Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 2857

TV Notes
NBC Shifts 'Smash' to Saturday Nights
By Tim Kenneally, TheWrap.com - Mar. 13, 2013

NBC is moving its struggling musical series "Smash" to Saturday nights at 9 p.m. starting April 6, the network said Wednesday.

The shift was among a number of scheduling changes that NBC announced. And NBC said that the show will air its entire 17-episode season.

Even so, the move is not a good sign for the series, which started out strong with its first season, when it had "The Voice" as a lead-in, but has struggled since returning for its second season last month.

For its season premiere on Feb. 5, "Smash" drew an anemic 1.1 rating/3 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic -- its lowest-rated episode at that date, and down 71 percent from the show's series premiere. It was also down 39 percent from its May 14 season finale.

Things got worse for the show -- which has been airing Tuesdays at 10 p.m. -- from there, with the show dropping to a new low of 0.7/2 on March 5, though it rebounded somewhat in its most recent airing on Tuesday.

The series underwent an upheaval after its first season, with the departure of creator Theresa Rebeck and a number of cast members. "Gossip Girl" showrunner Josh Safran was brought in to replace Rebeck, and the cast swelled to monumental proportions with guests stars and new regulars for its second season.

NBC's new matchmaking reality show, "Ready for Love," will begin airing in the Tuesdays at 9 timeslot on April 9, setting the series up in a plum position preceding "The Voice," which returns later this month.

"Go On," which had been airing before "Smash" on Tuesdays at 9, will be given a tryout in the Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. timeslot, following long-running but on-the-way-out sitcom "The Office." "Go On" will air its final two episodes of the season in that slot beginning April 4.

Here is NBC's full list of scheduling changes:

READY FOR LOVE
Will now air Tuesdays, beginning April 9 (9-11 p.m. ET) following “The Voice.”

CELEBRITY APPRENTICE
Beginning April 14 (9-11 p.m ET) will be expanded to two hours through the end of May.

THE VOICE
Will air encore episodes on Sunday, March 31 and Sunday, April 7 (7-10 p.m. ET), leading into original episodes of “The Celebrity Apprentice” (10-11 p.m. ET)

GO ON
Moves to Thursdays on April 4 and April 11, which will be the season’s final episode. Both episodes will air at 9:30-10 p.m. ET following “The Office.”

THE NEW NORMAL
One-hour season finale on Tuesday, April 2 (9-10 p.m. ET) following “The Voice.”

SMASH
Moves to Saturdays at 9 p.m. beginning April 6 and will air its entire season of 17 episodes.

WHITNEY
Will have a one-hour season finale on Wednesday, March 27 (8-9 p.m. ET).

http://www.thewrap.com/tv/article/nbc-shifts-smash-saturday-nights-81196

TV Notes
Comedy Undercard: A Different World vs. Undeclared
By Kyle Buchanan, Vulture.com - Mar. 13, 2013

Vulture is in the midst of its Sitcom Smackdown, a three-week contest that pits the best sitcoms of the last 30 years against each other to crown the ultimate winner. But while that bracket focuses on the greatest, most innovative modern comedies, it couldn't cover all of the series that live on in our hearts, the ones that may not fit those highfalutin parameters but which we could talk about for days. To give these other series their moments to shine, every day we’ll be pitting two like-minded comedies against each other: We’ll pick our winner, and readers will then vote for their own. Today: It’s a rivalry between college-set comedies as we pit A Different World against Undeclared.

Today's contenders: A Different World (1987–1993) vs. Undeclared (2001–2002)

College seems like a great place to set a TV show, but when your characters fall in that no-man's-land between "teenage high-schoolers" and "grown-up doctors or lawyers," you've actually got your work cut out for you. Just ask Judd Apatow, whose beloved but low-rated Undeclared was cut down after one short season. On the other side of the spectrum, you've got A Different World, which stayed on the air for six seasons thanks to its fresh cast and plum scheduling berth after The Cosby Show, which it was spun off from. But which of these college sitcoms deserves to come out No. 1 in our school rankings?

University Setting: Undeclared was set at the fictional University of Northeastern California (where would that even be, geographically ... near Lake Tahoe?), while the all-black school Hillman College, where A Different World was set, was located in Virginia and based on real-life Spelman College.

Star-Crossed Lovers: Undeclared's Steven (Jay Baruchel) sleeps with Lizzie (Carla Gallo) during his first night at UNC, but that's before he finds out that she's got a clingy boyfriend played by Jason Segel. On A Different World, Whitley (Jasmine Guy) and Dwayne (Kadeem Hardison) couldn't seem more ill-suited for each other: She was an uptight southern belle, while he was a thoughtful brainiac with the flyest flip-up glasses in America. But do they make it work? Well, by way of answering that question, why don't you take a minute to relive the moment where Dwayne crashed Whitley's wedding? Be careful, though: This video is NSFW, because like the studio audience, you will begin shrieking and crying while watching it.

Supporting Player Who Took Over the Show: A Different World was supposed to follow Cosby daughter Lisa Bonet, but when the wild-child actress got pregnant during the first season, she departed the show and Whitley became the central character after a creative revamp. Segel didn't quite take over Undeclared to that extent, but while his recurring character began the series heard and not seen, he was centering episodes by the end of the season after Lizzie broke up with him for Steven. Frankly, the show seemed way more interested in him (and his Greek chorus of copy-shop co-workers played by David Krumholtz and Tenacious D's Kyle Gass) than in Lizzie.

Issues Tackled: Undeclared had a light touch, but A Different World wasn't afraid to go deep. Some of its Very Special Episodes tackled hot-button issues like AIDS, hate crimes, Operation Desert Storm, and — in a famous season premiere — the Los Angeles riots. The show wrung laughs out of looting! Sister Souljah was there! I mean ...

Older Father Figure: A Different World incorporated plenty of older actors like Glynn Turman and Mary Alice into its youthful cast, but Sinbad popped the most as the Jaleesa-wooing Coach Walter Oakes. Over at Undeclared, there was a literal father figure, as Loudon Wainwright played Baruchel's divorcing dad, who kept insinuating himself into his son's college life.

Before They Were Stars: College-set shows are a fertile breeding ground for young actors who go on to great fame, and these two were no different. Watch Undeclared now, a little over a decade after it aired, and marvel at how young and skinny Segel, Seth Rogen, and Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam were! Plus, you've got nearly unrecognizable guest spots from actors like Amy Poehler, Jenna Fischer, Kevin Hart, and Tom Welling. The graduating class at Hillman was plenty star-studded, too, launching famous names like Jada Pinkett, Marisa Tomei, and Halle Berry.

Opening Credits: Undeclared had a fun little riff from the Dandy Warhols, but A Different World's room-spanning opening credits sequence? Totally creative, amazing, and head-scratching. How'd they do that?

Are the shows any good? Yes. Undeclared holds up pretty well in its own gentle way, and since fewer than twenty episodes were produced, it's an agreeable pick for a Netflix marathon. A Different World is a more immediately dated comedy in its multi-cam, late-eighties way, but it grew into something genuinely wonderful when all the ingredients came together. (And there were a lot of ingredients, since there was so much cast turnover.) Watch those Different World videos I linked to! Come on! This show is weirdly underrated. Can we at least get Jasmine Guy a guest judge spot on RuPaul's Drag Race, for God's sake?

The Moment of Truth: Undeclared, you're great and sweet, but you didn't even get a sophomore year. Graduating with high honors, then, is ...

Winner: A Different World.

http://www.vulture.com/2013/03/comedy-undercard-undeclared.html

TV Notes
At NBC, a Struggle to Revive the Morning Magic
By Brian Stelter, The New York Times - Mar. 14, 2013

Staff members at NBC’s “Today” show huddled for a performance review last month, 10 months after the longtime morning show leader first fell behind ABC’s “Good Morning America” in the ratings. The mood was anxious, according to several attendees, as network executives discussed the findings from focus groups with hundreds of viewers.

