Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 288

Emmy Award Notes
Emmy scorecard
Complete list of major nominees for the 59th annual Primetime Emmy Awards.
(From “The Envelope” in the Los Angeles Times”)

DRAMA SERIES:
"Boston Legal," ABC
"Grey's Anatomy," ABC
"Heroes," NBC
"House," Fox
"The Sopranos," HBO

COMEDY SERIES:
"Entourage," HBO
"The Office," NBC
"30 Rock," NBC
"Ugly Betty," ABC
"Two and a Half Men," CBS

ACTOR, DRAMA SERIES:
Denis Leary, "Rescue Me," FX Network
Hugh Laurie, "House," Fox
James Spader, "Boston Legal," ABC
Kiefer Sutherland, "24," Fox
James Gandolfini, "The Sopranos," HBO

ACTRESS, DRAMA SERIES:
Kyra Sedgwick, "The Closer," TNT
Sally Field, "Brothers and Sisters," ABC
Mariska Hargitay, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," NBC
Edie Falco, "The Sopranos," HBO
Minnie Driver, "The Riches," FX Network
Patricia Arquette, "Medium," NBC

ACTRESS, COMEDY SERIES:
America Ferrera, "Ugly Betty," ABC
Tina Fey, "30 Rock," NBC
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "The New Adventures of Old Christine," CBS
Felicity Huffman, "Desperate Housewives," ABC
Mary Louise Parker, "Weeds," Showtime

ACTOR, COMEDY SERIES:
Tony Shalhoub, "Monk," USA
Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock," NBC
Ricky Gervais, "Extras," HBO
Steve Carell, "The Office," NBC
Charlie Sheen, "Two and a Half Men," CBS

SUPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY SERIES:
Jon Cryer, "Two and a Half Men," CBS
Jeremy Piven, "Entourage," HBO
Neil Patrick Harris, "How I Met Your Mother," CBS
Kevin Dillon, "Entourage," HBO
Rainn Wilson, "The Office," NBC

SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA SERIES:
William Shatner, "Boston Legal," ABC
Michael Emerson, "Lost," ABC
Terry O'Quinn, "Lost," ABC
Michael Imperioli, "The Sopranos," HBO
T.R. Knight, "Grey's Anatomy," ABC
Masi Oka, "Heroes," NBC

SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA SERIES:
Rachel Griffiths, "Brothers and Sisters," ABC
Sandra Oh, "Grey's Anatomy," ABC
Chandra Wilson, "Grey's Anatomy," ABC
Katherine Heigl, "Grey's Anatomy," ABC
Aida Turturro, "The Sopranos," HBO
Lorraine Bracco, "The Sopranos," HBO

SUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY SERIES:
Conchata Ferrell, "Two and a Half Men," CBS
Jenna Fischer, "The Office," NBC
Holland Taylor, "Two and a Half Men," CBS
Vanessa Williams, "Ugly Betty," ABC
Jaime Pressly, "My Name is Earl," NBC
Elizabeth Perkins, "Weeds," Showtime

REALITY-COMPETITION PROGRAM:
"Amazing Race," CBS
"American Idol," Fox
"Dancing With the Stars," ABC
"Project Runway," Bravo
"Top Chef," Bravo

REALITY PROGRAM:
"Antiques Roadshow," PBS
"The Dog Whisperer With Cesar Millan," National Geographic Channel
"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," ABC
"Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List," Bravo
"Penn & Teller: Bull--," Showtime

MINISERIES:
"Broken Trail," AMC
"Prime Suspect: The Final Act (Masterpiece Theatre)," PBS
"The Starter Wife," USA

ACTOR, MINISERIES OR A MOVIE:
Robert Duvall, "Broken Trail," AMC
Tom Selleck, "Jesse Stone: Sea Change," CBS
Jim Broadbent, "Longford," HBO
William H. Macy, "Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From The Stories Of Stephen King • Umney's Last Case," TNT
Matthew Perry, "The Ron Clark Story," TNT

ACTRESS, MINISERIES OR A MOVIE:
Queen Latifah, "Life Support," HBO
Helen Mirren, "Prime Suspect: The Final Act (Masterpiece Theatre)," PBS
Mary-Louise Parker, "The Robber Bride," Oxygen
Debra Messing, "The Starter Wife," USA
Gena Rowlands, "What If God Were The Sun," Lifetime

SUPPORTING ACTRESS, MINISERIES OR A MOVIE:
Greta Scacchi, "Broken Trail," AMC
Anna Paquin , " Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," HBO
Samantha Morton, "Longford," HBO
Judy Davis, "The Starter Wife," USA
Toni Collette, "Tsunami, The Aftermath," HBO

SUPPORTING ACTOR, MINISERIES OR A MOVIE:
Thomas Haden Church, "Broken Trail," AMC
August Schellenberg , "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," HBO
Aidan Quinn, " Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," HBO
Edward Asner, "The Christmas Card," Hallmark
Joe Mantegna, " The Starter Wife," USA

GUEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES:
Martin Landau, "Entourage," HBO
Sir Ian McKellen, "Extras," HBO
Stanley Tucci, "Monk," USA
Giovanni Ribisi, "My Name Is Earl," NBC
Beau Bridges, "My Name is Earl," NBC

GUEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES:
Forest Whitaker, "ER," NBC
Christian Clemenson, "Boston Legal," ABC
David Morse, "House," Fox
Tim Daly, "The Sopranos," HBO
John Goodman, "Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip," NBC
Eli Wallach, "Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip," NBC

GUEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES:
Dixie Carter, "Desperate Housewives," ABC
Laurie Metcalf, "Desperate Housewives," ABC
Elaine Stritch, "30 Rock," NBC
Judith Light, "Ugly Betty," ABC
Salma Hayek, "Ugly Betty," ABC

GUEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES:
Kate Burton, "Grey's Anatomy," ABC
Elizabeth Reaser, "Grey's Anatomy," ABC
Marcia Gay Harden, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," NBC
Leslie Caron, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," NBC
Jean Smart, "24," Fox

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A MINISERIES:
"Broken Trail," AMC
"Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee,"HBO
"Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre, Parts 1 & 2)," BBC
"Prime Suspect: The Final Act (Masterpiece Theatre)," PBS
"The Starter Wife," USA

DIRECTING FOR A MINISERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL:
"Broken Trail, Part 1 &2,"AMC
"Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," &HBO
"Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre),"PBS
"Prime Suspect: The Final Act (Masterpiece Theatre)," PBS
"Tsunami, The Aftermath, Part 1 & 2,"HBO

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE:
"Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee,"HBO
"Inside The Twin Towers,"Discovery Channel
"Longford," HBO
"The Ron Clark Story,"TNT
"Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy,"Lifetime

WRITING FOR A VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY PROGRAM:
"The Colbert Report,"Comedy Central
"The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,"Comedy Central
"Late Night With Conan O'Brien,"NBC
"Late Show With David Letterman,"CBS
"Real Time With Bill Maher,"HBO

DIRECTING FOR A VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY PROGRAM:
"American Idol, The Finale,"Fox
"The Colbert Report, Show #2161," Comedy Central
"The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, Show #12061," Comedy Central
"Saturday Night Live, Host: Alec Baldwin," NBC
"Tony Bennett, An American Classic," NBC

WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES:
"Battlestar Galactica: Occupation/Precipice,"Sci Fi Channel
"Lost: Through The Looking Glass,"ABC
"The Sopranos: Kennedy And Heidi,"HBO
"The Sopranos: The Second Coming,"HBO
"The Sopranos: Made In America,"HBO

DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES:
"Battlestar Galactica, Exodus, Part 2," Sci Fi Channel
"Boston Legal, Son of the Defender,"ABC
"Friday Night Lights, Pilot,"NBC
"Heroes, Genesis,"NBC
"Lost, Through the Looking Glass,"ABC
"The Sopranos, Kennedy and Heidi," HBO
"Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, Pilot,"NBC

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE IN A VARIETY OR MUSIC PROGRAM:
Ellen Degeneres, "79th Annual Academy Awards," ABC
Stephen Colbert, "The Colbert Report," Comedy Central
Jon Stewart, "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," Comedy Central
David Letterman, "Late Show With David Letterman," CBS
Tony Bennett, "Tony Bennett: An American Classic (2005)," NBC

WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES:
"Extras, Daniel Radcliffe," HBO
"The Office, Gay Witch Hunt," NBC
"The Office, The Negotiation," NBC
"30 Rock, Tracy Does Conan," NBC
"30 Rock, Jack-Tor," NBC

DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES:
"Entourage, One Day In The Valley," HBO
"Extras, Orlando Bloom" HBO
"The Office, Gay Witch Hunt," NBC
"Scrubs, My Musical" NBC
"30 Rock, The Breakup," NBC
"Ugly Betty, Pilot" ABC

VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY SERIES:
"The Colbert Report," Comedy Central
"The Daily Show With Jon Stewart ," Comedy Central;
"Late Night With Conan O'Brien," NBC
"Late Show With David Letterman," CBS

VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY SPECIAL:
"The Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner," Comedy Central
"The Kennedy Center Honors: A National Celebration Of The Performing Arts," CBS
"Lewis Black: Red, White, & Screwed," HBO
"Tony Bennett: An American Classic," NBC
"A Tribute to James Taylor (Great Performances)," PBS
"Wanda Sykes: Sick and Tired," HBO

http://theenvelope.latimes.com/env-0...home-headlines

Rats, I thought the new scheme allowed me to get away from that hideous light blue.

TV Notes
Weinberg a major player in TV
Mega producer re-shaping primetime at NBC
By Josef Adalian Variety Sept. 17, 2007

Teri Weinberg is starring in her own real-life version of "Ugly Betty."

In just a matter of weeks, Weinberg has gone from being a successful (but not particularly well-known) Hollywood producer to one of the most powerful women in television. And like Betty's TV enemies, some naysayers have questioned just how this newcomer could rise so far, so fast.

"Every step of the way, I (have) had to convince people that if they gave me a chance I had the innate intelligence to do the job," she says, adding that she's "always felt there's a little Betty in all of us."

Her official job description -- head of series development for NBC -- doesn't capture the real portfolio of NBC U co-chairman Ben Silverman's longtime lieutenant.

"She's continuing to expand her purview and will be getting involved in every aspect of the process, from marketing the shows to nurturing the talent," Silverman says. "She's gonna be right there with me."

Bottom line: Silverman may be the star of the show at NBC, but Weinberg is tasked with doing a lot of the heavy lifting -- and her perf will be key to any Peacock ratings recovery.

In fact, with Silverman focused on the big picture, agents and studio execs all over town have started thinking of Weinberg as NBC's de facto prexy of entertainment -- Kevin Reilly, but without the title. She's taking pitches solo, reading scripts and giving notes on current series.

The woman who until recently served as an exec producer (and earned multiple Emmy noms for) shows such as "The Office," "The Tudors" and, yes, "Ugly Betty," is working with Silverman to exec produce NBC's much-needed primetime comeback.

Weinberg's rise reps a stunning ascent for an exec who less than a decade ago was still toiling as an assistant to ICM agent Martha Luttrell, selling body-care products on the side to make extra coin.

But it's also part of a major bet NBC U supremo Jeff Zucker is making -- specifically, that unconventional managers can do a better job reviving the Peacock than the usual showbiz suspects.

Despite his strong record as a producer and entrepreneur, Silverman is a network outsider who faces a steep learning curve as he tries to steer a key unit of a major conglom. Likewise, Katherine Pope -- the newly tapped head of NBC's TV studio -- has just a few years of experience in Hollywood.

Silverman thinks NBC can benefit from outsiders' perspectives. But his lack of high-level management experience at a Peacock-scaled enterprise and the thin resumes of his key creative lieutenants have plenty of people in town clucking and waiting for the grand experiment to implode. Sure, they've got the raw talent, but do they have the experience to manages crises and pace themselves through the marathon of a nine-month season?

Silverman says he has the utmost confidence in his team. Ever the optimist, he sees their relative lack of schooling as traditional TV development execs as an asset, not a detriment.

"I love Hollywood, and I respect the entire community, but I want to bring a little bit of entrepreneurial spirit to the company," he says. "We don't have time for people who keep talking about the 'rules' that have been created. These rules become walls. We need to deliver results, and we need to deliver them quickly."

And no matter how much rivals snicker, conventional wisdom about NBC's woes of the past few years is that the Peacock's corporate culture had become entirely too complacent and focused on replicating its past successes (how else to explain a decade of "Friends" clones?) during the "Must-See TV" heyday. The executive overhaul undertaken this summer with Silverman and Co. amounts to a blow-up-the-building solution that saw the departures of a number of the last Peacock execs schooled in the Warren Littlefield-Don Ohlmeyer era of nearly a decade ago.

Weinberg typifies the new breed in Burbank. Her work sked (she's up before 5 a.m. most days) makes the perpetually-in-motion Silverman seem almost like a slacker. But people who know both execs say Weinberg's main value to Silverman is as a partner in making him focus -- and helping him execute -- important decisions.

"Ben does a lot of great things, but he's not always great at saying no," says William Morris Agency topper Jim Wiatt, a longtime Silverman pal. "Teri can say 'no.' She can say it elegantly, or she can be tough about it ... but she can be that person in the room who says, 'No, this isn't for us.' "

Greg Daniels, who developed the U.S. version of "The Office" with Weinberg, agrees the exec has a low-B.S. attitude that's rare in Hollywood.

"She's very straightforward and trustworthy and confident enough to speak her mind," he says. "If there's any problem or injustice, she's very dogged. She was always a good fighter for us, an advocate for writers."

