with a huge amount of ratings momentum.

In December the show’s second-season finale became the most-watched program in A&E history, averaging 6.5 million total viewers. It outdrew broadcast in its 10 p.m. Wednesday timeslot among both adults 18-49 (3.9 million) and 18-34 (2 million).

Its average in its full second season soared by more than 125 percent in adults 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 compared to season one.

Though tonight marks the final night of the February sweeps, and broadcast will air all originals opposite “Duck’s” premiere, it’s a good bet A&E will be the top network of the night in the key adult demos, another reminder of how much the lines between broadcast and cable are blurring.

The key to “Duck’s” success has been its one-of-a-kind characters. “Duck” has been called a real-life version of “The Beverly Hillbillies.” Though the Robertsons’ duck call business is worth millions, they prefer to continue living in modest homes with a backwoods-type lifestyle.

The men have long, thick beards reminiscent of ZZ Top, which not coincidentally performs the show’s theme song.

In tonight’s premiere, Phil decides to stop taking baths.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/remembering-jenni-gone-way-too-soon/

Critic's Notes
The Best Sitcom of the Past 30 Years, Round One: Arrested Development vs. South Park
By Julie Klausner, Vulture.com (New York Magazine) - Feb. 27, 2013

Vulture is holding the ultimate Sitcom Smackdown to determine the greatest TV comedy of the past 30 years. Each day, a different notable writer will be charged with determining the winner of a round of the bracket, until New York Magazine TV critic Matt Zoller Seitz judges the finals on March 18. Today's battle: Julie Klausner judges Arrested Development versus South Park. Make sure to head over to Facebook to vote in our Readers Bracket. We also invite tweeted opinions with the #sitcomsmackdown hashtag.

I have volunteered to weigh three seasons of Arrested Development’s imperfect perfection against sixteen-and-counting seasons of South Park’s sloppy, anarchic brilliance. George Seurat next to Jackson Pollack. Ten minutes of meticulous, Sufjan Stevens–style orchestration against five hours of punk-rock improvising. A modern commedia dell’arte next to a really tight ASSSCAT. Two innovative shows so different — both such products of their processes and life spans — that the only way to pick a winner is to ignore their fundamental backgrounds. But I will not do that!

Let’s start with Arrested Development, which has that Anne Hathaway–Les Miz advantage of shining bright and burning out before it could overstay its welcome. (It ran from 2003 to 2006, though we still have the Netflix episodes to look forward to/be nervous about.) The show, which was created by Mitchell Hurwitz and executive-produced by Ron Howard (also each episode’s uncredited narrator), pioneered the whole comedy-series-shot-like-reality-TV thing, and its farcical, interlocking jokes were just as trailblazing. But the beauty of the gags and frills, its embellishments and callbacks (from the hand-eating seal, to the Blue Man Group makeup smeared on walls, to the Dangerous Cousins film) is that they weren’t making up for a lack of something; they enhanced the heart of the show. And there was a heart — or two, to be exact. For all its sketch-comedy-funny madness, Arrested Development still had “network-likable” Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) and his babe-in-the-woods son, George Michael (Michael Cera), at its center. Their respective Jesus-like tolerance of their family of narcissists, fools, and criminals was as profitable as “Bluth’s Original Frozen Banana Stand”: There is always money in the inherent absurdity of relatives — why are we loyal to people we’re chained to at random? — and to the moral turpitude only accessible via free will.