The employees were reassured that “Today” viewers didn’t want their show to turn into “Good Morning America,” the ABC rival that has become Americans’ No. 1 choice in the mornings. But then they were told this: “What matters most is the anchor connection to the audience; what we need to work on is the connection.” As the word “connection” was repeated, some people in the room started to chuckle because of a name that went unspoken: Matt Lauer.

“What they meant was Matt. But no one would say it,” said a senior staff member who, like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity.

Mr. Lauer was not there, but it is clear that the once-popular host’s relationship with his audience is in peril. Last April, Mr. Lauer signed a contract said to be worth $25 million a year, the most lucrative deal in the 60-year history of morning television. And then the bottom fell out.

The following week, “Today” fell to second place in the morning ratings for the first time in 16 years. When his co-host, Ann Curry, was forced out over the summer, it was Mr. Lauer and not network executives who shouldered most of the blame.

Since then, his popularity among viewers has plummeted and NBC has been forced to deny what was unthinkable a year ago: the rumor that Mr. Lauer, 55, who first took over the co-host chair in 1997, could soon be replaced by a younger host like Willie Geist, 37, or David Gregory, 42.

Mr. Lauer’s year is a lesson in how a combination of missteps — NBC’s and his own — can precipitate a star’s fall. NBC News is still, by some measures, the No. 1 network news division in America, and it will emphasize that point at a presentation for advertisers in New York on Thursday. But the continuing struggles of “Today” threaten to overshadow the network’s strength at other times of day.

“Today” pays a lot of the bills for the rest of the news division; it was responsible for roughly half a billion dollars in revenue in 2011. That total dipped by at least $50 million in 2012, according to industry estimates, as “Good Morning America” capitalized on the show’s stumbles. NBC declined to comment. But managers at NBC News were told this week that they would receive smaller bonus checks for 2012 because of the “Today” show ratings slump.

A belated image campaign began this week when Mr. Lauer spoke publicly for the first time about what he thought had gone wrong — namely, that his bosses botched Ms. Curry’s departure from “Today.” Those bosses took pains to suggest that Mr. Lauer wasn’t at fault. But the claim, in The Daily Beast, must have come as news to Ms. Curry, who, according to her associates, still feels betrayed by Mr. Lauer and the top producer of “Today,” Jim Bell, who left the show last fall.

Mr. Lauer’s Q Score — a measure of likability, treated as gospel by the TV industry — has fallen by more than half since he was paired with Ms. Curry in June 2011. It was a 19 that September; by this January it was a 9.

For the first time his counterpart on “Good Morning America,” George Stephanopoulos, has a higher score. For Mr. Lauer “the drop started happening in the beginning of 2012, and it’s slowly eroded since then,” said Henry Schafer of Marketing Evaluations, the company that surveys thousands of viewers to come up with the scores. NBC executives said its focus groups found otherwise.

Ms. Curry has been gone for nine months, yet “Today” is still losing to ABC’s “Good Morning America” by about 800,000 total viewers a day. (In the 25-to-54-year-old group, it is losing by fewer than 100,000 viewers.) The ratings are scrutinized now by NBC and ABC for signs that “Today” is stronger on the days when Mr. Lauer is on vacation.

He is criticized routinely in the media; one columnist this week said simply, “He’s got to go.” And even members of his own staff are sharply divided: some say he, and “Today,” can recover from the last year, while others say his reputation is irreparable.

The employees spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared retribution from Mr. Lauer and their bosses. They all agreed that his contract, thought to keep him at “Today” through at least 2014, would be his last.

While “we are aware of all the ridiculous rumors and gossip,” said Alex Wallace, the NBC News executive in charge of “Today,” “we would like Matt Lauer to be in the chair as long as he would like to be. We hope that’s for many years to come.” Mr. Lauer has declined interview requests.

Certainly Ms. Curry’s removal from “Today” hurt Mr. Lauer, just as he privately predicted it would, and just as his best friend, Bryant Gumbel, was hurt 20 years earlier when Jane Pauley made way for Deborah Norville in a similarly operatic situation.

In both Mr. Lauer’s and Mr. Gumbel’s case, NBC failed to shield them from criticism. But something more happened on Ms. Curry’s last day, June 28: seemingly every negative word ever uttered about Mr. Lauer was reprised. While he stayed silent, tabloid Web sites reran old items about his personal life and blogs said he was undeserving of his contract. All of this is still searchable on Google. The top 10 searches for his name include “divorce,” “salary,” “Ann Curry,” and “fired.”

Martin Kaplan of the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism said the suggestion that Mr. Lauer forced Ms. Curry out might be unfair, but it looked that way to many viewers. “TV lives by that illusion” of a family, he said. “Sometimes, it also dies by it.”

What NBC may do next, according to outsiders contacted by the network, is add another cast member to “Today.” Even if the person appeared only on the 9 a.m. hour, which Mr. Lauer is not a part of, such an addition would make “Today” more of an ensemble show, seemingly less dependent on his star power.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/14/business/media/at-nbc-a-struggle-to-revive-the-morning-magic.html?hp&_r=0

TV Notes
'The Sing-Off' coming back to NBC for Season 4
By Grady Smith, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - Mar. 13, 2013

Brace yourselves, a-caholics! EW has confirmed that NBC is bringing back its a cappella competition The Sing-Off for a fourth season.

“I am happily able to confirm that casting is going on. The show is back!” producer Deke Sharon tells EW over the phone. A casting call site went live today, and Sharon says that, within minutes, there were already group registrations pouring in.

The Sing-Off was never officially canceled after its super-sized third season, which earned lackluster ratings in fall 2011, but NBC passed on picking it up for a fourth go-round in 2012. Still, in the time that has transpired, a cappella’s popularity has surged. The Sing-Off‘s Season 3 winners, Pentatonix, have become viral staples with their inventive covers and originals, and the huge success of Pitch Perfect (for which Deke Sharon arranged the music) has breathed new energy into the genre.

Mark Burnett Productions has come aboard to work on Season 4 (how’s that for synergy with The Voice?), and the upcoming season’s structure is expected to return to the holiday format used in Seasons 1 and 2. As far as judging and hosting duties, nothing is official just yet.

So get ready for more percussive syllables, bright-colored cardigans, smart judging, and (fingers crossed!) amazing Nick Lachey puns coming your way later this year. Oh yeah, plus some incredible vocal displays like this, too: [CLICK LINK BELOW]

http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/03/13/the-sing-off-renewed/

Critic's Notes
'Veronica Mars' Kickstarter: Why It's Good (Even If The Movie's Not)
By Maureen Ryan, HuffingtonPost.com - Mar. 13, 2013

Like so many other people, I was thrilled to learn about the Kickstarter campaign to fund a "Veronica Mars" movie. My Twitter feed blew up this morning as soon as word of the campaign by creator Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell came out.

The giddiness among TV fans is understandable: The show was a wonderful gem that remains close to its fans' hearts all these years later. The idea of a return to Neptune is very exciting.

But mixed in with all the whooping and hollering is some anxiety, negativity and cynicism. I've seen some comments along the lines of, "Oh no, this will open the floodgates" to more Kickstarter/fan/grassroots campaigns for more seasons of old shows.

I don't see this as a bad thing. For one, I don't necessarily think the gates of Hell will be opened to revivals that should never have otherwise seen the light of day. If the "Mars" campaign works and these types of ventures proliferate, it'll probably be harder for other creators to collect as much coin. One of the reasons "The Guild" did so well with crowdfunding in its early seasons is because there weren't that many web series out there (certainly not many good ones). And though the "Mars" effort is well on its way -- it's almost halfway to its $2 million goal as I write this -- it may not be successful.

Even if it does works and the floodgates do open, there's no need for anxiety if we acknowledge one core truth: Some of these revivals will suck.