Despite her direct manner, Weinberg is no bull in a china shop.

She's learned plenty about the art of the schmooze from Silverman. And she speaks the language of Hollywood when it comes to praising talent (she recently called Brett Ratner "one of the most successful film directors on the planet").

Like Silverman, she's not afraid of sometimes acting in ways that seem a bit corny to outsiders -- serving milk and cookies to staffers, or ringing the NBC chimes when there's good news.

"People may mock the little things as silly, but we're trying to create a culture where people want to come to work," Weinberg says. "I also want people to feel they have a voice."

So far that's meant breaking down barriers between departments.

"We're having these huge roundtable meetings with 50 and 60 people," she says. "And we're all on email all day, asking, 'Did you see this movie?' or 'Did you read that article?' I'm distributing my scripts throughout the company. ... We're trying to light little fires throughout the entire company."

Weinberg says she's trying to spend at least 15 minutes with every NBC staffer, hoping to create an environment where all feel passionate about programming and free to speak up.

Weinberg's style is clearly that of someone who didn't come up through the traditional Hollywood system. Born in Cleveland and raised in Arizona, she didn't take the usual route to college right after high school.

"I wasn't brought up in a family where college was the next step," she says. She eventually enrolled at Scottsdale Community College and then transferred to Arizona State U., graduating in 1994.

Weinberg worked her way through school, and also spent time in a rock band. The latter experience gave her enough of a taste of showbiz to convince her to move to Los Angeles.

"My first foray into Hollywood was actually going to a Learning Annex seminar about how to become an agent," she says.

It took Weinberg "four weeks of nagging," but she finally got a meeting with a human resources exec at ICM. None of the agents wanted to hire her on their desks, so she took a gig as a floater assistant, where she got to learn about all segments of the biz.

Weinberg also stood out because she was an assistant in her mid-20s, and she drove a Suzuki Sidekick while "the other 18- and 19-year-old assistants were driving Mercedes," she says.

By 2000, Weinberg was ready to leave the agency world for a gig in a dot-com company. She also started a side business with a friend, selling lotions and other body products directly to major companies.

At the time, Weinberg's roommate was dating Silverman. It wasn't long before Silverman, impressed by how hard Weinberg worked at building the lotion business, offered her a job at his new Reveille banner.

"He hired me to be his Girl Monday through Sunday," she says. "He hired me to do everything, but my real focus became casting."

Silverman trusted Weinberg enough to eventually put her in charge of scripted development. She would become integral to the development and production of ABC's frosh hit dramedy "Ugly Betty" and Showtime's "The Tudors."

Reveille's small size and startup mentality also allowed Silverman and Weinberg to grow particularly close.

"Sometimes she feels like my kid sister, and sometimes I feel like I'm her kid brother," he says.

That relationship will be tested, of course, by the unforgiving corporate environment that is network TV. If Silverman can't reverse NBC's slide quickly, pressure will build on him to find a scapegoat -- a role traditionally played by execs in Weinberg's position.

Some also wonder if it's a good thing for Silverman's top lieutenant to be someone so simpatico with his tastes. Networks thrive on diversity, and while Weinberg has shown an ability to turn down outsiders, some wonder whether she's able to say no to Silverman.

Whatever the outcome of their tenure at NBC, Silverman hints that he and Weinberg are a package deal.

"We may fail," he concedes. "But if it doesn't work, it won't be something that changes my perspective of her. ... She's gonna be right there with me."

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?lay...&categoryid=14

The 2007-2008 Season
TV Unusual
By Adam Buckman New York Post

What's different about this fall's new shows?

It seems like everything.

Whether you wind up liking any of them or not, you have to give the networks credit for experimentation.

More than any other season in recent memory, the five networks - ABC, CBS, CW, Fox and NBC - are stepping outside their comfort zones to roll out new shows representing a variety of unusual concepts, subjects and premises.

The trend - especially as it concerns the most far-out of the new shows - is inspired, at least in part, by the success of "Heroes" last season on NBC.

But it is also that the networks are redoubling their efforts to come up with concepts that will stand out in a medium that continues to expand with competitive offerings, particularly on cable, which is getting better every year in developing, launching and maintaining original series.

Now, the broadcast networks are daring to be different.

Gone - at least among the new shows that will be premiering one after the other over the next two weeks - are conventional cop shows, lawyer dramas, and family sitcoms with dopey dads and precocious kids.

Cops and courtrooms have been supplanted by singing (or, more specifically, lip-synching) casino owners ("Viva Laughlin" on CBS); a detective who happens to be a benevolent vampire ("Moonlight" on CBS); a man who revives murder victims for the sole purpose of asking them who killed them so he can collect the reward ("Pushing Daisies" on ABC); a time traveler ("Journeyman" on NBC); a 21-year-old whose parents sold his soul to the devil ("Reaper" on the CW); and an electronics-store clerk whose brain accidentally absorbs all the data from a vast government computer network (NBC's "Chuck").

Cookie-cutter comedies are being replaced by a pair of socially inept geniuses ("Big Bang Theory" on CBS); feuding news anchors ("Back to You" on Fox); a comatose woman who wakes up with amnesia and discovers she doesn't like who she was ("Samantha Who?" on ABC); four guys who commute to work together ("Carpoolers" on NBC); a Muslim exchange student who comes to live with a dysfunctional American family ("Aliens in America" on the CW); and a trio of Neanderthals ("Cavemen" on ABC).

It's not only that the subjects of these new shows vary so wildly from TV's traditional menu of forensics shows and hospital dramas.

Many of them even look different, especially the fanciful "Pushing Daisies."

With its brightly lit colors and fairy tale-style narration (provided by Jim Dale), this series is introducing a whole new look to network television.

Take one look at how this show's low-angle camera shots make 4'11" Kristin Chenoweth look like she's 6-feet tall and you'll know you're not watching last year's TV shows.

http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/...tv_unusual.htm

The 2007-2008 Season
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Critics speak out on the new fall broadcast shows
By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable 9/17/2007

With 26 new shows set to launch this fall, the broadcast networks are once again slugging it out to get their rookies noticed.

The networks throw big marketing budgets at favorites, and you can tell which ones they have chosen just by watching the promos on their air. But to get sampled, a pilot also needs good word-of-mouth buzz, much of which can come early on from critical acclaim. With that in mind, B&C asked a panel of critics which pilots soared and which crashed, how the new slate stacks up versus last year's, and which network has the best rookie class.

Best Pilot
Pushing Daisies
63%
Reaper 15%
Dirty Sexy Money
12%
Bionic Woman 5%
K-Ville 5%

There may be questions about whether it can hold up as a series or even match the high quality of its pilot (for more with creator Bryan Fuller, see “Take Five” on page <3>), but ABC's Pushing Daisies is undoubtedly the most talked-about pilot of the new season.

The high concept and great-looking drama has critics foaming at the mouth to heap praise on the story of a man who can bring people back to life with a single touch, and then send them back to the grave with one more.

The Denver Post's Joanne Ostrow calls it “inventive and eye-popping, the only pilot that promises something truly different.”

The San Jose Mercury News' Charlie McCollum calls it “an utterly charming, richly produced romantic fairy tale that is totally unlike anything else on television.”

Worst Pilot
Caveman
51%
Viva Laughlin 15%
Big Shots
13%
K-Ville 13%
Carpoolers
8%

ABC's comedy Cavemen may have been better left as the insurance company advertising campaign it came from, according to critics. While they are lining up to praise Pushing Daisies, the Los Angeles Daily News' David Kronke says critics will have equal passion for ripping Cavemen.

“Everyone will have their own bon mots eviscerating it,” he says.

And the Knoxville News Sentinel's Terry Morrow does exactly that, calling it “this generation's My Mother The Car, a comedy so unbelievably inane and void of dignity that you can almost see the actors cringe in embarrassment.”

Tom Jicha of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel also has a subtle take, saying the show “is a mess, which never should have been picked up and will be gone in fewer than three episodes.”

Are the pilots this year betteras a whole than last year?
No 81%
Yes 19%

While Pushing Daisies and a few others have some buzz going into the fall, by and large few pilots have really seemed to captivate the television industry's ether, or the critics.

USA Today's Robert Bianco calls this year's new slate “the worst season I've seen in a while,” and the Knoxville News Sentinel's Morrow says they are “the worst fall pilots, generally speaking, that I've seen in the past seven years.”

But as we were reminded last year with shows like ABC's The Nine, even a great pilot is far from a guarantee for a successful series.

The Sun-Sentinel's Jicha says this year's group is “not as good and it's not close. But many of the good ones last year bit the dust.”

And as the Philadelphia Daily News' Ellen Gray notes, “Fortunately, a TV season isn't limited to new shows.”

Which network has the best slate of new pilots?
CW 65%
ABC 23%
NBC 5%
CBS 5%
FOX 2%

With a promising new slate that is also on target for the network's 18-34 target audience, the sophomore season of the CW could be the best yet.

As the Sacramento Bee's Rick Kushman notes, “Who would've guessed?”

But the bigger networks could be green with envy at the CW's freshman class headed by Reaper, Gossip Girl and Aliens in America, which could be the desired companions to Everybody Hates Chris.

“All of them are not only dead-on in terms of target audience, but they're also very good or promising,” says McCollum of the San Jose Mercury News.

And with the CW also offering new alternative programming such as Online Nation and Farmer Wants a Wife, Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker says the network is “really making an effort to expand their audience with a wider range of genres and stars.”

The New Season By Network

ABC

Those who believe networks in this day and age should be forming an identity are lauding ABC's emergence as the Lifetime Network of the broadcasters. Female-friendly hits like Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy are the network's bread and butter, and judging by its rookie class, ABC is not afraid to push that agenda. With Lost on the beach until mid-season, Wednesday night will be crucial for the network, which is rolling the dice with three straight freshman dramas, though Grey's spinoff Private Practice at 9 will have a familiar feel.

CBS

Kid Nation hype aside, CBS is ready to see if its Hail Marys at stirring things up are going to fly. Viva Laughlin and Moonlight are decidedly different for the network, but not all change is good if the quality isn't there. More typical CBS fare Cane is an important test for the network in a time slot with aged Law & Order and Boston Legal. And bringing back Jericho for a limited run later in the season was a nice publicity stunt to garner goodwill with the media and the show's modest fan base, but no one expects much in the way of ratings.

The CW

Don't look now, but the CW could be poised for a big fall, at least by its more modest standards. With new dramas like Reaper and Gossip Girl, critics decidedly said the CW's rookies were tops. And they couldn't come soon enough, as the 18-34 targeted network enters what is in essence its first season with a full development cycle completed, after being thrown together before its 2006 debut. And whether the reality show works or not, Farmer Wants a Wife will take home first prize for best title of the 2007 season.

NBC

The good news for the network is if the new fall schedule tanks, NBC brass can blame it on B.S., as in Before Silverman. But Kevin Reilly did leave behind a couple of promising players in Bionic Woman and Chuck, the two shows NBC is backing with major promotional strength.

But NBC's biggest breath-holding should center around Heroes as we find out if it was a one-year wonder, or if it can repeat its rookie-season breakout status and become the franchise the network so desperately needs until Ben Silverman can take his shots at turning the Peacock around.

Fox

A Yankees-Cubs World Series would be Fox's dream, but this fall the network won't have baseball as an excuse if its fourth quarter fizzles yet again.

With Fox showing only the World Series and one of the League Championship Series from now on, there will be less disruption to the schedule before American Idol comes along next year to make everything right. New Orleans drama K-Ville is being thrown to the wolves against Heroes and Monday Night Football, while the Kelsey Grammer-Patricia Heaton comedy Back to You will try to kick things off on a wide-open Wednesday night.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/ind...leID=CA6478752

Emmy Award Notes
`Sopranos,' `Betty' Seem Poised To Bring Home Gold
Let's Hope Acceptance Speeches Are Lively, To Offset The Blandness Of Host Ryan Seacrest
By Roger Catlin Hartford Courant TV Critic September 16, 2007

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences hasn't had a much of a history of awarding its best-drama Emmy award to a show that's completed its run.

The rules may be broken this year when "The Sopranos" takes a victory lap for its final bow.

The HBO drama is up for outstanding drama for the seventh time, a category it won just once, in 2004.

The mobster saga by David Chase leads all series in nominations for the Emmys tonight with 15, including outstanding actor for James Gandolfini, who has won three out of the five times he's been nominated for his role as Tony Soprano.

Edie Falco, who has also won three of the five previous times she's been nominated for her role as Carmela Soprano, is up again for outstanding lead actress in a series.

Michael Imperioli, whose character, Christopher Moltisanti, was killed before the season ended, is up for best supporting actor; Lorraine Bracco, who didn't have as much to do in her final season as Tony's shrink, is nominated for best supporting actress, as is Aida Turturro as Tony's sister, Janice.

Three of the show's 15 nominations are for writing of individual episodes.

Newcomer "Ugly Betty" is looking pretty for an Emmy win for its first season, with 11 nominations, including best comedy, best lead actress for America Ferrera and best supporting actress in a comedy, Vanessa Williams.

It won an Emmy for best casting in the Creative Arts Awards given Sept. 8.

The competition for "Betty" in the best-comedy category comprises "30 Rock," "Entourage," "Two and a Half Men" and "The Office," which won last year.

In the shootout for best drama with "The Sopranos" is "Heroes," "House," "Grey's Anatomy" and first-time nominee "Boston Legal," whose James Spader, a two-time winner for outstanding actor in a drama, is up again this year, opposite Gandolfini, Hugh Laurie of "House," Denis Leary of "Rescue Me" and Kiefer Sutherland of "24," who won the category last year for the first time.