Like South Park, Arrested Development’s production is down and dirty; it never looks as Wes Anderson–mannered as its plots can sometimes feel. But plot wasn’t really the point. It was the jokes. Good Lord, those jokes. I’m not just talking about punch lines; as quotable as the quips can be (“It’s pronounced ah-NAL-rah-pist”), it’s those weird, glittering moments — each one a perfect pivot point on which to end a scene —that make me genuflect. Liza Minnelli as Lucille 2 (incomparable guest stars, too!) telling a room full of card queens to “take a powder” when Buster finally responds to her romantic overtures? Lucille Bluth (Jessica Walters) consistently breaking into a goofy grin at the realization that this, too, is Gene Parmesan? Or all of Jeffrey Tambor’s inspired grumbling as Michael’s bully of a father? (By transitioning from playing Larry Sanders’s punching-bag buffoon Hank Kingsley to George Bluth, Tambor executed TV’s most impressive low-to-high-status character leap — at least until Kathie Lee Gifford switched from taking noogies from Reeg to giving them to Hoda.) Hurwitz and his writers somehow wove that chaotic stack of canny instants into a stunningly funny whole. Such complexity was unprecedented, and only benefits from repeat viewings. You not only want to watch it again and again — you need to in order to catch every self-reference, every muttered Gob crack, every bit of Buster slapstick, every Michael reaction shot.

On the other side of the universe lives the rapturous blasphemy of South Park. I’ve loved this show since its first season, when I embarrassingly wrote co-creator Trey Parker love letters that included (CLOTHED) photos of myself, in hopes of one day being his sweetheart. It didn’t work.

I remember the originality and verve of the very first episode in 1997, and how impressed I was that Trey and Matt Stone came from nowhere — or, as we knew it during those AOL salad days, the Internet. But, also, when I say Matt and Trey came from nowhere, I mean they weren’t from accepted comedy breeding grounds, like the Groundlings or Harvard. They didn’t go to improv class, and they weren’t hanging around with any comedy clique. Their iconoclasm was, and still is, splattered all over the show like — dare I? They would, so very well — diarrhea around the inside of a toilet bowl. And as they’ve maintained the show, those two wunderkinds have managed to stay entirely true to their own credo of “no ********,” while continually searching for the next weird, gross, upsetting, outrageous, silly thing — real or imagined — that they can blow up for their next point of departure/no return.

I strongly recommend watching the 2011 documentary The Making of South Park: 6 Days to Air. In it, we learn that the show’s animators sleep under their desk until (1) Matt and Trey break a story in the writers’ room, and (2) Trey goes off to write the script himself. It’s a sweaty, messy process, and at one point, when a P.A. delivers Trey’s takeout dinner, which he’ll eat at his desk, you can practically smell the French fry grease mixing with his flop sweat. The stress is so palpable, in fact, that any joy they get from seeing their imperfect creation barely make it to air must, at times, feel not quite worth it. But it is. I swear it is. And anyway, would the resulting lunacy be as sublime or delirious or funny without the chaos? Who but an overworked, sleep-deprived soul could come up with “Sheening,” or Tom Cruise trapped in the Closet, or Killing Chef with his own words, or the inspired sadist Cartman serving Scott Teneman his own parents in chili form?

That completely messed-up "Scott Teneman Must Die" episode, from the fifth season, was, by the way, the first South Park episode that abandoned the traditional A story/B story/C story sitcom structure, and they haven’t looked back. I don’t think it hurts the show. Its storytelling is more of a quick dig straight across, with gems littering the path: weird sayings (“crème fraîche”), shocking stuff you can’t believe they got away with (Human CentiPad), and astute — yes, astute! — whacks at **** that’s going on in the world (“The F Word”). An excellent bonus about Matt and Trey: Unlike satirists Jon Stewart and Bill Maher, who preach to their own choir, the South Park voice is not only distinctive, it’s truly independent, pissing off liberals and conservatives alike. It’s a breath of Fresh Air that isn’t hosted by Terry Gross.

The flip side, of course, is that sometimes Trey’s last-minute scramble can just as easily undermine an episode. The pressure can alchemize into lazy targets or flabby story lines. South Park is fast, cheap, and out of control, whereas Arrested Development seems to have been entirely plotted out, from top to bottom, years in advance.

