HBO Announces Abraham Lincoln Miniseries “Manhunt” September 18, 2008 8:27 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in HBO, Manhunt, News, Television.1 comment so far
The premium cable network HBO has just announced that they are developing a new mini series based on the assassination of the America’s 16th president Abraham Lincoln. The series, entitled Manhunt, will deal with the 12 days after Lincoln was shot, focusing on the the manhunt for assassin, John Wilkes Booth. The network has tapped acclaimed TV producers David Simon (The Wire on HBO) and Tom Fontana (Homicide: Life on the Streets on NBC). ‘Homicide’ was an adaptation of David Simon’s novel of the same name.
“The chance to put another project on the boards with [Fontana],” Simon told B&C, “there’s something psychically cool about that.”
The mini series is based on James L. Swanson’s best-selling novel. Simon and Fontana will write the miniseries script and if HBO Films gives the project a greenlight, the duo will serve as executive producers alongside Lawrence Bender and Kevin Brown and Walden Media (publisher of the novel).
Source: Broadcasting & Cable
Fox Developing Animated Series About NASCAR; Jeff Foxworthy to Voice September 18, 2008 8:18 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Fox, News, Television.1 comment so far
Fox has greenlit a new animated series focusing on a NASCAR family. The series will be voiced by comic Jeff Foxworthy. Fox has also announced that they’re developing a daily syndicated version of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, which Foxworthy currently hosts on the network.
Foxworthy is heading the untititled animated series, along with 10 Items or Less executive producers Nancy Hower and Lehr. The three willa lso write and executive produce.
Source: Variety
Broadcast TV Ratings for Tuesday, September 16, 2008 September 17, 2008 10:30 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Broadcast TV Ratings, News, Nielsen TV Ratings, Television.2 comments
While down year-to-year, the fifth season premiere of House in a new time slot easily powered Fox to a first place finish last night. However, the network was helped by an impressive second week showing by new series Fringe, which retained a remarkable 93% of its lead-in’s audience.
Elsewhere on the evening, Big Brother 10 closed out the season on a high note, while Wipeout’s first season finale didn’t fare that well.
The CW, meanwhile, got some good news as week three of 90210 stabilized after a weak showing last week.
Check out all the above and more, including my full analysis of the night’s lineup, after the jump.
HBO Renews “True Blood” September 17, 2008 10:15 pm
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Confident in its quality, and impressed by its cumulative audience viewings when repeats are counted, HBO has given an early second season renewal to the Alan Ball vampire drama True Blood. True Blood premiered on September 7th to just 1.4 million viewers, but HBO says that when all the repeat airings were added in, the premiere attracted a total audience of 4 million viewers. The network also noted that the second episode grew by 24%.
“We’re in a business where we have to believe in the show — and the show is fantastic,” said Michael Lombardo, president of HBO’s programming group and West Coast operations. “It gets better in every episode. The show deserves a second year whatever the ratings.”
The network also announced that season two will roll air much sooner than expected, airing next summer as part of HBO’s plan to air year-round programming on Sunday nights.
“Last couple years our volume of Sunday night series went down, and we’re hoping to have a distinctive night of series on for 52 weeks a year next year,” Lombardo said. “Our intention is not to have periods where we’re not delivering originals.”
True Blood airs Sunday nights at 9pm on HBO.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
IMDb Begins Offering Online Streaming of Movies and TV September 17, 2008 3:59 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Movies, News, Online Streaming, Television.add a comment
The online movie, and TV, database IMDb.com (a subsidiary of Amazon.com), has started to offer free online streaming from their library of over 6,000 movies and TV episodes. The site will also be offering season premieres of NBC shows such as 30 Rock, Chuck and Lipstick Jungle.
Some of the newer shows already offered include Heroes and 90210 just to name a few.
The full press release follows after the jump.
Broadcast TV Ratings for Monday, September 15, 2008 September 16, 2008 9:15 pm
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Broadcast TV Ratings for Sunday, September 14, 2008 September 15, 2008 2:13 pm
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A complete breakdown of the night’s ratings follows after the jump.