Except for Minnie Driver, up for "The Riches," the category for best lead actress in a drama is filled with repeat nominees: Falco of "The Sopranos,"Kyra Sedgwick of "The Closer," Mariska Hargitay of "Law & Order: SVU," Patricia Arquette of "Medium" and Sally Field of "Brothers & Sisters." Field's previous Emmy wins range from guest actress on "ER" to her starring role in the TV movie "Sybil" 30 years ago.

In comedy, Ferrera, who has already won a number of awards for her role as Betty Suarez, from Golden Globe to Kid's Choice, is up against Tina Fey of "30 Rock," whose previous Emmy came for writing "Saturday Night Live" in 2002. The others in the category: Felicity Huffman of "Desperate Housewives," who won last time she was nominated, in 2005; Mary-Louise Parker for "Weeds," whose previous Emmy came for her role in the miniseries "Angels in America"; and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, whose Emmy last year for starring in "The New Adventures of Old Christine" was her first since winning one for "Seinfeld" a decade earlier.

Tony Shalhoub, up for "Monk," is the most experienced winner among the nominees for outstanding lead actor in a comedy; he's won three times previously, including last year. He's up against Alec Baldwin of "30 Rock," Steve Carell of "The Office," Charlie Sheen of "Two and a Half Men" and Ricky Gervais, whose "Extras" was not among the nominated comedies.

Miniseries and TV movies arguably get more attention at the Emmys each year than they do when they're actually on TV. Leading all programs in nominations if HBO's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" with 17, tying a record for a TV movie.

Its competition in the category is HBO's "Longford," Discovery's "Inside the Twin Towers," TNT's "The Ron Clark Story" and Lifetime's "Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy." Raise of hands to all who saw those.

Westerns did well in the nominations. AMC's "Broken Trail" got 16 nominations including outstanding miniseries, a category where its sole competition is USA's "The Starter Wife" and PBS' "Prime Suspect: The Final Act," which played on "Masterpiece Theatre."

Let's hope the acceptance speeches are lively because on paper, the Emmys don't look to be that entertaining an awards show. Rather than the comic hosts of years past from Ellen DeGeneres to Conan O'Brien, the assignment falls to Ryan Seacrest.

Part of the reason he got the gig has to do with Fox's hosting of the show. There was a thought to make Hugh Laurie, the star of the network's scripted drama "House" host, since he's been so good at his acceptance speeches. But there was also a fear that audiences might freak at hearing so much of his English accent to ever accept his American doctor character again.

So the job went to Seacrest, the chirpy but ultimately bland host of "American Idol," which is not only the network's most popular show, but also TV's. Letting him host is kind of a consolation of sorts since "Idol," for all its tens of millions of viewers, finally won its first Emmy last week, for the "Idol Gives Back" in "Outstanding technical direction, camerawork, video for a miniseries, movie or a special" at the Creative Arts Primetime Emmys.

http://www.courant.com/entertainment...31,print.story

The 2007-2008 Season
Capsules of new TV shows for the fall: THE BEST
By Aaron Barnhart Kansas City Star
NOTE: All times are Central.)

“Reaper”
Airs: 8 p.m. Tuesdays on CW (Sept. 25)
Nutshell: When a slacker named Sam (Bret Harrison) turns 21, he learns that his parents have sold his soul to the devil (Ray Wise) and that he must spend the rest of his life chasing down souls escaped from hell. Oh, and it’s a comedy.
Aaron’s take: I can’t remember when something this derivative was so entertaining. Everything from “Oh, God!” to “Buffy” to “Brimstone” is in here, and sidekick Sock (Tyler Labine) is a Jack Black knockoff.
But “Reaper” works wonderfully well, and unlike most of the fall shows, I can see this one going for years and years. Wise is terrific as Satan, charming, mentoring, even threatening Sam into becoming the best soul-reaper he can be.

THE BEST OF THE REST

“Women’s Murder Club”
Airs: 8 p.m. Fridays on ABC (Oct. 12)
Nutshell: Four friends, all women — cop, prosecutor, medical examiner and journalist — informally work together to solve San Francisco’s toughest crimes. Based on the James Patterson book series of the same name.
Aaron’s take: The surest way to reinvent a TV show these days is with estrogen. But this excellent drama, co-written and produced by Kansas City natives Liz Craft and Sarah Fain, has even more going for it. Angie Harmon, for starters, proves she deserves star billing here. ABC says it will move the show to a bigger night when it’s ready. Well, it’s ready.

“Chuck”
Airs: 7 p.m. Mondays on NBC (Sept. 24)
Nutshell: Technical support dude named Chuck (Zachary Levi) is surprised one day when all the government’s top-level secrets are downloaded into his brain.
Aaron’s take: Conceptually similar to “Reaper,” the external force in “Chuck” is technological rather than supernatural (as in “Reaper”). And yet, how will Chuck keep this secret? But Chuck is a likable hero, easy to root for, and the show’s light touch makes a good match with “Heroes.”

“Aliens in America”
Airs: 7:30 p.m. Mondays on CW (Oct. 1)
Nutshell: Justin (Dan Byrd) gets picked on at his high school in Wisconsin, so his parents import an exchange student to be his friend — only to find he’s a Muslim from Pakistan named Raja (Adhir Kalyan).
Aaron’s take: Remarkably well-done sitcom is both edgy and familiar. But because the show is ultimately about diversity and acceptance, the writers can stray into mine fields like 9/11 and Muslim prayer rites and come out unscathed.

“Dirty Sexy Money”
Airs: 9 p.m. Wednesdays on ABC (Sept. 26)
Nutshell: Peter Krause plays a do-gooder lawyer who is hired for a gazillion dollars to be family lawyer to the Darlings, a dysfunctional clan that looks like a cross between the Kennedys and the Lohans.
Aaron’s take: There’s too much going on in the first episode, but the show’s star power (besides Krause, Donald Sutherland and Jill Clayburgh play Mr. and Mrs. Darling) bodes well.

“Cashmere Mafia”
Airs: 8 p.m. Tuesdays on ABC (Dec. 4; preview airs Nov. 27)
Nutshell: Call it the “Women’s Millionaire Club.” Four rich and powerful friends meet frequently to hash out their lives and loves.
Aaron’s take: And yet, it’s not “Sex and the City.” One of the women falls head over heels for someone of the same sex. Another has a house-husband who’s mad about her; a third pretty much got stuck with the opposite. And not a kinky fetish in sight.

THE REST OF THE REST

“The Big Bang Theory”

Airs: 7:30 p.m. Mondays on CBS (Sept. 24)
Nutshell: Two socially awkward brainiacs (Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons) are stoked, and a little nervous, when a friendly hot chick (Kaley Cuoco) moves in down the hall from them.
Aaron’s take: I’m not betting against Chuck Lorre, who spun gold out of equally unpromising ideas with “Two and Half Men” and “Dharma and Greg.” Sitcoms may be uncool (unlike shows about nerds, which are as trendy as iPhones), but there’s still demand for them Monday nights on CBS.

“Pushing Daisies”
Airs: 7 p.m. Wednesdays on ABC (Oct. 3)
Nutshell: What, you haven’t seen the ads? Ned (Lee Pace) can raise the dead with a touch of his finger … and with another touch put them right back to their eternal reward. He and a private investigator (Chi McBride) team up to collect the rewards on murder victims.
Aaron’s take: Originally conceived as a spinoff of “Dead Like Me,” this show sports a bright palette and a whimsical mood that often feels forced. But it grabs your attention.

“Life Is Wild”
Airs: 7 p.m. Sundays on CW (Oct. 7)
Nutshell: Dad is a veterinarian (D.W. Moffett) joylessly caring for the pampered pets of New York City. Then he takes a job caring for wild animals in Africa … and drags his whole family there with him.
Aaron’s take: “Daktari” meets “Everwood” in this appealing, if riskless, teen drama.

“Life”
Airs: 9 p.m. Wednesdays on NBC (Sept. 26)
Nutshell: Charlie (Damian Lewis) was a cop imprisoned for A Crime He Did Not Commit; 12 years later he’s exonerated and back on the force, where he’s viewed with suspicion while quietly pursuing the one-armed man that framed him.
Aaron’s take: It just doesn’t feel like the year for cop dramas, and nothing in this well-made but lifeless series suggests otherwise.

“Bionic Woman”
Airs: 8 p.m. Wednesdays on NBC (Sept. 26)
Nutshell: Remake of the 1970s series features a younger Jamie Sommers (Michelle Ryan) whose unlikely transformation from barista to bio-babe seems inspired less by “The Six Million Dollar Man” than by “Heroes.”
Aaron’s take: I almost pushed this one down to the “Sight Unseen” section because the pilot was overhauled this summer. But I liked the first version, especially Miguel Ferrer returning to his familiar creepy persona as the head of the bionic institute.

“Carpoolers”
Airs: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays on ABC (Oct. 2)
Nutshell: Four guys share the ride to work … and much more.
Aaron’s take: A funny premise, unexpected characters, a nice assist from Faith Ford as a carpooler’s wife. Still, the total feels like less than the sum of the parts. The “Caveman”-“Carpoolers” tandem may well be the first roadkill of the season.

“Samantha Who?”
Airs: 8:30 p.m. Mondays on ABC (Oct. 15)
Nutshell: Sam (Christina Applegate) emerges from an eight-day coma not remembering a thing about her so-called life. When details start to flow back to her, they aren’t pretty.
Aaron’s take: This show answers the question: What if the movie “Regarding Henry” had been made as a comedy? Applegate is great as the loser whose amnesia gives her a second shot at life. Unfortunately, the supporting cast doesn’t rise to her level.

“Kitchen Nightmares”
Airs: 8 p.m. Wednesdays on Fox (Sept. 19)
Nutshell: Chef Gordon Ramsay parachutes in on distressed American restaurants, much as he did on the British TV show of the same name.
Aaron’s take: Perfect for people who thought Ramsay was too meek on his other Fox show, “Hell’s Kitchen.” For everybody else, bring earplugs.

“Nashville”
Airs: 8 p.m. Fridays on Fox (Sept. 14)
Nutshell: Young performers travel to Tennessee in hopes of becoming one of country music’s new stars.
Aaron’s take: The in-demand producers of MTV real-life melodramas “Laguna Beach” and “The Hills” bring their addictive docu-soap style to network TV.

THE LEAST OF THESE

“Private Practice”
Airs: 8 p.m. Wednesdays on ABC (Sept. 26)
Nutshell: Kate Walsh’s character from “Grey’s Anatomy” leaves Seattle for sunny California and a wellness center.
Aaron’s take: Success is all but assured for this spinoff, except the presence of so many retreads (Tim Daly, Amy Brenneman, Taye Diggs) is troubling given that “Grey’s” became a hit with a cast of mostly fresh faces.

“K-Ville”
Airs: 8 p.m. Mondays on Fox (Sept. 17); full pilot is online now at Fox.com
Nutshell: After Katrina, a dedicated cop (Anthony Anderson) tries to keep order in lawless New Orleans with the help of a mysterious new partner (Trevor Cobb).
Aaron’s take: A promising idea is wasted in the first episode, a violent and often incoherent hour that harkens back to the implausible cop shows of the 1970s, with a little post-Katrina conspiracy stirred in.

“Cavemen”
Airs: 7 p.m. Tuesdays on ABC (Oct. 2)
Nutshell: Cro-Magnons are a separate race in 21st-century America. They wear our clothing and go to our cookouts — rumor has it they even buy our car insurance — but something seems not right about them.
Aaron’s take: And something seems not right about using white guys with big beards as stand-ins for black people. With its references to profiling, rumored sexual prowess and their problems fitting in, “Cavemen” is already being seen as a racial comedy, despite denials from its creators.

“Back to You”
Airs: 7 p.m. Wednesdays on Fox (Sept. 19)
Nutshell: Chuck (Kelsey Grammer) was a big-shot news anchor when a disastrous on-air outburst led to his demotion to small-market Pittsburgh, where it all started with his then co-anchor/adversary Kelly (Patricia Heaton).
Aaron’s take: This may yet find its way — with all the experienced people behind the scenes and Grammer, Heaton and Fred Willard in front of the camera, it ought to — but I was underwhelmed by the pilot.

“Cane”
Airs: 9 p.m. Tuesdays on CBS (Sept. 25)
Nutshell: Pancho Duque (Hector Elizondo) is handing over his sugar empire to his appointed heir Alex (Jimmy Smits).
Aaron’s take: This latest attempt to create an all-Latino family drama is not only no “Resurrection Blvd.,” it doesn’t even measure up to the mediocre “American Family.” Besides, we’re over the whole “Dynasty” thing.

“Journeyman”
Airs: 9 p.m. Mondays on NBC (Sept. 24)
Nutshell: One day newspaper reporter Dan Vasser (Kevin McKidd) discovers he can travel through time.
Aaron’s take: Or as I call it, “Early Quantum Leap Edition.” It takes something special to jump-start this familiar breed of TV show, and so far “Journeyman” hasn’t shown it.

“Gossip Girl”
Airs: 8 p.m. Wednesdays on CW (Sept. 19)
Nutshell: Prep schoolers in New York’s Upper East Side backstab, go shopping, make love, go shopping, post nasty items about each other to their blogs, shop some more.
Aaron’s take: “Gossip Girl” is despicable, yet I wouldn’t bet against a show based on a popular series of teen novels. I just wish the audience for this show would watch “Friday Night Lights” instead.