Let me be clear: I don't think the "Veronica Mars" movie will be bad. I have a great deal of faith in writer/producer Rob Thomas, based on his record in creating "Party Down" and Veronica's Neptune adventures. No TV show is perfect, but those two productions and their terrific casts have brought me as much pleasure as anything I've ever seen. Thomas and the cast are putting a good bit of their creative capital on the line, and they'll be using their fans' hard-earned dough, and those are two big reasons I'm sure they'll try really hard not to screw up.

Having said that, could the "Veronica Mars" movie be terrible? Yes, it could be. Even if it isn't, some revival or fan-funded production down the line will be awful, boring or lame. One day, some much-desired revival will piss off a large number of that show's fans.

And this is a good thing. Such a turn of events will mean that our ideas about TV revivals will mature.

One of these days, the TV-revival honeymoon will end -- and that's a good analogy, because when a couple's honeymoon ends, they often find out what commitment really means. We may have more arenas than ever in which to show our love for great shows and more ways to bring them back to life, but we're not the ones making these shows. The people making them are artists, and we're not always going agree with their choices. We could get mad about how they spend the money we ponied up (via a Kickstarter donation, a Netflix subscription or some other investment), but, well, in Chicago we say: You pays your money and you takes your chances.

It's great that we have new ways in which to show our devotion to our favorite properties. But the more revivals there are, the more chances there will be for some to fail. And that's okay. As a fan of shows that were canceled too soon, it's impossible not to be glad that this route is available. ("Terriers" fans, to Kickstarter with you!)

If "Veronica Mars" puts a superhighway on the road that "The Guild" and "Dr. Horrible" and countless other online pioneers helped carve out, we'll all learn a lot more about where to put our resources and what we'll get in return. Fans will think harder about what they will and won't get out of the deal. Creators will learn what kinds of project work and what kinds of things will get them a whole lot of "never again" comments. Netflix might be thrilled with what new episodes of "Arrested Development" can do for its brand, or it might learn, as so many networks have, that it's not always easy to translate the loyalty of a cult audience into viewership numbers.

When some of these ventures fail or disappoint the faithful or their funders, whoever they are, the floodgates some people are so worried about may start to close. But Veronica Mars herself would be the first to acknowledge that learning about how life works can be painful. Regret and recriminations are part of growing up -- but so are shared joy and unexpected good fortune.

I'm fine with the floodgates getting kicked open by the girl detective. As this revival and off-the-beaten-path renewal process comes into its own, let the debate rage about who owes what to whom and who's to blame when things go awry. From where I'm sitting, it's hard to be cynical about a whole new creative space that is being born right before our eyes.

To paraphrase Chairman Mao, let 100 TV-related Kickstarters bloom. Let's hope for the best and know that the worst is bound to happen some time or other -- and that'll be okay.

Now let's all go back to watching the numbers rise on the "Veronica Mars" Kickstarter page.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maureen-ryan/veronica-mars-kickstarter_b_2868249.html?utm_hp_ref=tv

I'm excited to see if a 'Veronica Mars' movie (telemovie, probably) gets made from this effort (loved the show). If they'd do a Kickstarter campaign for another season of 'Firefly', they'd likely get 10 times the amount of capital that VM will generate. Enough to do a whole 'nother season at, say, $3 million per ep? Maybe not, but certainly enough to make FOX take a look at a greatly subsidized pro forma, taking their risk down to near zero. I'd certainly contribute. Joss, Nathan, et.al., are you guys paying attention to this?

I was somewhat surprised to see FX commercials for the porno channels on Comcast. It is amazing to me the way Comcast has quietly gone from silent to posting listings for porno to now ads. Don't get me wrong, I am not against the channels but am amazed at the lack of resistance from local government to the creep of porn to mainstream.

There are some people, who scream at the top of their lungs that they want government out of their lives, then they find something that offends them, and you can’t get government to act fast enough.

Critic's Notes
Bianculli's Best Bets
By David Bianculli, TVWorthWatching.com - Mar. 14, 2013

AMERICAN IDOL
Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET
In the dozen years of this show’s often tempestuous history, no judge has ever missed the start of a live show. Not until last night, that is, when host Nicki Minaj was absent for the beginning of Wednesday’s live edition of American Idol, represented only by an empty chair nestled between Keith Urban and Randy Jackson. She did show up after the first contestant had sung and been judged, and slipped into her seat during the commercial break – trying to look cool and unobtrusive, but coming off more like a female Unabomber. And later in the same show, another unpredictable judge, Mariah Carey, went on so long with her remarks that the band came in and played over her, like she was an Oscar winner with a too-long acceptance speech. What a crew.

THE BIG BANG THEORY
CBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
On tonight’s episode, Howard comes across a letter written to him by his long-gone father – and agonizes over whether to read it. Admittedly, Howard has it tough in the parenting department. Not only is his father absent, but his mother, though present in a big way, has never been seen. At least not by us viewers.

THE WALKING DEAD
AMC, 8:00 p.m. ET
On Thursdays, AMC has begun repeating The Walking Dead in sequence, but with a difference: with the color drained from the image, so that it’s presented in old-school black and white. That gimmick alone may not be enough reason to revisit the show, but here’s a better reason: Tonight’s episode is the one set at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, where Rick and his band of desperate survivors beg for answers, and help, from a barricaded scientist played by Noah Emmerich – the intense actor now playing the FBI neighbor on The Americans.

BOOGIE NIGHTS
IFC, 8:00 p.m. ET
This 1997 Paul Thomas Anderson movie has a ridiculously talented cast – many of whom were much smaller stars when this period movie about the porn industry was filmed. Mark Wahlberg stars as a young man with a natural gift for that particular film genre, Burt Reynolds plays the producer who discovers him, and the supporting cast includes – ready? – William H. Macy, Julianne Moore, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, Heather Graham and more.

NATHAN FOR YOU
Comedy Central, 10:30 p.m. ET
This daily feature is called Bianculli’s Best Bets, so this particular recommendation is fair, even though it comes from my 29-year-old son, Mark, who asked last night if I had seen this odd new show co-created by and starring Nathan Fielder. I hadn’t, but based on Mark’s enthusiastic description, I’ll tune in tonight, and urge you to do the same. In this reality-show spoof (well, he’s spoofing, but his guests are serious, like a Daily Show report), Fielder plays an expert giving advice to small businesses, like a retail non-food version of Gordon Ramsay. Except Fielder isn’t hot-tempered, just odd. Tonight he advises a retail clothing store to permit shoplifting by attractive patrons, because they’ll look good in the clothes they steal, and bring uglier people into the store.

http://www.tvworthwatching.com/

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

Nielsen Overnights (18-49)
Fox wins ninth straight Wednesday night
Two-hour edition of 'American Idol' draws a 3.6 in 18-49s
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Mar. 14, 2013

On a night littered with reruns, Fox won its ninth straight Wednesday evening with a two-hour edition of “American Idol.”

“Idol” drew a 3.6 adults 18-49 rating, according to Nielsen overnights, down 3 percent from last week.

It was easily the top-rated show of the night. CBS’s “Survivor” was the No. 2 program with a 2.5, one of just four original programs on the Big Five English-language networks last night.

TV usage was down 9 percent from 8 to 10 p.m. due to the large amount of reruns and the start of daylight savings time over the weekend, which always leads to lower TV usage earlier in the night as people stay out later.

All the original shows saw week-to-week declines, the biggest coming for ABC’s “The Neighbors,” which slid 18 percent to a series-low 1.4 at 8:30 p.m.

“Neighbors” was hurt by the fact that its lead-in, “The Middle,” was a rerun, as was its lead-out, “Modern Family.”

NBC’s “Whitney” fell 8 percent from last week, to a 1.2. And “Survivor” was down a slight 4 percent.