So here’s where I get to choose. Ugh. Okay. Is it a numbers game, weighing SP’s 237 flawed episodes against AD’s mere 53 to date? Is it about head over heart/heart over head? Polished over rough? Or is it because I was told that, were I to pick South Park as the winner, it would probably not increase my chances of making love to Trey Parker, even though I know I’d be really good at pleasing him? No. The answer, my friends, is blowing alternately hot and cool.

My admittedly entirely gut decision is to pick Arrested Development. With both shows I am impressed and delighted, but with AD, I am truly awestruck. The rhythm of the show is sublime; the layering as dense and satisfying as a galette des rois. It is a ****ing masterpiece.

Winner: Arrested Development

Julie Klausner hosts the podcast "How Was Your Week" and is the author of I Don’t Care About Your Band. She writes Real Housewives recaps and regularly contributes videos to Vulture.

http://www.vulture.com/2013/02/arrested-development-vs-south-park-sitcom-smackdown.html

Obituary
Dale Robertson, Star of TV Westerns, Dies at 89
By Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter - Feb. 27, 2013

Dale Robertson, a veteran of movies and TV Westerns of the 1950s and ’60s who played “the left-handed gun” on NBC’s Tales of Wells Fargo, died Wednesday of lung cancer and pneumonia in a San Diego hospital. He was 89.

An Oklahoma native and member of the Cowboy Hall of Fame, Robertson also starred as gambler-turned-railroad tycoon Ben Calhoun in Iron Horse, which ran on ABC from 1966-68, and as the Texas billionaire title character in NBC’s 1987-88 adventure series J.J. Starbuck, from Stephen J. Cannell Productions.

The tall, handsome Robertson also had recurring roles on TV’s Dynasty, Dallas, Harts of the West and Death Valley Days, on which he followed Ronald Reagan and Robert Taylor as a narrator.

Robertson (who was right-handed) played Wells Fargo special agent Jim Hardie -- referred to as “the left-handed gun” -- in Tales of Wells Fargo, which was set in the 1870s and ’80s and aired on NBC from 1957-62. On the series, Hardie protected stagecoaches from outlaws and Indians, seeing them safely to their destination. He reportedly did his own stunts.

Born in Harrah, Okla., Robertson grew up around horses. He served in World War II, where he was twice wounded in combat and won bronze and silver stars. He also boxed professionally before movie scouts spotted his picture in a photography store and signed him up.

Robertson’s film credits included Fighting Man of the Plains (1949) with Randolph Scott, Call Mr. Mister (1951) with Dan Dailey, The Farmer Takes a Wife with Betty Grable (1953) and the Arctic-set Top of the World (1955).

Robertson used his Hollywood earnings to raise horses on the Haymaker Farms ranch that he built in Yukon, Okla., just west of Oklahoma City. The Oklahoma Gazette reported that at one time, he owned 235 horses, and some of the mares had five world champions.

Robertson sold the ranch and horses years ago, and in May, his wife Susan, who survives him, presided over an auction that sold much of his memorabilia and belongings.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dale-robertson-westerns-wells-fargo-425019

TV Notes
'Cult' moves to Fridays on CW
By Lynette Rice, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - Feb. 27, 2013

This can’t be good: the CW is moving the midseason drama Cult to Fridays and replacing it with repeats of other shows — beginning with Beauty and the Beast on March 5.

Cult will bow in its new 9 p.m. Friday timeslot on March 8. The series follows investigative journalist Jeff Sefton (Matt Davis), who is searching for his missing brother and in the process uncovers the dark underworld of the TV show “Cult” and its rabid fans.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/02/27/cult-moves-to-fridays-on-cw/

TV Review
'The Bible' a proverbial action film
By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Feb. 28, 2013

History's "The Bible" would be more accurately titled "The Bible's Greatest Hits (Sanitized for Your Protection)."

But give the 10-hour, five-part program credit for being up front about its intentions. Sunday's premiere begins with this get-out-of-jail-free disclaimer: "This program is an adaptation of Bible stories that changed our world. It endeavors to stay true to the spirit of the book."