“Viva Laughlin”
Airs: 7 p.m. Sundays on CBS (Oct. 21; preview airs 9 p.m. Oct. 18)
Nutshell: Man builds casino in Nevada border town, has loving family, bursts occasionally into song. Lloyd Owen and Madchen Amick star in this musical casino drama.
Aaron’s take: “Blackpool,” the BBC musical casino drama on which this was based, won a Peabody Award. This show won’t. It’s heavy and forced.

“Big Shots”
Airs: 9 p.m. Thursdays on ABC (Sept. 27)
Nutshell: Four hey-it’s-THAT-guy actors from TV’s recent past (Dylan McDermott, Chris Titus, Joshua Malina, Michael Vartan) get together to play golf, smoke cigars, take saunas and bitch about the women in their lives.
Aaron’s take: I can’t figure what ABC was thinking when it paired this misogynistic romp with “Grey’s Anatomy” on Thursdays.

SIGHT UNSEEN

“Kid Nation”
Airs: 7 p.m. Wednesdays on CBS (Sept. 19)
Nutshell: 40 kids ages 8 to 15 take over an abandoned ghost town (turned movie set) and create their own society for 40 days. No adults allowed.
Aaron’s take: The fall’s most controversial show could also be the most sensational reality show since “Joe Millionaire.” The five-minute preview has left people both excited about what looks like a gripping show and uneasy about what looks like an exploitation-fest.

“The Next Great American Band”
Airs: 7 p.m. Fridays on Fox (Oct. 19)
Nutshell: The group version of “American Idol,” as the same producers (but new judges, including Sheila E. and Goo Goo Dolls’ John Rzeznik) conduct a new musical star search.
Aaron’s take: As long as Simon Cowell is 6,000 miles away, judging talent on British television, I don’t see this becoming must-see TV.

“Moonlight”
Airs: 8 p.m. Fridays on CBS (Sept. 28)
Nutshell: Vampire seeks to use his powers for good, not evil … and he’s lonely.
Aaron’s take: The clip reel, which is all CBS has supplied critics, didn’t do much for me. But then, I kinda miss “Angel.”

“CW Now” and “Online Nation”
Airs: 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sundays on CW (Sept. 23)
Nutshell: Two newsmagazines for teens, “CW Now” features celebs and trends, while “Online Nation” features Internet videos on TV.
Aaron’s take: Filler.

http://www.kansascity.com/entertainm...ry/266620.html

Dave: with all the hoopla from cable, satellite and telco providers about all the channels they "give" to their subscribers, we shouldn't forget that most people just don't watch very many.

Here is a poll Broadcasting & Cable ran earlier this summer:

TV Notes
How Many Channels Do You Watch?

The question, presumably answered mostly by people in the television business, was a simple one: How many television channels do you watch regularly?

The results are in line with a number of other studies done over the years.

0-5: 25.6% 5-10:
5-10: 45:6
10-15: 18.1%
15-20: 3.7%
20 +: 7.0%

(Poll conducted between 7:28 AM ET June 18, 2007 through 7:20 AM ET June 25, 2007)

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/

The 2007-2008 Season
The geeks get the girls -- and the best prime-time spots
By Glenn Garvin Miami Herald Sept. 15, 2007

The theme of this fall's new television shows? Oh, that's easy. ''We've got geeks, we've got Cubanos, vampires, singers, swingers and unaccompanied minors,'' says CBS programming boss Nina Tassler. But especially geeks. Once the near-exclusive province of reality shows like Average Joe, they've metastasized throughout the entire network schedule.

We have geeks chasing blond hotties and escaped souls from Hell, geeks working for Satan and for the CIA, geeks who raise their girlfriends from the dead and geeks who turn their girlfriends into robots. We have Cal-Tech-professor geeks and shopping-mall-slacker geeks, small-town American geeks and imported Pakistani geeks.

We even have a girl geek joining the cast of The CW's Beauty and the Geek -- though the network's programming chief Dawn Ostroff says that's where she draws the line. The geek trend will not spread to the contestants in the new season of The Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll. ''Obviously, they'll be quite attractive,'' Ostroff declares.

Jesus isn't on the fall TV schedule -- though, confirming what you've probably always suspected about network television, the Devil is -- but if he were, we'd probably get a new Beatitude: Blessed are the geek, for they shall inherit prime time. Four of the five networks have at least one show built largely around a character whose IQ dwarfs his social skills, from the listless slackers who go to work as Hell's bounty hunters in The CW's Reaper to the lonely piemaker who can raise the dead on ABC's Pushing Daisies.

There are so many geeks in the prime-time lineup, in fact, that the faint stirrings of a geek liberation movement can even be heard. Zachary Levi, the title character of ABC's geek-joins-the-CIA action comedy Chuck, loftily objects to the loose way ''everyone is throwing around geek and nerd.'' Instead of the G-word, he suggests, ``I would say the cool-challenged.''

Levi's concern may be heightened, he admits, by the fact that his geekdom extends off-screen. He even showed up on the set of Chuck one day with 15 stitches in his hand from a tragic Nintendo mishap. (Chuck's writers immediately slapped it into the show.) Other actors, however, say they were not born geeks but have had to achieve it through mighty striving.

''It's a stretch for me, obviously, to play a nerd,'' says Simon Helberg, one of the rabble of geek mathematicians worshipping new blond-goddess neighbor Kaley Cuoco on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory. ``But I'm willing to study with a coach and do what I need to do.''

Television viewers have been laughing at socially inept intellectuals at least since Wally Cox played a terminally shy science teacher in Mr. Peepers 55 years ago. ''It's an archetype, but it's an archetype because it's a person we know,'' says Bill Prady, one of the producers of The Big Bang Theory. ``For me, it's also my father-in-law, who is a pediatric rheumatologist and the author -- it's a remarkable thing -- of the protocol for treating lupus in adolescents. [He's got] an unbelievable mind, but doesn't understand that discussing my wife's cycle at the Thanksgiving table is socially incorrect.''

But the viewers are also laughing with the geeks when they triumph over their tormentors, network executives and producers insist. Nerd, in their view, is just a word for somebody on the outside looking in.

''Everybody kind of feels like an outsider,'' says Moses Port, producer of The CW's Aliens in America, a sitcom about a small-town high school kid who bonds with a Pakistani exchange student over their mutual ostracism. ``And I don't know too many people who have felt like an insider. Or those people are faking it pretty well.''

The outsider motif worked well for producer Josh Schwartz for four years on his teen soap The O.C., where a kid from the wrong side of the tracks was suddenly thrust into a wealthy California community of seaside mansions. The theme resurfaces in both his new shows this year, The CW's Gossip Girl (a sort of East Coast version of The O.C.) and even more explicitly in Chuck, where a computer snafu turns a lifelong loser into America's most powerful secret weapon.

'Everybody in the audience sees themselves in a character like Chuck, and as Chuck succeeds, it gives you that sense of `Maybe I could succeed,' '' says Schwartz. ``You talk about the Spider-Man, [The Matrix's hacker turned superhero] Neo -- that's just a very appealing, I think, part of sort of the pop culture mythology right now.''

The nerd-triumphant theme fits well in a fall landscape that favors light escapism over the dark conspiracies that dominated last season. In 2006, the networks bet heavily on highly serialized shows that ranged from sinister -- kidnappings, bank robberies and lives-on-the-lam -- to literally apocalyptic: Jericho followed the survivors of a nuclear attack. Viewers turned away in hordes, not just from shows but entire networks: MyNetworkTV, which debuted last fall with an all-telenovela lineup, was such a disastrous flop that it no longer has any scripted series, airing only sports, reality shows and movies.

This season, hardly any of the new shows are serialized, and those that are will keep their stories simple. NBC's Journeyman is about a time-traveling reporter (which, let's face it, is barely one step up from a geek) in the middle of a romantic triangle with his wife and a long-dead fiance. ''When we went in to do this, we wanted to make sure that it wasn't so heavily serialized that if you missed the first three episodes, you could never figure out what was going on,'' says producer Kevin McFall.

The dark tone is mostly gone, too. ABC programming boss Steve McPherson, who watched three critically acclaimed but grim serials -- The Nine, Six Degrees and Daybreak -- crash and burn in the Nielsens, while the lighthearted Ugly Betty was a runaway hit, says his network learned its lesson.

''For us, you saw movement a little bit more toward escapism'' this season, he says. ''I think we're going to stay in that vein. I don't think you're going to see a lot of dark, dark, cop dramas or really serious and down-trodden material from us.'' But wait -- aren't geeks serious and down-trodden?

http://www.miamiherald.com/entertain...ry/236114.html

The 2007-2008 Season
Reality check
Fall's biggest winner remains unscripted television
By Joanne Weintraub Milwaukee Journal Sentinel TV critic

Let's not call it "reality TV," OK? That just confuses the young and impressionable.

Let's call it what the networks call it: "alternative" or "unscripted" programming.

More dignified, no?

Whatever you call it, it's all over prime time this fall - new shows, returning shows, shows that survived a summer tryout and, with a little added insulation, will be welcomed back in the cooler months.

Yes, these alternatives are cheaper to put on the air than conventional series. But, at their best, they can be as suspenseful as "CSI" or as funny as any number of sitcoms.

The most entertaining of the new ones, from the handful available for screening: "Nashville" and "Kitchen Nightmares," both premiering shortly on Fox.

The first is the surprisingly absorbing saga of some country-music hopefuls trying for stardom while dabbling in romance.

The second, based on a British original, features über-chef Gordon Ramsay doing what he does so well: terrorizing desperate restaurant owners into straightening up and frying, braising and poaching right.

The year-old CW and MyNetworkTV also offer some newbies, the latter in an attempt to catch viewers' attention in a way that last year's English-language telenovelas failed to do.

And then there's CBS' "Kid Nation."

Not since the Eye network announced plans for a real-life "Beverly Hillbillies" a few seasons back - plans which it prudently reconsidered - has an unscripted show drawn so much flak.

The network has screened only a few minutes of the series for critics, and those few scenes, showing kids from 8 to 15 building and running their own community, were unobjectionable.

What has riled groups ranging from child advocates to the Writers Guild of America is the alleged conditions under which the show was filmed, as well as the rights the parents gave up by signing CBS' participation agreement and the question of whether kids as young as 8 understand how they'll come across on TV to a nation of strangers.

The show's producers and the network's executives say most of the criticism is unfounded. But CBS defended the idea of "The Real Beverly Hillbillies" for months before dropping it, too.

The tried, cheap and true

Returning unscripted series include the first "Survivor" set in China and an "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" premiere in Hawaii.

"Deal or No Deal" will debut with an NFL special featuring eight Hall of Famers. "Beauty and the Geek" mixes things up with its first female geek, a brainy but socially challenged young musicologist.

Back for their first fall runs are a pair of remarkably similar summer competitions, "The Singing Bee" and "Don't Forget the Lyrics." Who knew that people would tune in by the millions to see amateurs groping for the words to pop songs?

Almost as surprising is the enduring popularity of "The Biggest Loser," a grueling weight-loss competition that kicked off its fourth edition this week. It's hard to say which was the bigger gamble: putting the word "loser" in the title or daring to show overweight people in shorts.

Here are capsule reviews of the new network alternative series that were available for screening - "Decision House," "Jail," "Kitchen Nightmares" and "Nashville" - and descriptions of those that were not:

"CW Now": Gossip, fashion, stardust, infotainment and enough product placement for the network to dispense with conventional commercials entirely, hosted by Tanika Ray ("Head 2 Toe," "TBS Weekend Extra").

"Decision House": A couple in crisis spend 72 hours with Judge Lynn Toler ("Divorce Court"), marriage counselor Tara Fields ("Intervention") and 27 cameras capturing their every tiff, sniffle and meltdown. At the end of their stint, they decide whether to split or reconcile - and at the end of this "Jerry Springer"-ish hour, you'll either thank the heavens for your own partner or find lots to like about being single.

"Jail": From the creators of "Cops" comes this hour of cinema vérité set in a variety of local lockups, where every drunk is misunderstood and every loudmouth has been thrown in a cell under false pretenses. For "Cops" fans only.

"Kid Nation": If you can ignore CBS' questionable judgment in a number of areas - the age of the youngest kids, the allegedly inconsistent adult supervision, that notorious contract - this could be an interesting show, one that's more about character-building than exploitation of the young and camera-crazed.

But that's a big if. And there's always the chance that the network, its statements to the contrary notwithstanding, could yank the thing off the schedule at the last minute.

"Kitchen Nightmares": "Hell's Kitchen" fans know that demanding chef Gordon Ramsay can flare up like a grease fire and cut like a well-honed knife. In this enjoyable remake of his hit British series, seen here on BBC America, his victims/beneficiaries are not apprentice chefs but the owners and staffs of restaurants on the brink of disaster.

The irascible, foul-mouthed but supremely savvy Ramsay badgers and bullies these poor slobs into cleaning up their act, along the way revealing disorder, dysfunction and incompetence more than worthy of the title. Very tasty stuff.

"Meet My Folks": Not strictly new, just "repurposed," as they say in the biz, this 2002-'03 NBC dating show, now picked up by MyNetwork, has been off the air long enough to be forgotten. The twist: Aspirants must spend several days in the homes of their dates' parents to make the grade. Not the worst idea ever for a reality series, but far from the best.

"Nashville": A passel of purty people come to the country capital to sing their tunes, play their gi-tars, flirt, hook up and reach for the brass ring of a recording contract.

It's much more engaging than it sounds, thanks to ultraslick reality-soap packaging from the folks who brought you MTV's "Laguna Beach," plus the saving grace of talent, which some of these contenders have in abundance.