Fox finished first for the night among 18-49s with a 3.6 average overnight rating and an 11 share. CBS was second at 2.0/6, Univision third at 1.5/4, ABC fourth at 1.2/4, NBC fifth at 1.1/3, 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. Fox led with a 3.4 for “Idol,” followed by CBS with a 2.5 for “Survivor.” ABC and Univision tied for third at 1.4, ABC for a repeat of “The Middle” (1.3) and a new “Neighbors” (1.4) and Univision for “Porque el Amor Manda.” NBC was fifth with a 1.0 for “Whitney” (1.2 for an original at 8, 0.8 for rerun at 8:30), and CW and Telemundo tied for sixth at 0.5, CW for a repeat of “Arrow” and Telemundo for “Pasion Prohibida.”

Fox was first again at 9 p.m. with a 3.8 for more “Idol,” while CBS remained second with a 1.8 for a repeat of “Criminal Minds.” Univision was third with a 1.6 for “Amores Verdaderos,” ABC fourth with a 1.5 for repeats of “Modern Family” and “Suburgatory,” NBC fifth with a 1.2 for a rerun of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” Telemundo sixth with a 0.8 for “La Patrona” and CW seventh with a 0.4 for a repeat of “Supernatural.”

CBS took the lead at 10 p.m. with a 1.7 for a “CSI” rerun, with Univision second with a 1.5 for “Amor Bravio.” NBC was third with a 1.1 for a repeat of “Chicago Fire,” ABC fourth with a 0.7 for a repeat of “Nashville” and Telemundo fifth with a 0.4 for “El Rostro de la Venganza.”

Fox also led the night among households with an 8.0 average overnight rating and a 13 share. CBS was second at 5.2/8, ABC third at 2.6/4, NBC fourth at 2.5/4, Univision fifth at 1.9/3, CW sixth at 1.0/2 and Telemundo seventh at 0.7/1.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/fox-wins-ninth-straight-wednesday-night/

* * * *

Nielsen Overnights (18-49)
‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ far from flatlining
ABC show remains the No. 2 drama on broadcast
By Louisa Ada Seltzer, Media Life Magazine - Mar. 14, 2013

Within the next couple years, ABC will move “Grey’s Anatomy” out of the 9 p.m. anchor spot on Thursday night, making way for a younger, hotter series.

But for now “Grey’s” is actually holding up quite well for a program in its ninth year. Tonight’s episode features returning guest star Debbie Allen as the surgeons deal with a large number of transplants.

“Grey’s” is averaging a 3.2 adults 18-49 rating this season, according to Nielsen. It rises by 53 percent to a 4.9 when seven-day DVR playback is added.

Despite its old age, the show is still the No. 14 program on broadcast this season, and it’s the No. 2 drama, behind only CBS’s “NCIS” with a 3.5.

That’s impressive for a show that’s been on the air for so long, and it suggests that “Grey’s,” despite a major cast turnover this season, may have the chops for an “ER”-length run.

Creator Shonda Rhimes deftly shifted the focus to some of the newer doctors on the show following the exits of Eric Dane, Chyler Leigh and Kim Raver this year.

That’s the same strategy that “ER” employed, moving new characters to the front while still showcasing some older ones as the cast changed year after year.

In the longer term, though, it’s hard to imagine that ABC will keep “Grey’s” in its current timeslot for too much longer. In recent weeks, CBS’s “Person of Interest” has been beating “Grey’s” in their shared timeslot.

Much as CBS eventually moved “CSI” from the plum 9 p.m. Thursday hour, “Grey’s” will move to make way for a show with more growth potential.

It certainly seems that “Scandal,” “Grey’s” 10 p.m. lead-out, could be a replacement. The second-year drama, also from Rhimes, is one of the few programs on broadcast to grow this year.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/greys-anatomy-far-from-flatlining/

TV Notes
Netflix Pacts For ‘The Killing’ Season 3
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - Mar. 14, 2013

After lengthy negotiations, Netflix has closed a deal with The Killing producer Fox Television Studios for the upcoming third season of the mystery drama, which premieres on AMC later this year. Under the pact, Netflix will be the exclusive subscription TV service for The Killing Season 3 and will begin streaming it three months after the third-season finale airs on AMC. That is an unusually short window for SVOD distribution of a cable series, which is usually tied to a season’s release on DVD around the following season’s premiere — about a year after the original TV run. I hear getting The Killing early was important for Netflix and key in getting the streaming service on board. The complete Season 2 of The Killing became available to Netflix members in the U.S. yesterday, joining Season 1, which launched on Netflix in 2012. “We’re excited to see The Killing back on TV and we’re especially proud to bring Season 3 to our members so soon after it premieres on AMC,” said Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s Chief Content Officer. “The Killing is a terrific serialized drama and we know our members love these high-quality shows.”

Fox TV Studios president David Madden said that the agreement with Netflix “played an extremely significant part in the studio’s strategy that enabled us to bring The Killing back for a third season.” Indeed, after AMC originally opted not to order a third season, FtvS held complex parallel talks with AMC and Netflix, with a second revenue stream from Netflix in addition to the license fee from AMC allowing the studio to proceed with production on Season 3, which is currently underway. The Netflix pact comes two months after FtvS closed a deal with AMC for a third season renewal of The Killing. “Our showrunner, Veena Sud, has plunged our principals into new and dangerous worlds, with wicked twists and a climactic end-of-season resolution, and our acclaimed cast, including Mireille Enos, Joel Kinnaman and new cast member Peter Sarsgaard, are already thrillingly bringing it to life,” Madden said.

Based on the Danish series Forbrydelsen, The Killing follows various murder investigations led by homicide detectives Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) and Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman). After the close of the Rosie Larsen case, covered over the first two seasons of the series, Season 3 picks up one year later, with Linden no longer a detective. When ex-partner Holder’s search for a runaway girl leads him to discover a gruesome string of murders that connects to a previous murder investigation by Linden, she is drawn back into the life she thought she’d left behind.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/03/netflix-makes-deal-for-the-killing-season-3/

Yep, this kind of stuff is exactly what we need to start breaking the stranglehold the networks have over content and delivery. Bypass the entrenched and go directly to the content producers.

Money talks and I'm sure they make a ton off of porn PPV. I don't see what your local franchise authority has anything to do with what ads are run (more of an FCC/FTC thing), but maybe I'm wrong.

Perhaps if they didn't spend half the morning running week-old YouTube videos as if they were new and doing countless cooking segments where watching Al Roker eat is enough to make anyone turn the channel.

Matt doesn't have any fun with his co-hosts, anymore. Brian Williams has better on-screen chemistry with Savannah Guthrie than Matt. Savannah is clearly smarter than everyone else and seems a bit out of her element. Roker just looks unhappy, especially when they send him out to stand in inclement weather. Never thought I'd say this, but I have more fun watching Kathie Lee and Hoda and I never liked Kathie Lee. Maybe the "Today" show cast needs more wine.

NBC also has to learn that things have changed. There's now a huge social media behemoth that can and will react to changes in a way that can't be swept under the rug.

NBC's dwelling on old news and celeb news is the main reason I don't watch much.  IMO, the Today Show's biggest mistake was that they fired the wrong anchor. 

I agree 100%. I have loved the Today show for years and always watched it when I had an opportunity. Then, when my work schedule changed, I try to watch at least the first hour every morning. It seems like they haven't had any fun since Merideth left and as much as I respected Ann Curry as a news anchor and "roving reporter," she was out of her element as co-host. I really like Savannah, Matt, et al and hope NBC figures out a way to turn this thing around. I think a new, less conservative, set would help but if they replace Matt with either Willie Geist or David Gregory, I'm done. I'd much rather see Lester Holt if they do make a change.

And, as much as I admire Willard Scott and the "100-Year Club," they need to (a) make him do it live instead of those obviously fake taped segments (b) move it to a different hour because the only people who really care about those segments are the people being honored, the families and friends of the people being honored, and Smuckers or (c) cancel it altogether. And, I say this as a near senior citizen rather than a punk kid who doesn't care about old folks.