Sunday's premiere is indeed true to the spirit of the good book if a bit sparing on details. The story begins with a Scottish-accented Noah narrating from Genesis as his ark bobs on high seas. His narration includes the briefest of visits with Adam and Eve before "The Bible" (8 p.m. Sunday) moves on to the story of Abraham, which takes up much of the first two hours.

Nothing here is as ridiculous as NBC's 1999 "Noah's Ark" miniseries, the nadir of biblical interpretation that featured Noah warding off pirates. But "The Bible" probably should not be taken too seriously or venerated. It often plays more like an action film than a serious interpretation of a holy book.

Sunday's premiere presents multi-ethnic angels who take human form to visit Sodom and Gomorrah, where angry villagers rage against Lot for reasons that go unexplained. The God of "The Bible" describes Sodom as a "city of sin," but the program is ambiguous about what that sin includes (it mostly looks like a freak show with people blowing fire). "The Bible" does not suggest the Sodomites are planning to rape the angels, a common interpretation. The angels draw swords -- in slow-mo, Quentin Tarantino style -- and slay villagers who seek to do them harm.

Jesus (Diego Morgado) arrives by episode six (airing March 17) and gets crucified in episode nine (airing March 31, Easter), which also features Roma Downey ("Touched by an Angel") as Mary, Jesus' mother.

Ms. Downey also serves as an executive producer on "The Bible" with her husband, "Survivor" executive producer Mark Burnett. They have not shared this credit before, making it feel like a cynical attempt to trade on viewers' residual goodwill for Ms. Downey from her "Touched by an Angel" days, an effort to reassure the faithful that "The Bible" is fit for their consumption.

THE BIBLE
When: 8 p.m. Sunday, History.

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/tv-radio/the-bible-a-proverbial-action-film-tv-review-677189/

TV Notes
'Archer' Renewed for 5th Season by FX
By Tim Kenneally, TheWrap.com - Feb. 27, 2013

FX's animated spy series "Archer" has been given the go-ahead for a fifth season, the network said Wednesday.

The fifth season of the series, which is currently running its fourth season, will consist of 13 episodes.

The fourth season will air a two-part finale on April 4 and April 11.

“Archer is one the very best comedy series on television,” said Nick Grad, executive vice president of original programming and development at FX. “[Creator] Adam Reed, [producer] Matt Thompson and the incredible cast – H. Jon Benjamin, Aisha Tyler, Jessica Walter, Chris Parnell, Judy Greer, Amber Nash, George Coe, and Lucky Yates – are comedic geniuses. It is truly rewarding the way in which the audience and fans have embraced their work and that the ratings to continue to grow. The quality of Archer is undeniable.”

"Thank God," Reed said of the renewal.

"Archer," which will enter the category of Outstanding Comedy Series for the Emmys this year, has grown impressively in the ratings with its current run. The fourth season is currently averaging a 36 percent boost in the key 18-49 demographic over last season's average, with first-run episodes averaging 2.4 million total viewers, 2 million of them in the demo.

http://www.thewrap.com/tv/article/archer-renewed-5th-season-fx-79571

TV Notes
Brands And Binge Viewing Dominate HRTS Cable Chiefs Panel
By Dominic Patten, Deadline.com - Feb. 27, 2013

“The studios are not in brand conversations. It’s not a filmmaker’s medium anymore. We’re in the brand play business,” HBO Programming President Michael Lombardo said today during the Hollywood Radio And Television Society Cable Chiefs lunch in Beverly Hills. Brands and binge viewing were the primary topics of conversation among the panel that featured Lombardo, A+E Networks President, Entertainment and Media Nancy Dubuc and Turner Entertainment Networks president Steve Koonin. Ben Silverman was moderator. “You’re seeing a number of storytellers unable to work in the studio system”, Lombardo continued. “The paradigm has shifted; serious adult drama is happening on cable. That’s what people talk about on Monday — it’s the cable show they saw, not the movies anymore”. Said Dubuc, “We each have our own brand fulfillment and it is our jobs to not only manage that but to evolve it.”