The show won't premiere on Fox till Friday, but you can watch the first episode for free at www.fox.com and many other sites.

"The Next Great American Band": The "American Idol" producers team with judges John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls and Sheila E. to select the next - well, you know. Fox sent a pair of souvenir drumsticks instead of a screener, so I don't have much to say.

"Online Nation": In an admitted attempt to ride the YouTube wave, the youth-friendly CW asks viewers to send in their video pranks, parodies, fantasies, comedies, cat-meets-dog moments, etc. Could be a harmless time-waster, or could be sort of cool.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index....4&format=print

The 2007-2008 Season
What’s In Store:
'Pushing Daisies,' 'Reaper,' among best new shows
By Diane Werts Newsday September 16, 2007

How do TV executives always get the right message so wrong?

When "Lost" is a hit, the networks immediately order more dark and broody serial dramas with vast casts of unrelated strangers - completely missing the point that the initial show succeeded thanks to innovative storytelling and fresh characters, not because of a continuing mood of sprawling gloom.

When last year's breakout show "Heroes" got the buzz, the networks hopped on the fantasy bandwagon, giving us this fall's surfeit of superpowered spies and crime-solving vampires - when again, the original show stood out because it was so boldly original, yet so genuinely grounded.

And still, season after season, the new fall schedules bring us a slew of series machined to resemble what worked last year. How often does this succeed?

(Uh-huh.)

It doesn't seem such a difficult pattern to comprehend. Look at the network series that have broken out over the past decade. "The West Wing," "Desperate Housewives," "24" - even "The Office" - nothing else on TV looked or acted like them.

Today, that's something we're saying about cable. This summer has been a revelation, with everybody on down to ESPN premiering projects to get us turned on by scripted shows again. Whether it was AMC's ambitious 1960s ad-agency culture study "Mad Men" (with its eye-popping production values), TNT's adult copfest "Saving Grace" (wanton woman Holly Hunter helped by a guardian angel), FX's legal thriller "Damages" (Glenn Close as a colder-than-ice courtroom barracuda) or Lifetime's "Army Wives" (a rich female-bonding soap with a relevant setting), basic cable was airing shows that were distinctly fresh and frequently sharp. Even USA twisted the spy drama into quirky comedy with "Burn Notice," while ESPN unreeled the raucous New York-in-1977 docudrama miniseries "The Bronx Is Burning."

Premium cable seemed in danger of being overshadowed by ad-supported basic channels. But then Showtime came on strong in comedy with David Duchovny's ironic self-destruction in "Californication" and a side-splitting return by the suburban pot-dealing study "Weeds." HBO's second season of the plural-marriage chronicle "Big Love" deepened its redefinition of family ties. Even HBO's failed "John From Cincinnati" family saga/supernatural whatever-it-was still displayed vastly higher aspirations than the networks tend to. It was, in a word, unique.

The law of average

Seems simple, doesn't it? But, of course, it's not, or the networks wouldn't have their 487 percent series-failure rate. (Don't send me math lectures. I exaggerate for impact.) The broadcasters with their broad "free" reach and their federally licensed affiliates have more to lose than some cable channel if their shows tank big time or offend in large measure. They've become accustomed to hitting for average rather than swinging for the fences the way cable has had to do to attract notice. A hit procedural begets more procedurals, sometimes even baldly, of the same name (all those "Law & Orders" and "CSIs"). Viewers are taking to superheroes? Invent new ones! They'll watch an "Ugly Betty"? Give 'em more geeks!

Not that all those attempts are fated to failure. A couple of geek adventures are lively enough: NBC's sudden-spy romp "Chuck" and The CW's "Reaper," about a slacker clerk drafted as hell's bounty hunter. One of the better new dramas is - surprise! - a fairly conventional procedural. ABC's Friday night "Women's Murder Club" benefits from strong performances - Angie Harmon can carry a show - and the freshness of a mainly female cast.

Not every swing at innovation works. CBS, never known for wild originality, takes a big whiff on Sunday night's "Viva Laughlin." This new-school "Cop Rock" has (bland) characters singing along to familiar chart-toppers to musically advance a casino owner's saga so dull you don't care where its self-conscious contrivances go.

Please do see the "Daisies"

But the fall's best pilot and most promising concept is, like "Heroes," an invention all its own. ABC's Wednesday delight "Pushing Daisies" combines fairy-tale whimsy and Technicolor splendiferousness with English-accented narration (from "Harry Potter" book-reader Jim Dale) and all-American zest from an eccentric cast of characters. It's so jauntily good-natured in its telling of a boy who grows into a man who can revive the dead with one touch - or kill them again with two - that you're not only willing but eager to swallow its absurdities.

"I suppose dying's as good as any an excuse to start living," says the boy's onetime childhood crush, after being resurrected but forbidden to touch her rescuer. That reward-seeking magic man has just as enchanting a way with resisting her advances: "I'm sort of exhausted from chasing your coffin."

"Pushing Daisies" looks a lot like "Heroes" in another respect. Its wondrous young stars - stage-acclaimed Lee Pace ("Soldier's Girl," "Wonderfalls") and British actress Anna Friel ("Rogue Trader") - arrive in the series little-known but crisply talented and primed for greater fame. Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth ("Wicked") co-stars as a waitress. TV makes its own stars these days. Even the "big names" of this season earned their renown in other tube projects: "Dirty Sexy Money" lead Peter Krause (from "Six Feet Under"), "Big Shots" stars Dylan McDermott ("The Practice") and Michael Vartan ("Alias"), "Cane's" Jimmy Smits ("L.A. Law," "NYPD Blue"), "Samantha Who?" funny girl Christina Applegate ("Married With Children"), and "K-Ville" cop Anthony Anderson ("The Shield").

If ABC can lure viewers to the delectably different "Pushing Daisies" - a quirky non-franchise saga (i.e., not cops, doctors, lawyers) built around weekly murder-solving (no ongoing whodunit) - at least we'll know what to brace for next year.

Way too much closed-end whimsy.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment...64,print.story

The 2007-2008 Season
Fall Forecast: Unpredictable
The rules have changed, and network executives are nervous
By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable 9/17/2007

Every year just before the new season begins, network executives embark on the annual ritual of waiting in agony to see if any of their new players can get out of the gate. But this fall those same executives have another reason to fret, as the rules of the game are changing drastically.

As the new season is about to kick off, DVR penetration is rising and poised to hit 20%, the ad marketplace is shifting to a commercial ratings system and the networks are now throwing most of their primetime lineup online for free. In other words, the entire landscape of broadcast television is being recalibrated on the fly.

“Nothing like this has ever occurred at one time in the past,” says David Poltrack, president of CBS Vision and chief research officer for the network. “It will be a very critical and interesting fall.”

And the sea changes come at a time when broadcast television is reeling from a ratings-challenged spring followed by a summer that went by without a single hit. The spring showed that repeats, especially for dramas, just aren't a tangible business–at least not anymore. Poor summer viewership meant promos for fall shows weren't seen by as many people.

With all of these factors, many network executives are quietly wondering if the viewers will come back en masse to network television this fall. And even if they do, will the new system ensure they will all be counted anyway?

Even bullish network programmers are looking at the new season in a sober new light. “It might net out that there is some overall decline,” says Preston Beckman, Fox executive VP, strategic program planning and research, of the five broadcast networks. “I think you always have to wonder when you hit some kind of turning point or critical mass.”

Vince Manze, NBC president of program planning scheduling and strategy, also says he is not taking audiences returning at the same levels for granted. “Overall, I think we all would be happy with flat,” he says. “That's a victory these days.”

Despite the modest predictions, broadcast's economic model is safe for another year at least, as the upfront market was booming to the tune of about $9.15 billion and the scatter market looks good so far.

But as viewers get used to watching shows when and how they want them, measurement is going to be increasingly tricky, and advertisers will be watching closely. The bottom line is the networks are feeling more pressure than ever to create strong content.

“Beyond the evolution of media metrics and the revolution in program dispersion, what still is important is if any of the programs have any specific resonance with the viewing public,” says John Rash, senior VP/director of media negotiations for media buyer Campbell Mithun. “Once again this summer, cable raised the bar in quality, if not necessarily in ratings.”

Apples to Oranges?

And scoring the network's results will be a challenge, as comparing this year's numbers to last could be apples to oranges with the metrics changing.

In addition to Nielsen moving from program to commercial ratings, the DVR effect will be closely monitored. The marketplace negotiated many deals on a live-plus-three-day metric, so the networks will get credit for playback in that time period, but not for the live-plus-seven it desires.

Also under close scrutiny: Will the networks' decision to throw most primetime shows online for free begin to eat away at ratings?

“Two years ago there were no shows on the Web, last year the networks were selective and few people knew they were there, but this year a significant percentage of viewers knows they can find shows on the Internet and more people are accessing that,” CBS's Poltrack says.

While networks to this point have trusted that online streaming doesn't cannibalize TV audiences because it drives more people to their sets in the long run, it remains to be seen if that is still the case as the strategy matures. But the genie is out of the bottle as viewers are getting used to the luxury, so Fox's Beckman says second-guessing for now is useless.

“We are personally encouraging more people to view our product in unconventional ways, so to worry about it and do it is a little Looney Tunes to me,” he says. “Either you accept this [is] how we are going to move forward or you don't expose your product as freely.”

The problem in the short run is the gap in ad revenues and how to monetize viewers fleeing to other platforms. Only a collective few hundred million ad dollars are flowing to digital platforms for the networks.

“If every viewer on the Internet means one less on television, the economics don't work,” Poltrack says. “But if every 100 Internet viewers means one less on television, the economics potentially offset the lower ratings. It's a little early to say how those economics are going to play out.”

So while the networks are waiting to see if their new pilots can get viewers to the small screen, they are increasingly paying attention to the big picture.

“The success of shows now can't be measured just by the ratings they get on television, because there are so many alternatives now,” says ABC Entertainment executive vice president Jeff Bader. “Now we are all re-examining how we define success and how we monetize the new spectrum.”

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/ind...leID=CA6478751

TV Notes
USA renews 'Psych' for third season
Network orders 16 more episodes of drama
By Josef Adalian Variety

USA is psyched about "Psych," ordering a third season of the drama.

Net has picked up 16 episodes of the show, which revolves around a psychic cop (James Roday). Dule Hill, Corbin Bernsen and Maggie Lawson also star.

"The series has been a critical and ratings sensation since it premiered last summer and continues to gain new viewers and grow its fan-base," said USA exec VP of original programming Jeff Wachtel.

"Psych" debuted last year as the top-rated new show in cable. Skein has been averaging 4.6 million viewers this summer, easily winning its Friday timeslot vs. cable competition.

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?lay...&categoryid=14

Emmy Award Notes
This is your Emmy Source
Catch the previews, results, and aftermath here

All the Emmy news will be here on “Hot Off The Press” from now until the winners and losers have reacted late Sunday.

So keep checking in throughout the weekend for all the latest news and commentary on this year’s Emmy Awards.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I will not be using spoilers Sunday, so if you are in the Mountain or Pacific time zones and don’t want to know what happens until you get a chance to see the Fox broadcast, stay away from this thread until the show is over.

Emmy Award Notes
Happy to Be Neurotic, at Least Once a Week
By Susan Stewart The New York Times September 16, 2007

Tony Shalhoub had been having drinks with a friend in the ornate lobby of the Ritz-Carlton in Manhattan, so by the time a reporter arrived, his table was not exactly pristine.

“I’m sorry, it’s really a mess,” he said, wiping energetically with a cocktail napkin. This was a case of life imitating art, as he is the triple-Emmy-winning star of “Monk,” the USA Network series about an obsessive-compulsive detective.

“I think Monk has definitely infected me in some way,” he said cheerfully. “I was probably half as neurotic before the show.”

Mr. Shalhoub, 53, grew up in Green Bay, Wis., a son of a Lebanese immigrant who owned a chain of grocery stores. He had nine brothers and sisters.

“We shared neuroses,” he said. “They were hand-me-down neuroses.”

After college (the University of Southern Maine, the Yale School of Drama), he worked as a stage actor for 10 years. He met his wife, the actress Brooke Adams, when they were both in “The Heidi Chronicles” on Broadway. Television intervened, with a role on the comedy series “Wings.”

Now Mr. Shalhoub’s precise, respectful portrayal of Adrian Monk, who fears everything from dirt to milk to physical contact, has made him a champion of those with obsessive-compulsive disorder and an offbeat romantic hero. (Monk is a widower.) In public Mr. Shalhoub is constantly assaulted by “Monk” jokes.

“The only thing I can’t stand is when they want to shake hands and they pretend to hand me a sanitary wipe,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Like they’re the first person who ever thought of that joke. Makes me want to puke.”

Thinking up new “Monk” jokes is no easy task after six years. “It’s a contradiction, really, the idea of keeping it ‘fresh.’ There’s such a thing as over-freshness.”

Mr. Shalhoub says the show has “fermented” like a fine wine, a strong cheese — or a marriage. “I like that the writers are letting the characters finish each other’s sentences now.”

Mr. Shalhoub is now an executive producer of “Monk,” even as his performance continues to be the point of the series. “Monk” is a whodunit like “Columbo” or “Murder, She Wrote.” But its characterizations are complex, with emphasis on Monk’s struggles, as his assistant, Natalie (Traylor Howard), and his sometime employer Captain Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) form an ad hoc family.