Lastly (and lately), I've found myself switching to GMA a few times but I always come back to "Today." That may not always be the case, however.

Now that's what I call ala carte.

Watching Willie’s rise from Morning Joe, I think NBC has big plans for him. How much of that has to do with his father and whether he remains at NBC, I don’t know, but his future is secure.

Meet the Press is supposed to be the pinnacle of news reporting. Going to The Today Show would be a big step back for Gregory, IMO. Besides, he doesn't have the personality for that format.

Except the VM movie isn't bypassing that. The movie is still being distributed, marketed and released by Warner Bros. because they still own the rights. WB just didn't pitch in with the production cost. So the movie is still in the hands of the typical movie studio system and for it to get on television at some point it will still have to go through the usual distribution process, because the networks still control the vast majority of popular viewing outlets.

To bypass the stranglehold needs direct access to content and internet infrastructure and consumer capability just isn't there. The moment it is I can guarantee cablecos like TWC will use every cap and cut they can to ensure that a direct internet model ceases to be cost-effective or viable for the consumer.

Very true.

Without a major studio behind your movie to distribute it, you won't get it into anything but art house cinemas. Getting screen time in a theater is like getting shelf space in a grocery store - the big guys have it all locked up, so the little guys are stuck down at the bottom with the store brands.

Even the independent films have a major studio behind them, be it Fox Searchlight or some other arm of another major studio.

TV Notes
What’s Really Fueling the Veronica Mars Frenzy
By Josh Wolk, Vulture.com (New York Magazine) - Mar. 14, 2013

It only took eleven hours for Veronica Mars fans to collectively bid the $2 million on Kickstarter that would get a movie sequel made to Kristen Bell’s defunct WB show: While Warner Bros. would pay for distribution and marketing, the contributions would be funding all of the production costs. Yesterday, it became the fastest Kickstarter project to hit $1 million (doing so in just under four and a half hours), cementing hopes that, after more moderate success for original projects like Charlie Kaufman’s stop-motion film ($406,000) or Amanda Palmer’s Theatre Is Evil ($1.2 million), the site was now officially a viable power-to-the-people tool that could wrest decisions and creative dilution from micromanaging Hollywood executives. However, before proclaiming a new dawn in which studios and music labels atrophy as decisions are completely commandeered by artists and audiences, it’s important to point out that Veronica Mars is a very specific case. It crosses the streams of the Internet’s two most powerful by-products: overpowering nostalgia and impatience.

It may seem strange to call love of Veronica Mars “nostalgia,” since it only went off the air six years ago, but the window between pop-culture farewells and moony, idyllic remembrance has shrunk so much that the lag between sign-offs and sanctification is about eight months, depending on the number of catchphrases the show in question spawned. Just as online comments sections are now forums for people to voice the most polemic versions of their own beliefs, so too has the internet escalated people’s public and mutually enabled love of the past, be it from their childhood or last year. Old shows aren’t great, they’re the best show in the world ever! (See comments from fans of losing shows in our Sitcom Smackdown: The anger was so vitriolic that you would think the match had been “Tuna sandwich versus Your Beloved Grandmother. Winner: tuna sandwich!”)

Fans want their favorite shows to come back with a passion that goes past bemused fantasizing. The increasing occurrence of cult shows or long-dormant franchises returning from the dead (Family Guy, Arrested Development, Star Wars, Indiana Jones) has made pop-culture reincarnation a truth. Get the grass rooted, and it’ll happen: Get us more Pushing Daisies, Deadwood, Gilmore Girls! And as a result, fans get all the more engaged in the quest, to the point where they’ll chip in to make it happen if they have to. They are as desperate as if they were addicts suffering the D.T.’s: They were entwined with these shows, deeply invested in the story that was abruptly cut off.

But if Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas and Kristen Bell announced they were collaborating on an unrelated project, the donations would be far less. It’s the difference between telling someone “Give me $100 to try cocaine for the first time” and “Give me $100 for more cocaine.” Yes, artists with devoted fans will always be able to rally them to open their wallets for new, interesting work. But these same artists will get their acolytes to empty their bank accounts if they promise more of something familiar. Put another way: Had Martin Scorsese tried to crowd-fund his upcoming movie Wolf of Wall Street, he would have made a scrappy indie. But if he put Goodfellas 2 up on Kickstarter, he might raise enough to set it in space.

Fans of defunct TV shows have been empowered by their previous successes. (“You won’t give me more Bluth family, Fox? Fine, we’ll take that **** to Netflix and then you’ll be sorry! Don’t worry, we’ll visit you and the rest of network TV in the retirement home, where you’ll be playing pinochle in the common room with an old Betamax and the cast of Silk Stalkings!”) But it’s more than that: A generation accustomed to streaming what it wants when it wants, and being able to instantly summon and binge-watch entire seasons in a week, gets agitated when “more” is out of reach. It seems irrational that you can’t have more; it’s as if the timeline has stalled. Where is the button that teleports all the actors back onto my screen and makes them act out new stories? We’ve already done away with all the other limits of time and space (screw you, TV schedule), so why have we suddenly hit a wall? So when someone gives us an option to get more, the reaction is “Finally! Yes, take what you need, just get this going again!”

A debate has ensued about whether it’s ridiculous for fans to have to pay twice (lower-tier donors don’t get the free DVD or digital version) to subsidize a movie that a major studio stands to profit from. But realistically, the studio is not likely to make much of a profit on a Veronica Mars movie. The 43,000-plus donators (as of Thursday at noon) do not necessarily portend huge numbers at the box office, even if they all bring three friends. (When Universal* capitulated to the constant stomping for a Firefly movie and made Joss Whedon’s Serenity for $39 million, it only brought in $26 million in the U.S.)

Internet nostalgia is a double-edged sword. The very escalating group pining that happens in relation to old projects does not necessarily mean they want to see more; as Matt Zoller Seitz wrote, beloved shows should remain dead. Nostalgia is grasping for the impossible: You don’t want more of what you remember fondly; you want to be back at the time when you enjoyed it, which is an impossibility. Fervent campaigning for more, more, more is really a rally for time to move backward. The disappointment of the Star Wars prequels wasn’t entirely the fault of the subpar movies, it’s that adults would never be able to see them with the same wonderment that they did when they were kids and played Luke and Han in their backyards. It was fun to beg for more Indiana Jones adventures, but Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was unsettling: Old Indiana Jones? We’re old — I don’t want to be reminded of that! Make him young; make us young! Witness the mass mind-losing over Girl Meets World. Once the thrill fades of first seeing the old Boy Meets World faces reunite, will there be any reward to seeing them deliver TGIF-caliber humor? And if it suddenly becomes smart, adult comedy, wouldn’t that feel just as wrong?

But no matter history; the prospect of any old show returning is always greeted with prayers-are-answered hosannahs and a just tell us what we have to do battle stance. Ponce de León never faltered in his quest for the Fountain of Youth; Kickstarter is our path to that magical oasis.

http://www.vulture.com/2013/03/veronica-mars-kickstarter-and-tv-nostalgia.html

TV Notes
MSNBC Names Chris Hayes New Primetime Host, Replacing Ed Schultz
By Jordan Zakarin, The Hollywood Reporter - Mar. 14, 2013

Chris Hayes has joined MSNBC's primetime lineup.

The 34-year-old journalist will fill the 8 p.m. time slot left by Ed Schultz, the fiery populist whose program The Ed Show is shifting to the weekends. It is an indirect internal trade by the network, as Hayes has hosted a weekend morning program called Up With Chris Hayes since September 2011.

He also has served as a frequent contributor to MSNBC's primetime lineup, including as a guest host for The Rachel Maddow Show, Lawrence O'Donnell's The Last Word and Keith Olbermann's former program Countdown.

"Chris has done an amazing job creating a franchise on weekend morning," network president Phil Griffin said in a statement. "He’s an extraordinary talent and has made a strong connection with our audience. This is an exciting time for MSNBC."