Koonin cut to the chase: “Brands are the temple we worship at,” he quipped to laughter as he described the work and metrics that went into developing TNT’s “We Know Drama” tagline. “When you manage a brand you have to be consistent,” he said. “Basic cable has become an oxymoron now, there is nothing basic about it”. He added: We’ve changed our marketing strategy. We’re going to market from green light to finale, though I shouldn’t say that. We have to give people reason after reason after reason, I can go on and on, to get it,” Koonin said.

“I think that we have a very established brand and by that I mean an emotional connection — the challenge with HBO is to make sure the brand is never static,” Lombardo said. “You guys have proven that if you create the brightest, shiniest object, people will pay attention to your brand,” Koonin remarked to his HBO counterpart later.

The shadow of Netflix was also in the room today, specifically the on-demand streaming service’s recent experiment making all of the first season of House Of Cards available at once. “It’s a showy thing to do but I’m not sure it is the best way to connect the viewer. Our hope is Game Of Thrones becomes a Sunday expectation — we want to drive viewers to a night,” Lombardo said. “It is about content that resonates. If people don’t respond, all these other conversations are meaningless,” he added to agreement from the other panelists. “The interesting thing about the digital world is that everyone is changing the rules. There are no rules anymore,” he said. “What’s the rulebook today will not be the rulebook in six months”.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/02/hollywood-radio-television-society-cable-chiefs-panel-2013/

Business Notes
Legal battle between Cablevision and Viacom could rattle TV business
Cablevision's suit, filed in federal court in New York, accuses Viacom of anti-competitive behavior that forces cable companies to pay for low-rated networks in return for access to its popular channels.
By Joe Flint, Los Angeles Times - Feb. 27, 2013

A New York cable company fired the opening salvo in a long-anticipated media war that could give consumers more choices in subscribing to pay television — and upend the way companies have long done business.

Cable operator Cablevision Systems Corp. filed suit Tuesday in federal court in New York accusing Viacom Inc., parent of MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, of anti-competitive behavior. At issue is whether Viacom uses its leverage to force distributors such as Cablevision to carry low-rated networks in return for access to its popular channels, a practice known in the industry as bundling.

"The manner in which Viacom sells its programming is illegal, anti-consumer and wrong," Cablevision charged in a statement. Viacom, the company contended, "effectively forces Cablevision's customers to pay for and receive little-watched channels in order to get the channels they actually want.

Cablevision asked the court to void its current deal to carry Viacom-owned channels — an agreement signed just two months ago. The cable giant added in its complaint, "Viacom's abuse of its market power is not only illegal, but also prevents it from delivering the programming that its customers want and that compete with Viacom's less popular channels."

Viacom countered that it and other programmers have long offered discounts to popular channels to those who agree to provide additional network distribution. Such agreements, Viacom said, are "win-win and pro-consumer arrangements" that have been "upheld by a number of federal courts and on appeal."

Viacom added that it will "vigorously defend this transparent attempt by Cablevision to use the courts to renegotiate our existing two month old agreement."

Previous legal attempts to do away with bundling have fallen short. Last November the Supreme Court declined to hear a class-action bundling suit brought by a group of consumers against several big media companies, including Comcast, News Corp. and Time Warner. That came after a panel of judges for the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco sided with the entertainment industry, saying that bundling does not violate antitrust laws.

In the Cablevision-Viacom showdown though, two media companies are squaring off in a fight that may change the business model that lies at the foundation of pay television. The rest of the industry as well as media watchdog groups and consumer advocates who have been pushing for greater choice and more options when subscribing to pay TV are paying close attention.

"Cable subscribers are often dismayed that they have to subscribe to an expensive bundle of hundreds of channels just to get access to the few they want," said John Bergmayer, a senior staff attorney at Public Knowledge, a consumer rights group. "Many subscribers may not realize that large media conglomerates such as Viacom often force cable companies to include unpopular channels in subscriber bundles and to pay for them."