Mr. Shalhoub calls his acting style “subtlety takes a holiday.” Still, he is practically Shakespearean about the theme — “For a crime to occur, there must be disorder” — and deeply analytical about the details. When Monk studies crime scenes, for instance, he holds his hands before him, fingers splayed. “I’m looking between the fingers, because it actually isolates and cuts the room into slices, looking at parts instead of the whole.”

Mr. Shalhoub has his own back story for his character. “I’ve always thought of Monk as being a virgin. Prior to ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin,’ I thought that.” Monk, he theorizes, was about to consummate his marriage when his wife was killed.

Do female fans find all that misery appealing? “About five years ago I was featured in People magazine’s Sexiest Men issue. I was in the category of ‘Surprisingly Sexy’ or something like that, which is another way of saying ‘Not Sexy,’ along with Donald Rumsfeld and hot guys like that.”

Sexy or not, Monk has netted Mr. Shalhoub five Emmy nominations for best actor in a comedy, and three awards. His excellence seems to be contagious. Just this month Stanley Tucci won an Emmy for his guest spot on “Monk.”

“I think other actors know how hard the Monk role is, and that’s what they respond to in the academy,” said Andy Breckman, the show’s creator. “We get great guest stars, because everyone wants to watch this man work.”

If there is a point at which the Emmy becomes an embarrassment, Mr. Shalhoub hasn’t reached it yet.

“Candice Bergen won five and finally took herself out of the running,” he said, and paused. “What was she thinking?”

Not that Mr. Shalhoub ever expects to win. He predicted that this year the prize would go to Alec Baldwin for “30 Rock” when the Emmy show is broadcast on Sunday. But then, he said, “Everybody thought Steve Carell would win last year” for “The Office.” He didn’t; Mr. Shalhoub did.

If Mr. Shalhoub loses this year, will he assume an appropriately gracious expression for the reaction shots?

“I’ll probably pretend that I’m asleep.”

And what if he wins a fourth Emmy? “I’ve always wanted to go onstage with a cellphone” — he mimed talking on a phone — “you know, ‘I’m a little busy here, gotta call you back.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/ar...gewanted=print

Emmy Award Notes
Will 'The Sopranos' fade out? Fuggetaboutit
Look for the crime drama to take the top Emmy. 'The Office' might whack competition, too.
By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic September 16, 2007

Secrecy and teases shroud the musical production that opens the Emmys.

"The number will be unlike anything you've seen in years past," host Ryan Seacrest says.

He hinted at his involvement. A singing and dancing Seacrest? Maybe Fox will bring on Simon Cowell to critique the American Idol host.

With Fox presenting the live telecast, expect Fox flourishes from 8 to 11 tonight ET/PT (on Fox). One certainty: Tony Bennett and Christina Aguilera will perform "Steppin' Out." Another: The cast of Broadway's Jersey Boys will offer a musical salute to HBO's The Sopranos.

As for the contests, sentiment and catch-up voting could determine the winners. The most coveted prizes, for comedy and drama series, come at the evening's end.

What to expect? Here are the predictions:

Drama series: Look for the TV academy to honor The Sopranos one last time. So what if that blackout finale was controversial? People are still talking about it. The other nominees are NBC's Heroes, Fox's House and two from ABC, Grey's Anatomy and Boston Legal.

Comedy series: It's a race between NBC's The Office, which won last year, and ABC's Ugly Betty. Betty is more lovable, but Emmy voters will probably give The Office another vote of confidence. The other nominees are NBC's 30Rock, HBO's Entourage and CBS' Two and a Half Men.

Drama actor: James Gandolfini could win his fourth Emmy for Tony Soprano or Hugh Laurie could collect his first for Gregory House. I'm rooting for the cantankerous doc, and Laurie gives an excellent speech. The other nominees are Denis Leary of FX's Rescue Me, two-time winner James Spader of Boston Legal and last year's winner, Kiefer Sutherland of Fox's 24.

Drama actress: Kyra Sedgwick keeps rolling up huge ratings for TNT's TheCloser. She has the edge. The main competition comes from three-time winner Edie Falco of The Sopranos and Oscar-winner Sally Field as the mother on ABC's Brothers & Sisters. There are three other nominees: first-timer Minnie Driver of FX's The Riches, former winner Patricia Arquette of NBC's Medium and last year's winner, Mariska Hargitay of NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Comedy actor: Alec Baldwin of 30 Rock should have a speech ready for playing a pompous network executive brilliantly. Steve Carell of The Office is the dark horse. Others in the running are three-time winner Tony Shalhoub of USA's Monk, Charlie Sheen of Two and a Half Men and Ricky Gervais of HBO's Extras.

Comedy actress: America Ferrera of Ugly Betty is the real beauty in this contest. She delivers terrific speeches, another plus. The other nominees are Tina Fey of 30 Rock, Mary-Louise Parker of Showtime's Weeds, former winner Felicity Huffman of ABC's Desperate Housewives and last year's winner, JuliaLouis-Dreyfus of CBS' The New Adventures of Old Christine.

Reality competition: CBS' The Amazing Race has won four times in a row. A fifth victory seems likely; the show has won for cinematography and picture editing. The other contenders are American Idol, ABC's Dancing With the Stars and two from Bravo, Project Runway and Top Chef.

TV miniseries: A race between AMC's Broken Trail and PBS' Prime Suspect: The Final Act. Why not a tie? Broken Trail has a slight edge. The third nominee is USA's The Starter Wife.

TV movie: HBO's Longford was the class of this field. Other nominees are TNT's The Ron Clark Story, HBO's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Discovery's Inside the Twin Towers and Lifetime's Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy.

Movie actor: Robert Duvall didn't win for Lonesome Dove, an astonishing slight. Emmy voters will make it up to him and honor him for Broken Trail.

Movie actress: Helen Mirren concluded her role as Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect. She was extraordinary. She won this category last year for HBO's Elizabeth I. She collected the Oscar this year for The Queen. Look for another coronation tonight.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/enter...94,print.story

Emmy Award Notes
Deserving Emmy Winners Outnumber The Statues
The Tampa Tribune September 16, 2007

The big night is fast approaching. Ryan Seacrest is ready to host. The Emmy statues are polished and waiting.

The 'Entertainment Tonight' crew is warmed up to stalk the red carpet.

The nominated actors, writers and producers are practicing those 'I don't give a damn' stares for the anxious moments when they really do give a damn but don't want to show it while the camera pans the audience.

Predicting the winners is a crapshoot this year. The competition is that good for 'The 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards' at 8 tonight on Fox.

In the drama category alone, four of the five nominees could take the prize. We probably can scratch 'Boston Legal' because its wacky factor no longer wows.

'Friday Night Lights' should have been nominated instead of 'Boston Legal,' but it's too late to quibble over what got snubbed.

The other drama series nominees are a worthy lot: 'Heroes,' 'Grey's Anatomy,' 'House' and 'The Sopranos.'

We probably can narrow the prediction down to 'The Sopranos' or 'House.'

Even though 'Heroes' is one of the most innovative dramas on television, it is sci-fi, and that's a hard sell to Emmy voters. 'Heroes' is the dark horse here.

'Grey's Anatomy' stands a chance. It's a fan favorite and a ratings hit; the TV industry loves producer Shonda Rhimes; and it has spawned a sequel, 'Private Practice.'

But pound for drama pound, 'House' is the better medical drama. Sometimes 'Grey's' is so hokey, it's laughable. The 'House' cast just isn't as pretty.

'The Sopranos' packed a punch in its final season with a finale that still stirs debate. It has been nominated seven times for best drama and won in 2004. So be ready to order up some onion rings for the wiseguys from New Jersey.

Makes Us Laugh

Picking the best comedy series is not any easier. 'Ugly Betty,' 'The Office,' 'Entourage,' '30 Rock' and 'Two and a Half Men' are nominated. Each is worthy in its own way.

But who decides the victors anyway?

The nominees and winners in all categories are determined by a combination of votes from the roughly 10,000 members of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (people who work in television) and a blue-ribbon panel of judges.

Last year, many of these Emmy voters went with 'The Office' for best comedy. The NBC series could be a repeat winner because it's still one of the funniest shows on TV.

Week after week, the nut jobs at the Dunder-Mifflin paper company nail the lunacy of the workplace, from inept bosses to goofy co-workers.

But Emmy voters could wax sentimental this year and go for an old-school comedy, giving 'Two and a Half Men' a victory.

Now entering its fifth season, the CBS sitcom averages more viewers than any of the other nominees. It's a well-crafted, funny and familiar character-and-punch-line show filmed before a studio audience.

Charlie Sheen does a grand job of parodying his own swinging playboy image. Co-star Jon Cryer, as his uptight, party-challenged brother, has crafted a classic TV character.

'Ugly Betty,' about a fashion-challenged young Hispanic woman (America Ferrera), and '30 Rock,' a loopy sendup of the television industry, are fresh, hip and trendy. There is much to like about the innovation of both. 'Ugly Betty' plays like a surrealistic soap opera fantasy, while '30 Rock' has evolved into a true must-see part of NBC's Thursday night lineup.

HBO's 'Entourage' seems like a long shot even though Emmy voters like HBO products. The buzz has cooled on this 3-year-old series about swimming with the show-business sharks in Hollywood.

It Ain't Shakespeare

For the best dramatic performances in a TV series, Hugh Laurie, of 'House,' and Minnie Driver, of 'The Riches,' would be suitable choices. But look for Sally Field ('Brothers & Sisters') or Kyra Sedgwick ('The Closer') to capture the best actress honor.

Laurie was nominated two years ago and didn't win. He was snubbed last year. Now it's his turn. His bitter, sardonic, sarcastic character, Dr. Gregory House, is a work of art.

His competition is James Gandolfini ('The Sopranos'), Denis Leary ('Rescue Me') and previous winners James Spader ('Boston Legal') and Kiefer Sutherland ('24').

As for the dramatic actress category, Driver was great as a depressed and frustrated wife and mother in the series about a family of traveling grifters. Her co-star Eddie Izzard deserved a nomination but didn't get one.

This is Driver's first nomination. Mariska Hargitay, of 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,' won last year, and she's in the running again. Field and Sedgwick also were nominated last year.

Edie Falco, of 'The Sopranos,' is back with her sixth nomination for the same role as the strong-willed wife of a mob boss. She has won three times.

Another previous winner, Patricia Arquette, of 'Medium,' has for some inexplicable reason been nominated again.

Comedy Is Hard

When it comes to the best comedy actor, all we can say is, 'Please, not Tony Shalhoub again!' Yes, he is good as the obsessive-compulsive detective on 'Monk,' but he has won three times, and the novelty of that series is wearing thin.

The smart money is on Alec Baldwin, who, despite his apparent lack of real-life parenting skills, is darn good playing a smarmy, clueless network executive on '30 Rock.'

Baldwin made tabloid news this year after the media got hold of a nasty, scolding telephone message he left for his teenage daughter. If Emmy voters get past that, he could win.

His competition includes last year's winner, Shalhoub; Steve Carell ('The Office'); Ricky Gervais (of HBO's 'Extras'); and Sheen ('Two and a Half Men').

Assuming that Emmy voters want to give something to 'Ugly Betty,' then its star, Ferrera, could get the Emmy for best actress in a comedy series. She already won a Golden Globe for the role.

Her competition is Tina Fey ('30 Rock'), Felicity Huffman ('Desperate Housewives'), Julia Louis-Dreyfus ('The New Adventures of Old Christine') and Mary-Louise Parker ('Weeds').

Other Nominees

'Heroes,' one of the most talked-about series this past season, needs to win something, and a supporting actor win for Masi Oka is its best shot. Other nominees are Michael Emerson ('Lost'), Michael Imperioli ('The Sopranos'), T.R. Knight ('Grey's Anatomy'), Terry O'Quinn ('Lost') and William Shatner ('Boston Legal').

The choices for best supporting actress in a drama series are less exciting, and it could go to any one of them: Lorraine Bracco ('The Sopranos'), Rachel Griffiths ('Brothers & Sisters'), Katherine Heigl ('Grey's Anatomy'), Sandra Oh ('Grey's Anatomy'), Aida Turturro ('The Sopranos') or Chandra Wilson ('Grey's Anatomy').

Nerds are in vogue now, so Rainn Wilson, who plays office weirdo Dwight Schrute on 'The Office,' is a likely winner for best supporting actor in a comedy. But Neil Patrick Harris as the goofy Barney on 'How I Met Your Mother' makes that show.

And Cryer, of 'Two and a Half Men,' is a contender along with Kevin Nealon, of 'Weeds,' and Jeremy Piven, of 'Entourage.'

Is it possible to have a five-way tie?

For best supporting actress in a comedy series, give that trophy to Jenna Fischer, the sweetheart from 'The Office.'

Choncata Ferrell and Holland Taylor, both of 'Two and a Half Men,' are good. Vanessa Williams is delightfully wicked on 'Ugly Betty,' Jaime Pressly steals scenes on 'My Name Is Earl,' and Elizabeth Perkins is impressive on 'Weeds.'

But you just want to hug Fischer's shy, girl-next-door Pam.