A veteran of left-leaning journalism, Hayes serves as an editor at large for The Nation.

The switch from Schultz to Hayes marks the next step in MSNBC's transformation into a young network dominated by wonky policy discussions. Another rising star cut from the same mold, Ezra Klein, was thought to have a shot at the 8 p.m. slot and instead might fill Hayes' former spot at 8 a.m. on weekends.

MSNBC is counting on Hayes to surpass Schultz's ratings in the valuable 25-54 demographic; according to the New York Times, of The Ed Show's nightly 1 million viewers, only 249,000 fell in that range. On the other hand, Maddow, the network's top host, pulled in 339,000 pairs of eyes in that range. Hayes' early weekend morning show pulled in 139,000 viewers in that range.

Hayes faces the task of going up against Fox News juggernaut Bill O'Reilly, who regularly wins the 8 p.m. time slot.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/msnbc-names-chris-hayes-new-428555

Nielsen Notes (Late Night)
Kimmel ratings down from 'Nightline'
By Lynette Rice, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - Mar. 14, 2013

Jimmy Kimmel’s much-anticipated move to the 11:30 p.m. timeslot on ABC has generated great buzz — along with a tidal wave of good press and favorable reviews — but the impact of such a change has yet to produce dramatic results for the fourth place network. To wit: Kimmel’s performance during the February sweeps month was actually lower than what Nightline did from 11:30-midnight in February of 2012.

According to live plus same day ratings from Nielsen, Kimmel was down 12% in adults 18-49 (1.007 million versus 1.143 million) and 25% in viewers (2.883 million versus 3.828 million) compared to what the news magazine averaged last year. ABC has long argued that by moving Kimmel to the earlier timeslot, it can make more money off of commercials because advertisers prefer entertainment programs over news. In the suits’ terms, the costs per mille (that’s thousand in Latin) among adults 18-49 can sell for a premium if they are within “quality” entertainment, which is why Kimmel — according to one high-ranking ABC suit — sells out far better than Nightline ever did.

So how’s Kimmel faring versus the competition? There’s no doubt about it, the folks at NBC and CBS are keeping a keen eye on the new young guy at 11:30 p.m. But Jay Leno’s popularity — as confounding as it is to critics and Kimmel, especially — remains strong: The Tonight Show beat Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Late Show with David Letterman in the February sweep among adults 18-49 (1.003 million versus Letterman’s 920,000 and Kimmel’s 898,000). Leno also attracted a bigger audience (3.5 million viewers versus Letterman’s 3.2 million and Kimmel’s 2.5 million).

Over the last two months, however, all three shows have earned bragging rights. Often times, the power shifts weekly: During the week of Jan. 21, when Letterman was in repeats, Kimmel averaged a larger audience than CBS and better ratings in adults 18-49. But Kimmel also out-rated Letterman when he was in originals, like during weeks of Feb. 11 and Jan. 14. For now, though, beating Leno is the toughest task for the feisty Kimmel: After dominating during his premiere week of Jan. 7 (1.07 million 18-49 viewers versus Leno’s 1.04 million and Letterman’s 820,000), Kimmel has yet to do better than his NBC counterpart when he’s in originals. In fact, during the week of March 4, when Kimmel was in originals (except for Friday) while Leno and Letterman were in repeats, Kimmel was third in viewers (2.5 million) versus NBC (2.8 million) and CBS (2.6 million). He tied Leno in 18-49 with a .7. (Letterman got a .6).

Despite the ratings, published reports have claimed a succession plan is already in the works at NBC that involves replacing Leno with Jimmy Fallon in 2014 — though one insider insists that late night is the last thing to worry NBC execs, especially given their woes in prime time and in the early hours, where Good Morning America continues to butt kick Today. And any kind of hit that Leno has taken or will take in the near future has to be blamed as much on the poor performance of his prime time lead-in as it does the new competition from Kimmel. Replacing him with a younger guy like Fallon may not be solution – but it’s sure going to be fun to watch what happens over the next several months. We’ll stay tuned.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/03/14/kimmel-ratings-down-from-nightline/

Critics' Notes
20 film and TV directors to consider for the Steven Spielberg/Stanley Kubrick 'Napoleon' miniseries
By Kristopher Tapley, Guy Lodge, Daniel Fienberg and Gregory Ellwood, HitFix.com - Mar. 15, 2013

A bit of a bombshell on the cineaste set recently when Steven Spielberg announced plans to transform Stanley Kubrick's massive, unfilmed Napoleon biopic into a television miniseries. Last week, Hollywood Reporter film critic Todd McCarthy humbly suggested seven filmmakers to take up the reins on the project, should Spielberg opt out of directing it himself.

The names McCarthy suggested weren't in and of themselves bad ideas: David Fincher, Paul Thomas Anderson, Martin Scorsese, Kathryn Bigelow, Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan and Peter Weir. No one is going to argue that each and every one of them is talented and up to the challenge. But there was an overly wish-listy quality to the list, not all that reasonable, really.

Not only that, those are some disparate voices that probably wouldn't work in a single boat. A miniseries like this, if farmed out to other talent and not placed on one filmmaker's shoulders, would obviously need to find an organic rhythm across a spectrum of voices.

Of the list, I thought only Weir seemed plausible and, really, suitable. No one wants to end up mimicking Kubrick here but it would be nice if the filmmaker's sensibilities were reflected. Nolan and Anderson have had sometimes dubious parallels drawn to the filmmaker, but on the whole, this A-list just feels like something we'd LIKE to see, but surely won't.

But it's a great jumping off point, so I reached out to HitFix's Greg Ellwood and Guy Lodge to help cook up an alternative list. Additionally, given that we're exploring a project set for TV, I asked our own Dan Fienberg for his suggestions on that front as well, and the result is a collective of 20 names that we'd like to humbly submit for consideration, again, if indeed Kubrick would prefer to produce while handing the directorial duties off to others.

Some names that didn't make the list but were mulled over include Darren Aronofsky, Susanne Bier, Sofia Coppola, Walter Hill and James Marsh. I'd personally stump for Weir and MAYBE Anderson from McCarthy's list, but there's also one other filmmaker he mentioned "whose work is just as exacting and chilly as Kubrick's and who is probably his intellectual equal: Michael Haneke." I'd be on board for that, too.

Anyway, click through the gallery below to see which film and television directors we'd like to see considered. And feel free to offer up your own suggestions in the comments section as well!

Michael Apted
The mastermind of the "Up" series checks all of the requisite boxes. From "Coal Miner's Daughter" to "Gorillas in the Mist," he has displayed confidence with the biopic format and honoring real people without hagiography. From his days on British TV through his work on HBO's "Rome," he's had no trouble working in the medium and delivering scale and performance nuance on a TV budget and production schedule. Plus, on the assumption that action set pieces are required, let's not forget that Apted has James Bond and Narnia movies under his belt.- Dan Fienberg

Olivier Assayas
Well, it's their history, so it seems only fair that we get at least one Frenchman involved. Regardless of nationality, however, Assayas was the first name that popped into my head when this list came up. 2010's epic “Carlos,” released both in theaters and as a TV miniseries, was a riveting portrait of a controversial, charismatic figure of more recent history, earning the auteur a Golden Globe award and an Emmy nomination. There's no reason to think Assayas couldn't capture the period vitality and rebellious force of personality that drove that project in a very different historical context – he already delved back beyond the 20th century in his film “Les destinées sentimentales.”- Guy Lodge

Jane Campion
Campion may strike some as an implausibly artsy choice, but the Oscar-winning New Zealander has form in TV, both from her pre-“Piano” days and, most recently, in the slow-burning mystery of her atmospheric HBO miniseries “Top of the Lake.” As she demonstrated in “An Angel at My Table” and “Bright Star,” meanwhile, Campion has a knack for bringing intimate, idiosyncratic perspective to biographical material. The bigger question is whether the liberally gender-conscious filmmaker, whose films all have a strongly female point of view, would have any interest in Napoleon at all. The Empress Josephine, however...- Guy Lodge