In its suit, Cablevision said Viacom forced it to carry 14 low-rated channels in return for the right to carry Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and MTV. Most of the channels Cablevision said it was "illegally" forced to carry are spinoff networks such as Nicktoons, VH1 Soul and MTV Jams. Cablevision also said it was forced to carry Logo, Viacom's channel aimed at gays, lesbians and transgender people.

Cablevision said such "block booking" violates New York's Donnelly Act, "which parallels federal antitrust laws."

Bundling is not a new practice nor is Viacom the only programmer to employ it. News Corp. and Walt Disney Co. similarly bundle their channels. Typically, a programmer will offer a discount on popular channels in return for carrying channels with smaller audiences.

However, Viacom is seen by distributors as being the most aggressive programmer when it comes to bundling.

Other distributors, including Time Warner Cable and DirecTV, issued statements in support of Cablevision's lawsuit against Viacom.

"There's no question that the current all-or-nothing system dictated by programmers is completely broken," DirecTV said in a statement, adding that "for programmers to force this system on all pay-TV customers, just so they can line their pockets with extra profits, is shameful."

Smaller cable networks, which have trouble getting distribution because they lack the clout of a Viacom, are also rallying to Cablevision's cause.

"The U.S. TV market is not a free market and we support Cablevision's effort to draw attention to the anti-competitive practices that keep independent networks like Ovation from competing on a level playing field," said Chad Gutstein, chief operating officer of the arts channel Ovation.

Cablevision's suit comes at a time when rising costs for programming, particularly sports, are cutting into the bottom line of many distributors, and they are looking to cut costs elsewhere by dropping low-rated networks.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-fi-ct-cable-lawsuit-20130227,0,5370492.story

Business Notes
Mixed Q4 for Starz
Revenue Declines 2% But Subs Up in the Period
By Mike Farrell, Multichannel News - Feb. 27, 2013

The decision not to renew its Netflix distribution deal dinged revenue growth at Starz in the fourth quarter, but subscribers to its flagship premium channel rose by 400,000 to 21.2 million.

Starz reported revenue of $422.2 million in the quarter, down 2% from the prior year due mainly to fewer theatrical releases from The Weinstein Co. and its decision not to renew its Netflix deal, which expired last February. Adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization increased 8% in the period to $101 million, fueled mainly by fewer first run films, better utilization of its second run movies from Walt Disney Co. and Sony Pictures, and decreased marketing costs for original shows.

On a conference call with analysts, CEO Chris Albrecht said Starz plans to fuel its future growth through more original programming, airing about 36 hours of original shows in 2013, rising to 50 hours in the next couple of years.

“We’re clearly looking to increase our investment in original programming in a prudent manner,” Albrecht told analysts on the call. “We have to ramp up to be in the place we want to be.”

Originals have become increasingly important to the premium channel, which after backing out of the bidding for studio output from the Walt Disney Co. in December, counts Sony Pictures as its main source of movies. Albrecht said Starz decided to back out of the Dinsey bildding -- its output deal expires in 2016 -- for a simple reason: the price was too high.

“We were in active negotiations for an extension," Albrecht said. "There was a bidder in the process that significantly with a capital ‘S’ increased the price that was being offered. We looked at the likely supply of those movies, our long term goals for growth, [and] had made a decision that original programming was clearly the way to go. The premium we would have to pay was counter to what our growth strategy was.”

Netflix paid a reported $350 million for the Disney output, more than the $200 million Starz is estimated to have paid.

http://www.multichannel.com/networks/mixed-q4-starz/141957

TV Review
‘Vikings,’ oh, for some decent slaughter
History channel's nine-part historical drama bogs down
By Tom Conroy, Media Life Magazine - Feb. 27, 2013

Producers knock themselves out trying to come up with clever names for their TV shows and movies when most audiences are just fine with a nice descriptive title. Would as many people have gone to see “Snakes on a Plane” if it had been called something oblique like “Slither”?