Finally, look for HBO to clean up again in the total number of awards. Because the broadcast networks rarely make films or miniseries anymore, HBO usually sweeps these categories. The network's moving 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,' based on Dee Brown's saga about American Indian culture, deserves everything it will get.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2007/sep...tertainment-tv

TV Review
“K-Ville”: The Big Uneasy
In the cop drama, New Orleans serves as a stormy backdrop for low-rent noir and pent-up rage
By John Leonard New York Magazine September 17, 2007

Again and again in the pilot episode of K-Ville, we see snapshots of the devastated Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans: nightmare flashbacks of biblical floods; houses smashed by a giant fist; anarchy and refugee camps; flotsam, jetsam, and debris where once upon a time there’d been a neighborhood. Again and again, like Oedipus at Colonus or Lear on the blasted heath, a New Orleans cop named Marlin Boulet (Anthony Anderson) will rage against the elements, by which he doesn’t mean the weather. As his city was abandoned by the local, state, and federal governments, Marlin, too, has been abandoned, first in the middle of Katrina by his panicked partner on the Felony Action Squad, Charlie Pratt (Derek Webster), who absconded with their patrol car, and then, two years later, by his estranged wife, Ayana (Elise Neal), who intends to take their traumatized young daughter to Atlanta, as far away as she can get from the bad schools, the berserk crime, and the demoralized remnants of the former Big Easy. Even Marlin’s longtime next-door neighbor in “the Nine” is selling out to real-estate scam artists.

Marlin has what everybody else tells him are “issues”—a volcanic temper, a soul on fire, and a willingness, verging on eagerness, to bend the rules in the heat of action. His favorite jazz singer, Kaja Fontaine (Fahnlohnee Harris), is gunned down at a charity benefit, if not by her ex-boyfriend who deals drugs from a shrimp boat, then maybe by the ex-commandos working security for the big new casino. Or is the target the charity itself, a masquerade of the Garden District pretending to care about the Upper Ninth? Marlin’s new partner, a white man named Trevor Cobb (Cole Hauser), may indeed have been a soldier in Afghanistan but certainly isn’t telling the truth when he says he originates in Cincinnati. His old partner, now a hotel house detective, keeps showing up at Marlin’s crime scenes, among the surveillance cameras and automatic-weapons fire, looking for forgiveness. Everyone in K-Ville—which stands, of course, for “Katrinaville”—is looking for either redemption or revenge.

If you saw Anderson during his villainous seasons on The Shield, you already know he commands the camera. His fellow cops—John Carroll Lynch, Maximiliano Hernández, Tawny Cypress, and Blake Shields—are the usual polyglot infantry trench, with the usual bunker jokes, what we might even call a gumbo. K-Ville’s co–executive producers are both cop-show veterans—Jonathan Lisco of NYPD Blue and The District, Craig Silverstein of Bones and Standoff—who know how to yank our chains with close-ups, jump cuts, booster shots of adrenaline, and low-rent noir. Whether rage alone can sustain a series remains to be seen, although class war and race hate seem to be in inexhaustible supply here, and the show has hardly begun to touch the rich reservoir of music. Imagine guest appearances by Fats Domino and Dr. John.

But I’m rooting for K-Ville to last at least till a year from November, through the next presidential election. It is not enough that anniversaries of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath of spectacular incompetence and depraved indifference should be pious occasions for television sermonettes; whole Establishments should be held accountable. These images of devastation have chased earlier home movies out of our aching heads—a New Orleans of Dixieland, Bourbon Street, Mardi Gras, the French Quarter, bohemian decadence, and a Streetcar Named Blanche DuBois; the artsy-fartsy New Orleans of William Faulkner’s Mosquitoes, the down-and-out New Orleans of Nelson Algren’s A Walk on the Wild Side, and the stricken-world New Orleans of Robert Stone’s A Hall of Mirrors, with race riots, voodoo dolls, graveyards, Fascism, and Dante’s Inferno; a nostalgic New Orleans where a hallelujah chorus of Bob Dylan, the Animals, and Frijid Pink sings “The House of the Rising Sun.”

Instead, we have the New Orleans of Spike Lee’s epic When the Levees Broke, in which the grand-operatic bungling of FEMA, the gross ineptitude of the Army Corps of Engineers, the corrupt opportunism of the insurance companies, the cowardly finger-pointing of the governor and the mayor, and the fugue-state insensibility and denial of our only president stare back at us from freeze-frames of arrogant past and anguished present, sick-city misery and soul-stirring music, liars and body bags. And the New Orleans of James Lee Burke’s furious new novel The Tin Roof Blowdown, in which the recovering-alcoholic police detective Dave Robicheaux seeks justice in Katrina’s violent wake. Marlin Boulet could have stepped easily out of Lee’s scalding frame and Burke’s radiant pages, speaking execration.

http://nymag.com/arts/tv/reviews/37205/

TV Review
‘K-Ville' has assets
but it's still another ordinary cop show
By Mike Kelly, Special to the Toledo Blade

There are some things to like about the Fox cop drama K-Ville, which premieres at 9 p.m. Monday.

First and foremost, the series, which is about a pair of cops in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, is being filmed on location in the city. That's good news for a place that's still struggling with reconstruction efforts two years after being blasted by one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history.

The money spent filming a TV series there sure can't hurt, and word is that some of the cast and crew of K-Ville have pitched in during their off hours to work with Habitat for Humanity.

Another thing to like about the show is lead actor Anthony Anderson, a physically imposing screen presence whether he's doing comedy (Barbershop, All About the Andersons ) or drama (gang leader Antwon Mitchell in The Shield). In K-Ville,
it's strictly drama so far, with Anderson in the role of Officer Marlin Boulet, a basically decent but troubled character.

Unfortunately, that just about concludes our discussion of the upside of
K-Ville. Aside from the fact that it's set in still-ravaged New Orleans, the series is basically just another cop show, and not a very dynamic one at that.
It's part police procedural (Law & Order, NYPD Blue), where the good guys get to solve a crime each week, and part buddy cop show (think Starsky & Hutch, or even better, the Lethal Weapon movies), where two seemingly mismatched partners somehow mesh to form a solid crime-busting unit.

We're introduced to Anderson's character in a flashback to 2005, just after the hurricane roared through the city. Marlin is in flat-out hero mode, trying to save survivors from the floodwaters, and from each other, while his partner is
running off to save his own skin.

Eventually, he gets a new partner, a quiet guy named Trevor Cobb (Cole Hauser), an ex-military man with a murky past. Cobb claims he's from Cincinnati, but he sure seems to know a lot about the local terrain.

While trying to protect his city, Marlin is also trying to keep his own life together. His wife and daughter have abandoned New Orleans for the relative safety of Atlanta, leaving Marlin to live alone in their flood-damaged home — which is in the Lower Ninth Ward, the hardest-hit portion of the city.

In the show's pilot episode, there are plenty of scenes of gutted buildings, empty and deserted houses, and huge piles of trash, all evidently meant to remind viewers that New Orleans is still very much a decimated city. But it seems as though the city is used for little more than a backdrop for the same old car chases and gun battles that we've seen a million times on other shows.

And speaking of shooting … in more than one scene, cops are shown running down a crowded street, tossing off shots at the fleeing bad guys. I'm pretty sure that cops don't really do that — in New Orleans or anyplace else. There's probably a chapter in the cop handbook about the inadvisability of blowing away innocent bystanders.

To their credit, the series' writers do try to incorporate a local angle into the plot of the premiere episode, with a farfetched story line involving someone's efforts to sabotage fund-raising activities aimed at helping rebuild the city.

Though the show's dialogue isn't as snappy as what we've become accustomed to in the summer's gritty cable series, some of it works pretty well. When Marlin's wife returns briefly to retrieve some things from their house, she tells him exactly why she's not planning to stick around:

'Half this city still reeks of mold and toxic sludge,' she says. 'The schools are even worse. The crime … baby, it's not the same place, and it's never gonna be.'

By the way, in case you were wondering, the series' title is supposed to be a shorthand form of 'Katrinaville,' which the producers thought was a cool name, but which news reports maintain that nobody in New Orleans really uses to describe their city.

K-Ville may get a boost its first night because it follows the season opener of the hit series Prison Break. But if it doesn't hook its audience then and there, the new show will likely be in trouble, because the following week it will be up against mega-hit Heroes, which begins its own new season on NBC.

And that could wash away K-Ville just as quickly as any hurricane.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs...ART18/70915001

The 2007-2008 Season
Fall Hall of Fame
Sitcoms come and dramas go, but one thing about the TV biz remains constant: Stars are born every fall. Our own professional couch potato surveyed the new season and may have found a few.
By Dave Walker New Orleans Times-Picayune TV writer Sunday, September 16, 2007

The fall TV season arrives just as we're enjoying the waning nights of what has been the best summer ever for scripted television, a statement that would stand if we'd only had HBO's "Flight of the Conchords" and AMC's "Mad Men."

It started with "The Sopranos" finale, rolled through FX's "Damages" and "Rescue Me" right on into TNT's "Saving Grace" and "The Closer" and probably several things on the Sci-Fi network I didn't watch.

All, you'll notice, are cable titles.

Broadcast TV gets back in the game now, and The Times-Picayune's season preview presents an overview of all of the new offerings, listed in the order that they will premiere.

A trend toward fantasy is one strain, though it owes less to anything afloat in the zeitgeist than it does to "Heroes" and "Lost," commercial successes that programmers can't help but copy.

From the larger list, I'd separate a handful for careful consideration. ABC's "Pushing Daisies" is the consensus favorite among the nation's TV critics as the newcomer with the most potential, and I agree.

Among the new dramas, I'm most looking forward to NBC's "Chuck" and CW's "Reaper." For obvious reasons, we'll all monitor Fox's "K-Ville," the New Orleans cop drama that debuts Monday with an episode that's sure to spark local coffee talk Tuesday.

The long slump for broadcast-TV comedies continues, though Fox's "Back to You," CBS' "The Big Bang Theory" CW's "Aliens in America" and ABC's "Car Poolers" all have a shot at turning the trend.

My early identification of NBC's "Bionic Woman" as the most likely new series to become a hit still stands. Least likely: ABC's "Cavemen," the sitcom based on the GEICO commercials.

Cable kept the clicker warm during a season that was otherwise given to reruns, game shows and reality junk.

Now that the broadcast networks have reloaded their listings grids, it's time to find those channels again.

Happy hunting.

Note: All times are Central)

Already premiered

'JAIL' (MyNetworkTV) Tuesdays, 8 p.m.
Premise: "COPS" creator John Langley shows what happens when episodes of that show end.
Promise: For locals looking for relatives, city jails visited in the first season include Las Vegas, Tampa, Fla., Cincinnati, Fort Worth, Texas, and Portland, Ore.
Alternate title: "Con Airwaves"

'DECISION HOUSE' (MyNetworkTV) Wednesdays, 7 p.m.
Premise: "Divorce Court" judge Lynn Toler and "Intervention" therapist Tara Fields observe distressed couples as they work through their issues while ensconced in a house with 27 cameras recording their every argument.
Promise: There's drama aplenty in domestic disputes, though any couple that agrees to this kind of cure has issues that go well beyond leaving the toilet seat up.
Alternate title: "Next Stop, 'Jerry Springer' "

'NASHVILLE' (Fox) Fridays, 8 p.m.
Premise: From the creative team that gave the world "Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County," "Nashville" is a "docu-soap" about life among music-industry hopefuls.
Promise: As long as "drink" rhymes with "think," Country music will always have a preset on my car radio.
Alternate title: "Pickin' Daisies"

THE NEW SEASON:

Monday
'K-VILLE' (Fox) Mondays, 8 p.m.
Premise: Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser play cops in post-K New Orleans.
Promise: The show's pilot/premiere was distributed online and viewer comments were mixed. Professional critics are equally lukewarm. My full review will run in Monday's Living section. In a nutshell: It's got problems, but it's not hopeless.
Alternate title: "NOPD Blue"

Wednesday
'KID NATION' (CBS) Wednesdays, 7 p.m.
Premise: It's "Lord of the Flies" as prequel to "The Surreal Life" as 40 kids are given free reality-TV reign to build their own society in what's billed as a New Mexico ghost town.
Promise: Given the pre-premiere publicity this show has won so far -- mostly all bad, and mostly concerning the many dire ethical and moral dilemmas such a production steamrolls -- the only "losers" will likely be the parents who allowed it to happen.
Alternate title: "The Forty Coreys"

'GOSSIP GIRL' (CW) Wednesdays, 8 p.m.
Premise: Creator of "The O.C." for Fox, Josh Schwarz now shifts his focus to the tawdry teens who attend a prep school on New York City's Upper East Side, as chronicled by an unseen online correspondent (see title). Blake Lively ("Accepted"), Leighton Meester ("Entourage"), Penn Badgley ("The Bedford Diaries") and Chace Crawford ("The Covenant") star, among others.
Promise: Based on Cecily von Ziegesar's best-selling novels, it's kind of a "Felicity" prequel -- minus lots of heart, plus lots of nasty.
Alternate title: "Sam IM"

'BACK TO YOU' (Fox) Wednesdays, 7 p.m.
Premise: Kelsey Grammer ("Frasier") and Patricia Heaton ("Everybody Loves Raymond") play Pittsburgh local-news anchors with a shared past. Fred Willard ("Best in Show") plays the sportscaster.
Promise: Ripe with comic potential, and laden with production bona fides -- it's executive produced by Steven Levitan ("Just Shoot Me!"), Christopher Lloyd ("Frasier") and James Burrows ("Cheers") -- "Back to You" appears to be the new season's best bet for a freshman comedy hit.
Alternate title: "Tales of the TelePrompTer"

'KITCHEN NIGHTMARES' (Fox) Wednesdays, 8 p.m.
Premise: Scary "Hell's Kitchen" chef Gordon Ramsay invades a different restaurant each week.
Promise: Ramsay is a compelling TV character, but who in their right mind would ever want to sauté at his side?
Alternate title: "Pass the Bromo"