Francis Ford Coppola
Let's start from the wish list, fan perspective: How great would it be to finally see a collaboration between Coppola and Spielberg after all these years? Lately the legendary director has reverted to his film school roots with exploratory curios "Youth Without Youth," "Tetro" and "Twixt," but he had a flare for the epic out of the gate. He's certainly never shied from period work and indeed has always found exciting thematic texture in rise and fall depictions. One need not look much farther than his "Godfather" trilogy for evidence of that.- Kristopher Tapley

Milos Forman
For some reason, to me, Forman sits at the top of the list of filmmakers I'd like to see tackle Napoleon. From Mozart to Larry Flint to Andy Kaufman, he's always had a unique way with biopic studies and 1989's "Valmont" took him to France once upon a time (albeit Baroque France). He's never scaled down for the small screen but a heavy-hitting project like this could lure him out, and really, the line between cinema and television has become more blurred than ever.- Kristopher Tapley

Todd Haynes
Another arthouse major who recently crossed over to the small screen with his elegant, multi-award-winning reinterpretation of “Mildred Pierce,” Haynes seems a slight stretch of the imagination for this project: his interest in history (on film, at least) has skewed more towards pop than politics, and his biopics have either been enacted with Barbie dolls instead of actors (“Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story”) or splintered their subject into multiple personae (the aptly named “I'm Not There”), neither of which I suspect is an approach Spielberg has in mind. Still, there's a first time for everything, and it would be fascinating to see Haynes cross centuries by positioning Napoleon as a kind of historical rock star, while his queer sensibility could add interesting textures to the Emperor's personal life.- Guy Lodge

Werner Herzog
Herzog has always had a knack for capturing obsessive souls in his work, particularly in his collaborations with actor Klaus Kinski. Of course, it takes one to know one, and in Napoleon I can't help but imagine the always unpredictable filmmaker would find a goldmine. He's malleable to the medium and could even prove an unexpectedly complementary marriage of sensibilities with Kubrick's.- Kristopher Tapley

Agnieszka Holland
Polish director Holland's trio of Oscar-nominated WWII dramas (“Angry Harvest,” “Europa Europa” and last year's “In Darkness”) proved her vivid sense of both the political fog and personal consequences of war, which would lend gut immediacy to a depiction of Napoleon's conquests. She's been on less sure footing with period biopic material – artist studies “Total Eclipse” and particularly “Copying Beethoven” were bad misfires – but this particular subject might play more to her strengths. She's also recently excelled as a TV director, scoring an Emmy nod for “Treme,” with episodes of “The Wire” and “The Killing” also under her belt.- Guy Lodge

Tom Hooper
Don't laugh. Hooper is suffering a bum rap from "The Social Network" obsessives and "Les Misérables" detractors as of late, but his work on the post-French Revolution musical already dabbled in these waters somewhat so perhaps he'd be up to staying with it. Then again, maybe he's ready to move on. The point is, there's a bit of cross-over here and he could handle it. If there are still nay-sayers, I haven't even gotten to Hooper's proven adeptness in the world of television: "John Adams" sure worked out.- Kristopher Tapley

Ang Lee
Who better to bring the epic nature of Napoleon's life to the screen than Ang Lee? The two-time Oscar winner has shown a masterful touch of jumping from one genre to another (including European period with "Sense and Sensibility") while bringing his own unique vision to each film. "Napoleon" would give him the chance to tackle one of the few things missing form his impressive resume, a massive war scene. Ang Lee's take on the Battle of Waterloo? Who could say no to that?*

*Intriguingly, the "Life of Pi" director has agreed to helm his first pilot for FX, "Tyrant," this spring. A quick tryout before tackling a miniseries?- Gregory Ellwood

Bennett Miller
This one reads as a bit of a stretch but there's something there, to me. Miller's handful of projects have largely been about getting inside male individuals and learning what makes them tick. He has a gift in that regard, and it's one that could be wonderfully exploited by a Napoleon project. He has a certain sensibility that feels like it would blend at least somewhat with Kubrick's, insomuch as both filmmakers show an interest in obsession with their work, and I would just like to see a guy like Miller involved with such a project. Who knows if he'd even be interested, though...- Kristopher Tapley

David Nutter
Perhaps because of his reputation as the most proficient pilot director in TV history, Nutter's non-pilot work has become undervalued over the years. His work on "Shameless" has had a sterling grasp on that show's particularly dazzling balance of tones, while he has smoothly integrated himself into the all-star roster of directors on "Game of Thrones." Perhaps most notable is his work on HBO's "Band of Brothers," for which he shared an Emmy with the full directing team, and "The Pacific," where he worked on two of the miniseries' strongest installments. He knows history and he knows how to bring the hell of war to the small screen. Granted that Nutter's only long-form credit is the Katie Holmes dud "Disturbing Behavior," but that was 15 years ago. He's ready for another shot.- Dan Fienberg

Brian Percival
An Emmy winner for the "Downton Abbey" series premiere, Percival also earned a nomination for the second season's finale/Christmas episode. He knows how to handle big casts in a period setting and how to make potentially intimidating material feel accessible, even to American audiences. Percival didn't get much attention for his feature debut "A Boy Called Dad," but his WWII-set "The Book Thief" should be a good test for his ability to add a little more scale to his repertoire.- Dan Fienberg

Roman Polanski
Like Forman, Polanski strikes me as a filmmaker who would be a perfect fit for this material. He's navigated period waters with unique aplomb throughout his career and there's a shared residue between his work and Kubrick's that would make the exploration all the more intriguing. Spielberg would surely love to bring him on board: he added his name to a petition trying to help the director avoid extradition to face a possible jail sentence for his 1979 rape conviction a few years ago and even tried to get Polanski to helm "Schindler's List" once upon a time.- Kristopher Tapley

Kevin Reynolds
After the blockbuster success of "Hatfields & McCoys," for which he earned an Emmy nod, Reynolds will be at the top of any list of directing prospects for a longform TV project requiring multi-year scope and star-driven performance. The "Waterwold" director has also displayed confidence with period action in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" (which, fun fact, featured a Napoleon cameo, you'll recall), with his History project presumably steadying any nervousness about past history with budget or scheduling overruns. Realistically, Reynolds will probably be considered more of a journeyman and less the aesthetic auteur a project like this might require, or might be aiming for.- Dan Fienberg

Alan Taylor
His work as one of the most acclaimed directors on "Game of Thrones" landed him a well-earned feature shot with "Thor: The Dark World," but even before he became the master of Westeros, Taylor's resume included some of the finest episodes of "Mad Men," "The Sopranos," "Homicide" and "Deadwood." Cable TV directors don't get much better than this and if the early rushes from the Marvel sequel are good, Taylor will be in demand for all manner of productions. The prestige of a "Napoleon" project might be enough to lure him.- Dan Fienberg

Tim Van Patten
Back in the day, they used to call Tim Van Patten "Salami" on the TV classic "The White Shadow," but the former actor has become one of cable's most acclaimed writer-directors. His resume includes episodes of "The Wire," "Deadwood," "Rome," "The Sopranos" and "Boardwalk Empire," for which he won an Emmy last year. He was the man entrusted with re-directing/re-vamping the original "Game of Thrones" pilot and he did multiple installments of "The Pacific." Van Patten is yet another of those cable-trained directors who knows how to get bang-for-your-buck, work with TV-scale effects and set pieces and yet never lets performances lapse. Like most of the TV veterans on this list, he's a journeyman, but if the "Napoleon" project is going to feature Spielberg and Kubrick as its true creative forces, you need somebody capable to execute that vision.- Dan Fienberg