History’s new nine-episode miniseries “Vikings” certainly lets us know what to expect: hardy yet cruel warriors crossing icy seas to plunder unsuspecting villages and monasteries. The series actually gives us some of that, but too much of it is taken up with a landlocked dispute between its main character and his local lord.

By the end of the five episodes that were provided for review, viewers might have forgotten the title entirely. The plot development slows to a crawl, allowing the flaws in the acting to shine through. Although it’s possible that later episodes might speed up, many viewers will have understandably abandoned ship.

In the premiere episode, airing this Sunday, March 3, at 10 p.m., it is the year 793. Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel), a young farmer and part-time warrior living somewhere in Scandinavia, has grown tired of raiding the lands to the east along the Baltic Sea on the orders of Earl Haraldson (Gabriel Byrne). He convinces his brother, Rollo (Clive Standen), that with the help of some new navigating devices, they can instead sail west across the open sea and raid the fabled land of England.

They commission a flaky shipbuilder named Floki (Gustaf Skarsgård) to build a ship that can withstand bigger waves. They luckily land on the wealthy abbey of Lindisfarne, which actually was the site of the first raid by Vikings in Western Europe.

A historian would have to judge the accuracy of the show, which was written by Michael Hirst, who also created the Showtime “The Tudors.” But the characters’ behavior and psychology often seem based more on current audiences’ preferences than on any historical insight.

Ragnar and Rollo’s westward raid was done without the permission of Earl Haraldson, who feels his authority has been challenged. In the third episode, things get worse when Ragnar clashes with the spy whom the Earl has put on Ragnar’s crew.

The aforementioned voyaging and plundering is basically over by the beginning of episode 4. Those sequences are well shot and full of satisfying violence, but they’re sorely missed in episode 5.

All we have to keep our interest in that episode, besides the generally handsome production, is our stake in the characters, which is low. We’re obviously supposed to like Ragnar, but this superficially attractive guy has some serious failings as a hero.

For example, he never seems to question the morality of butchering unarmed people or selling them into slavery. At one particularly disturbing moment, a group of villagers has to look on while Ragnar’s men pillage their church and Floki guzzles the communion wine. When a priest tries to stop Floki from stealing a crucifix, Floki cuts his throat. Ragnar simply grins and shakes his head a little, as if to say, “Ya don’t mess with the Flokeman!”

An actor with a limited range of facial expressions, Travis Fimmel uses the same grin at other inappropriate moments, as when he’s been told that Rollo has been taken prisoner and tortured and when he and his wife, Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick), are inviting Athelstan (George Blagden), a monk whom they’ve enslaved, to join them in bed.

That’s probably the closest the show comes to the pervy sex of Starz’s historical series “Spartacus.” Although the Earl’s wife, Siggy (Jessalyn Gilsig), has the habit of looking flirtatious, guilty or both whenever a male other than her husband walks into the room, most of those moments seem to be red herrings.

The Earl and Earless are hardly Macbeths. Their machinations are so dimwitted and obvious that one loses sympathy with Ragnar when they get the upper hand.

The Earl comes across more as a bad boss who keeps pissing off people inadvertently. Like so many previous rich villains in historical dramas, he’s always eating with his fingers while trying to be a suave bully.

The murder of their two sons would explain the Earl’s hangdog expression, but it’s the same hangdog expression Gabriel Byrne has used in every role he’s ever played. Although that back story cries out for resolution, the series’ plotting is so clumsy that it will probably fade away.

The longer we’re stuck in Ragnar’s homeland, the less we feel that “Vikings” will ever get moving in any direction. It’s rare that a work of fiction has us hoping that barbarians will resume robbing and killing innocent people, but our motivation isn’t sympathy with the series’ heroes. It’s boredom.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/vikings-oh-for-some-decent-slaughter/

Bummer. I thought it was promising.

xnappo