Sept. 23
'CW NOW' (CW) Sundays, 6 p.m.
Premise: Tanika Ray ("Extra") hosts a weekly magazine show, with embedded advertising, that scouts all that's hip and happening -- all targeted at viewers who are too young to vote.
Promise: If it's too "now," you're too old.
Alternate title: "C-to-the-Whatevs"

'ONLINE NATION' (CW) Sundays, 6:30 p.m.
Premise: A network-television outlet for all the amateur videos that are otherwise hogging bandwidth on YouTube.
Promise: Could be brilliant, if handled with the appropriate gnarly 'tude.
Alternate title: "It's a Wired, Wired, Wired, Wired World"

Sept. 24
'THE BIG BANG THEORY' (CBS) Mondays, 7:30 p.m.
Premise: Johnny Galecki ("Roseanne") and Jim Parsons ("Judging Amy") play Leonard and Sheldon, two asocial brainiacs whose lives take a quantum leap when sweet-hot Penny, played by Kaley Cuoco ("Charmed"), moves in to the apartment next door. Also worth mentioning are supporting geeks Simon Helberg (who plays Howard) and Kunal Nayyar (Rajesh).
Promise: Chuck Lorre ("Dharma & Greg," "Two and a Half Men") is co-creator, so this show will be well-crafted at least, boffo at best.
Alternate title: "Penny Meets the Nerd Herd"

'CHUCK' (NBC) Mondays, 7 p.m.
Premise: Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi, "Less Than Perfect") is a computer geek whose brain unwittingly downloads a data-dump of government secrets, and so he becomes the human protectorate of National Security Agency agents played by Adam Baldwin ("Firefly") and Yvonne Strahovski, a newcomer to American TV.
Promise: NBC is all-in on this series, promotionally speaking, as the evening-opening entry for its Monday Night Fantasy gambit, which is a good call. Levi should be one of the season's breakout stars.
Alternate title: "I.T. Spy"

'JOURNEYMAN' (NBC) Mondays, 9 p.m.
Premise: Kevin McKidd ("Rome") plays a San Francisco newspaper reporter who suddenly is able to time-travel, a superpower he uses for good, though friends and family find it a little weird. Gretchen Egolf ("Martial Law") plays the wife.
Promise: Should get some sampling with its "Heroes" lead-in, but in this time slot the clicker masses will likely forsake metaphysics in favor of steely David Caruso and "CSI: Miami."
Alternate title: "Beat the Clock"

Sept. 25
'CANE' (CBS) Tuesdays, 9 p.m.
Premise: Jimmy Smits ("NYPD Blue") tops a sprawling family drama set inside a Florida sugar-and-rum dynasty. Also starring: Hector Elizondo ("Chicago Hope"), Nestor Carbonell ("Lost"), Rita Moreno ("Oz") and others.
Promise: South Floridians will righteously snort at many of this show's caricatures just as stubbornly as New Orleanians will snort at "K-Ville's" perceived misfires at capturing local color, but Smits is ideally cast here, and there's some potentially compelling soap to stage.
Alternate title: "Hermanos y Hermanas"

'REAPER' (CW) Tuesdays, 8 p.m.
Premise: Bret Harrison ("The Loop") plays a layabout who discovers that his parents have sold his soul to the devil, played by Ray Wise ("Twin Peaks"). The layabout's layabout pals, played by Tyler Labine ("Invasion") and Rick Gonzalez ("Coach Carter"), help him cope.
Promise: Wise is perfectly cast in what could be wicked fun.
Alternate title: "Hellboy"

Sept. 26
'PRIVATE PRACTICE' (ABC) Wednesdays, 8 p.m.
Premise: Kate Walsh ("The Drew Carey Show") spins off of "Grey's Anatomy" as her character, fertility specialist Naomi Bennett, departs Seattle to work in a Los Angeles wellness clinic. Tim Daly ("Eyes") plays an alternative-medicine practitioner who is among Bennett's new colleagues.
Promise: A built-in fan base from "Grey's" doesn't hurt but also doesn't guarantee success, and ABC is all-new on Wednesdays, so time-investment counseling on this one is tricky. Bet on Walsh, though, who has been very good in a wide range of projects.
Alternate title: "L.A. Medicine"

'DIRTY SEXY MONEY' (ABC) Wednesdays, 9 p.m.
Premise: Peter Krause ("Six Feet Under") plays an idealistic attorney who sells his soul to manage the affairs of a New York City family awash in messy money. Donald Sutherland ("Commander in Chief") plays the patriarch.
Promise: Those two actors are a great start, but if the show becomes a meditation on unearned privilege instead of the soapy hoot it begs to be, viewers will not visit often.
Alternate title: "Consigliere"

'BIONIC WOMAN' (NBC) Wednesdays, 8 p.m.
Premise: Michelle Ryan ("East Enders") stars in this revival of the 1970s "Six Million Dollar Man" spinoff.
Promise: It's executive-produced by David Eick and Glen Morgan, veterans of cable's "Battlestar Galactica" remake and "The X-Files," respectively, so it's got a shot at competing in what will be one of the fall's toughest time slots.
Alternate title: "Jaime Sommers 2.0"

'LIFE' (NBC) Wednesdays, 9 p.m.
Premise: Damian Lewis ("Band of Brothers") plays a wrongfully convicted cop who spends a dozen years in the slam and exits a changed man, but returns to his old job to vex his new partner, played by Sarah Shahi ("The L Word"), among others.
Promise: Lewis is great, the premise is unique and it's going to be fun watching the oddball lead character bounce off of the rest of the cast.
Alternate title: "Branded"

Sept. 27
'BIG SHOTS' (ABC) Thursdays, 9 p.m.
Premise: A quartet of TV veterans -- they are Michael Vartan ("Alias"), Christopher Titus ("Titus"), Joshua Malina ("The West Wing") and Dylan McDermott ("The Practice") -- portray captains of industry with female troubles.
Promise: The pursuit of manly happiness is what this is about, and the only question will be whether audiences can be made to care about four have-it-all dudes for whom everything isn't enough.
Alternate title: "Can't Live With 'Em . . ."

Sept. 28
'MOONLIGHT' (CBS) Fridays, 8 p.m.
Premise: Mick St. John (Alex O'Louglin, "The Shield") is a Los Angeles private investigator. Also a vampire, but the good kind. Beth Turner (Sophia Myles, "Nicholas Nickelby") is a TV reporter. But not a vampire. For now. Together, they crack cases and, maybe, fall in love.
Promise: Apparently not much if CBS is airing it on Friday.
Alternate title: "Ace Vena Cava, Bat Detective"

Oct. 1 (CW)
'ALIENS IN AMERICA (CW) Mondays, 7:30 p.m., CW
Premise: A doofus 16-year old, played by Dan Byrd ("The Hills Have Eyes") has hopes for social ascendancy as provided by a foreign exchange student, who turns out to be a Pakistani Muslim, played by Adhir Kalyan ("Fair City").
Promise: All kinds of potential here, believe it or not, if the engaging cast is given more than easy gags and sappy stories to play.
Alternate title: "Let's Mecca Deal"

Oct. 2
'CAVEMEN' (ABC) Tuesdays, 7 p.m., ABC
Premise: Bill English ("The Pavement"), Sam Huntington ("Superman Returns") and Nick Kroll (VH1's "Best Week Ever") have the most thankless jobs in television: playing cavemen in ABC's sitcom adaptation of the insurance-company commercials.
Promise: Credit ABC with rolling the dice, but the only thing keeping "Cavemen" from being the season's first cancellation is its late premiere.
Alternate title: "It's About Time 2.0"

'CARPOOLERS' (ABC) Tuesdays, 7:30 p.m.
Premise: Fred Goss ("Sons & Daughters"), Jerry O'Connell ("Crossing Jordan"), Jerry Minor ("Mr. Show") and Tim Peper ("The Guiding Light") are car-pooling suburbanites whose commute is a kind of communion.
Promise: Suburbanites make for boring TV characters, but Goss, Faith Ford (of "Hope and Faith", who plays his wife) and T. J. Miller (of "The Standard Deviants," whatever that is, who plays his son) will be a treat to watch.
Alternate title: "Small Shots"

Oct. 3
'PUSHING DAISIES' (ABC) Wednesdays, 7 p.m.
Premise: The new series with the most early critical kudos, it stars Lee Pace ("Wonderfalls") as a pie-maker who can make dead things live again by touching them, but kills them again when he touches them a second time. One of his resurrections is an old girlfriend, played by Anna Friel ("Perfect Strangers"), who then becomes an untouchable.
Promise: The truly great minds behind the concept -- Bryan Fuller ("Wonderfalls," "Dead Like Me") and Barry Sonnenfeld ("Men in Black") -- have assembled a fine, funny cast and produced a gorgeous, candy-colored premiere. Now we find out if there's a prime-time TV audience for existential dramedy.
Alternate title: "Life 2.0"

Oct. 7
'LIFE IS WILD' (CW) Sundays, 7 p.m.
Premise: D.W. Moffett ("For Your Love") portrays a New York City veterinarian who moves his blended family to a game reserve in South Africa. Leah Pipes ("Clubhouse"), K'sun Ray ("Smith"), Andrew St. John ("General Hospital") and Mary Matilyn Mouser ("Eloise") play the kids. Stephanie Niznik ("Everwood") plays the mom.
Promise: Shot on location, it will at least look spectacular.
Alternate title: "Daktari 2.0"

Oct. 12
'WOMEN'S MURDER CLUB' (ABC) Fridays, 8 p.m.
Premise: Based on James Patterson's novels, this drama features four San Francisco women -- played by Angie Harmon ("Law & Order"), Paula Newsome ("Little Miss Sunshine"), Aubrey Dollar ("The Guiding Light") and Laura Harris ("The Dead Zone") -- who will solve crimes and then walk down streets in a "V" formation.
Promise: Harmon's a proven TV star and a lot of people have read the books, but the pilot/premiere is ho-hum.
Alternate title: "V to Be, You and Me"

Oct. 15
'SAMANTHA WHO?' (ABC) Mondays, 8:30
Premise: Samantha Newly (Christina Applegate of "Married with Children") emerges from a hit-and-run-induced coma minus her memory, which is OK because she was a big jerk before.
Promise: Rebuilding a rotten personality from scratch is a clever concept, and Applegate has the comic chops to pull it off.
Alternate title: "Samantha 2.0"

Oct. 18
'VIVA LAUGHLIN' (CBS) Premieres Thursday, Oct. 18, 9 p.m.; moves Oct. 21 to its regular time slot of Sundays, 7 p.m.
Premise: Based on the BBC series "Viva Blackpool" but reset in the mini-Vegas of Laughlin, Nev., it's a drama in which the characters burst into song to advance plot points. Lloyd Owen ("Miss Potter"), Mädchen Amick ("Baywatch") and Eric Winter ("Days of Our Lives") are regulars; Hugh Jackman ("X-Men") and Melanie Griffith ("Working Girl") recur.
Promise: All involved seem intent on not classifying this as a "musical." Most critics seem intent on not classifying this as a "hit." Sometimes the gimmick soars, mostly it doesn't.
Alternate title: "Karaoke-Ville"

Oct. 19
'THE NEXT GREAT AMERICAN BAND' (FOX) Fridays, 7 p.m.
Premise: The "American Idol" brain trust expands the concept to combos. John Rzeznik of The Goo Goo Dolls, percussionist-singer Shelia E. and Ian "Dicko" Dickson, a judge on the Australian "Idol," will be the judges.
Promise: Lots of opportunities for the judges to make drummer jokes, which is a good thing. (Example: How do you know if a drummer's knocking on your front door? The knocking speeds up.)
Alternate title: "Let There Be Drummer Jokes!"

Nov. 27
'CASHMERE MAFIA' (ABC) Premieres 9 p.m.; regular time slot is Tuesdays, 8 p.m.
Premise: Lucy Liu ("Ally McBeal"), Frances O'Connor ("Madame Bovary"), Miranda Otto ("Starter Wife") and Bonnie Somerville ("The O.C.") are glamorous and successful Big Apple businesswomen who will commiserate over strong cocktails then walk down streets in a "V" formation.
Promise: Great cast, blah pilot-premiere, though there's probably an audience out there still pining for a "Sex and the City" surrogate.
Alternate title: "Sex and the City 2.0”

http://www.nola.com/living/t-p/walke...210.xml&coll=1

This Week's Prime Time Premieres and Returns

Prison Break Monday, 8 PM ET/PT Fox
K-Ville Monday, 9 PM ET/PT Fox
Deal or No Deal Monday, 8 PM ET/PT NBC
Beauty and the Geek Tuesday, 8 PM ET/PT CW
Kid Nation Wednesday, 8 PM ET/PT CBS
America’s Next Top Model Wednesday, 8 PM ET/PT CW
Back To You Wednesday, 8 PM ET/PT Fox
'Til Death Wednesday, 8:30 PM ET/PT Fox
Gossip Girl Wednesday, 9 PM ET/PT CW
Survivor: China Thursday, 8 PM ET/PT CBS
Friday Night Smackdown Friday, 8 PM ET/PT CW
60 Minutes Sunday, 7 PM ET/PT CBS
CW NowSunday, 7 PM ET/PT CW
Online Nation Sunday, 7:30 PM ET/PT CW
The Simpsons Sunday, 8 PM ET/PT Fox
King Of The Hill Sunday, 8:30 PM ET/PT Fox
Cold Case Sunday, 9 PM ET/PT
Ken Burns' "The War" Sunday, 9 PM PBS
Shark Sunday, 10 PM ET/PT

I don't think alternative titles are Dave Walker's strongest suit.

Thanks, baizdd.