Joe Wright
A modern master of period films after his big screen adaptations of "Atonement," "Pride and Prejudice" and "Anna Karenina," Joe Wright has the eye and dramatic skill to make a "Napoleon" miniseries something truly special. He's also no stranger to the long tracking shot (a Kubrick signature) or working in television. Wright has a pair of BAFTA nominations for TV work and one directing win for 2003's "The Last King" (again, another period piece) to his credit. The only concern is that Wright's one movie at Spielberg's DreamWorks studio, "The Soloist," wasn't well received and it's unclear what the relationship is between the two filmmakers. But if Wright is free and interested he has to be near the top of the list for consideration.- Gregory Ellwood

David Yates
Like fellow Brit Joe Wright, David Yates had a tremendous amount of success in British television (and American TV for that matter) before making the jump to the "Harry Potter" movies. He won a BAFTA TV Award for helming the now classic series "State of Play" and earned an Emmy nod for directing the HBO movie "The Girl in the Cafe." Oh, and he just happened to bring the "Harry Potter" series to an end with tremendous critical kudos as he fulfilled the massive expectations of millions (billions?) of fans across the globe. Most importantly, Yates knows the strengths of the medium and how to balance both spectacle and intimate drama. That could seal the deal.- Gregory Ellwood

Zhang Yimou
From “Raise the Red Lantern” to “Hero,” many of Zhang's best films have married politics and period spectacle to dazzling effect, but he's gone off the boil recently – and while he's recently shown crossover inclinations, remaking the Coen Brothers (“Blood Simple”) and collaborating with Christian Bale (“The Flowers of War”) didn't exactly relight the flame. Perhaps an even more drastic change of scene is called for: the director has never worked outside of an Eastern context (nor has he ever scaled down his vision for the small screen), but it's not too hard to imagine how the Napoleon story would play to his strengths as a bold painter of crowded historical landscapes. The battle scenes alone would be worth the risk.- Guy Lodge

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/20-film-and-tv-directors-to-consider-for-the-steven-spielberg-stanley-kubrick-napoleon-miniseries

Critic's Notes
Bianculli's Best Bets
By David Bianculli, TVWorthWatching.com - Mar. 15, 2013

THE WIZARDS RETURN: ALEX VS. ALEX
Disney Channel, 8:00 p.m. ET
SPECIAL: Talk about timing. There’s a new movie opening today called Spring Breakers, which follows the somewhat steamy escapades of a gaggle of thrill-seeking young women, two of whom are played by actresses who became famous playing much more wholesome roles on the Disney Channel. One is Vanessa Hudgens, star of the hugely popular High School Musical Disney telemovies. The other is Selena Gomez, who starred as teen sorceress Alex Russo in Disney’s The Wizards of Waverly Place sitcom, which ended last year. But here, on the same night Spring Breakers premieres in theaters, Disney presents the TV premiere of a one-hour Wizards reunion special. Fittingly, given her pushing-the-boundaries big-screen role, Gomez plays two roles in this new special: Her regular role of Alex, and an “evil” Alex, who employs black magic, with a leather outfit to match. As a guy who always preferred Serena to Samantha on Bewitched, and Jeannie II to Jeannie on I Dream of Jeannie, I know which “Team Alex” I’ll be on.

AMERICAN MASTERS: "WOODY GUTHRIE: AIN'T GOT NO HOME"
PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET
Sometimes, reruns are the best things a TV schedule can offer. That’s certainly true of this 2006 biography, which does a great job saluting, explaining and presenting one of folk music’s most noble, iconic and impressive talents. Check local listings.

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO DICK CHENEY
Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET
R.J. Cutler, the documentarian behind The War Room, returns to politics for this new nonfiction study – but this one is more of a portrait, with former Vice President Dick Cheney telling his side of every story. It’s not fair and balanced, as documentaries go, but it’s not intended to be. It’s more of a P.O.V.-style study, and, as such, certainly is eye-opening. No matter what your politics, you’ll find something surprising in this two-hour special, especially during the early years, when Cheney manages to be around, yet not burned by, both Watergate and Iran-Contra. For a full review, see Uncle Barky's Bytes.

BANSHEE
Cinemax, 10:00 p.m. ET
SEASON FINALE: Most of the episodes in this inaugural season have ended with some sort of cliffhanger, so I can’t even imagine what sort of cliffs, and hangers, will be used to wrap up the season tonight. If you're a Banshee fan, you'll want to read Eric Gould's The Cold Light Reader, which talks about the season finale and the show in general.

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER
HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET
TV Chef Tom Collichio is tonight’s midshow guest, which makes him the live TV equivalent of an amuse bouche. And the main course? For my money, that’s an easy call: returning guest Rachel Maddow.

http://www.tvworthwatching.com/

TV Sports
CBS' Clark Kellogg has possible dilemma in NCAA tourney
By Michael Hiestand, USA Today - Mar. 14, 2013

As CBS' Clark Kellogg looks ahead to NCAA men's basketball tournament action, he's not taking anything for granted.

He's not just talking how the coming tournament will be more "wide open" than any in recent years. He's also talking about his perch as CBS' lead analyst.

"I really see a shelf life now for all of us commentators," says Kellogg, who'll work his fifth Final Four with Jim Nantz after replacing Billy Packer, who called 34 Final Fours on CBS and NBC. "The TV landscape is totally different now -- you won't see (on-air) careers like you did with Billy Packer, John Madden, Dick Vitale. With the 24/7 news cycle and the digital world, now there's always going to be a clamoring for the 'next new thing.' ''

And since he replaced Packer, Kellogg hasn't been the next new face.

"Now, I'm not looking beyond two- to four-year windows," said Kellogg, who played at Ohio State from 1979-82 and in the NBA from 1982-87. "I just don't think you'll be able to see guys stay long in lead analyst positions. I'd like to be considered longer, but I just see it playing out that way."

But while he's watching his back, Kellogg has two personal storylines at play in this year's tournament. Son Nick Kellogg plays for Ohio University, which is the top seed in the Mid-American Conference and would get an NCAA tournament bid, as it did last year, if it wins the conference title game Saturday (ESPN2, 6:30 p.m. ET).

Kellogg's didn't call his son's NCAA games last year. And, he says he wouldn't angle internally at CBS to get such games this year. "For him, it would be a real treat but I would not choose to work them," says Kellogg. "If it ends up unfolding that way, I'd do the best I can. But I don't know how I'd respond. It's uncharted territory. I'd be more comfortable just watching him as a dad rather than having to be at my best professionally."

And there's one other aspect of the NCAA tournament, as well as his calls on the Big Ten conference tournament on CBS this weekend, that Kellogg expects will be an emotional test: Talking about his alma mater, Ohio State.

Kellogg, who is on the school's board of trustees, says calling the Buckeyes' 64-62 loss to Kansas in last year's Final Four left him "as emotionally drained as I've ever been professionally. There's no denying I'm very passionate about my alma mater."

Kellogg says he sees comments suggesting he can be less-than-objective about the Buckeyes. (Just as Duke alumnus Jay Bilas and Ohio State alumnus Kirk Herbstreit sometimes hear -- especially in cyberspace -- that their old school ties somehow affect their on-air comments.)

But Kellogg doesn't believe that: "People can see what they want to see. You can torture supposed bias any way you want to torture it. ... But, obviously, when I'm wearing my CBS blazer, my loyalty is to the game and my profession."

And to keeping his plum job atop that profession even when he's not the next new thing.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2013/03/14/ncaa-basketball-clark-kellogg-cbs-turner-sports-ohio-state-michael-hiestand-final-four/1987873/

Sorry, wasn't more clear - wasn't talking about the VM movie itself, just the notion of going to the director/producer/etc. and saying 'hey, we like your work - here's some money to do a new show based on your idea' while bypassing the studio and network. With internet delivery of course. This is not a new idea, plenty of folks have wanted to throw money at Joss Whedon, frex, for whatever he wants to produce.

Yeah I know, caps and higher HSI cost to stop all that. The only hope again there is that the masses rise up and gov't is forced to intervene because we know the monopolies aren't going anywhere.