Broadcast TV Ratings for Saturday, September 13, 2008 September 14, 2008 7:35 pm
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Broadcast TV Ratings for Friday, September 12, 2008 September 13, 2008 6:14 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Broadcast TV Ratings, News, Nielsen TV Ratings, Television.4 comments
Broadcast TV Ratings for Wednesday, September 10, 2008 September 11, 2008 3:37 pm
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Broadcast TV Ratings for Tuesday, September 9, 2008 September 10, 2008 4:39 pm
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A complete breakdown of the night’s ratings follows after the jump.
NBC Shows Return to iTunes (+HD Option) September 10, 2008 4:17 pm
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About a year ago, there was a fight between NBC and iTunes, resulting in NBC not renewing their contract with the online video/music download service. Now things appear to have been mended, as NBC is returning to iTunes and an option to watch the shows in HD has been added. The new deal was announced during the “Let’s Rock event, where Apple unveiled their newly updated iPods. In addition to the NBC shows in HD, ABC, Showtime, USA and SCI FI are also including options to download their programming in HD. HD episodes will run $2.99 per episode.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
NBC To Broadcast Muppets Christmas Special September 10, 2008 3:52 pm
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NBC will be televising a new Muppets special that will star Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Sirico and Steve Schirripa from The Sopranos, Richard Griffiths and Madison Pettis, alongside Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, Miss Piggy and the rest of the Jim Henson muppets gang. The movie is entitled Letters to Santa — A Muppets Christmas and according to THR will be set on Christmas Eve when “Kermit and company mistakenly avert three letters en route to Santa Claus, which triggers a race against time to bring a happy Christmas to the kids whose wishes were lost in the mail.”
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Production on “24” Halted Again September 10, 2008 3:45 pm
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This can’t be good. Fox’s hit drama 24 is taking yet another break from filming. EW is reporting that production has shutdown on the new season for more than two weeks because the writers need more time to “reshape the upcoming season’s creative direction.” One can argue, quite effectively I might add, that the writers and producers have had plenty of time, but I guess that’s not the case. Howard Gordon says that they “just couldn’t get this direction to work” so they’ve “found another one” and “wound up retooling it”.
In other 24 news, Michael Ausiello is reporting that Elisha Cuthbert has signed on to reprise her role as Jack Bauer’s daughter.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
ABC Developing New Sci-Fi Drama September 10, 2008 3:23 pm
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ABC has announced that they’re developing a new Sci-Fi series from Star Trek alumns Rene Echevarria and Greg Berlanti. The series, called The Return, will focus on a group of extra-terrestrials who land on earth.
Echevarria has worked on other Sci-Fi shows, including Fox’s Dark Angel, USA Network’s The 4400 and NBC’s Medium. Berlanti’s most recent work includes the ABC series Eli Stone.
Source: Variety
Showtime Developing “BiCoastal” September 10, 2008 3:05 pm
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Mike Kelly, creator of the CBS summer series Swingtown, a drama about partner-swapping couples living in 1970s suburbia, is developing BiCoastal for Showtime, another show that will explore relationships, marriage and sexuality. The show will center on a successful man who struggles to find balance between family life with his kids in Los Angeleles as he falls in love with a man in New York.
“It has a lot of the watermarks of things I love to write about — people with secrets and high-stakes love lives,” Kelley said.
It’s unclear what this means for Swingtown, which CBS has yet to make a decision about. In comparison to that show, however, which was based on Kelley’s childhood memories of his parents and their swinger friends, he says that BiCoastal will have a “bit of a harder edge and heightened sense of drama.”
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
“The Closer” Spinoff in the Works at TNT September 10, 2008 2:58 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in News, Television, The Closer, TNT.1 comment so far
Given how common spinoffs have been as of late, the news that TNT is developing their own spinoff from The Closer isn’t all that surprising. The Closer is cable’s #1 drama and has even attracted Emmy attention so you can hardly fault the network for trying to capitilize on that exposure.
The spinoff is being headed by creator/executive producer James Duff, and TNT has confirmed that it has handed out a script order for the spinoff but has declined to comment any further. Duff is co-writing the story with his Closer co-executive producer Adam Belanoff and Michael Berchem.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
SCI FI Channel Records Best-Ever Summer September 10, 2008 2:38 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Eureka, Ghost Hunters International, News, Nielsen TV Ratings, Scare Tactics, Sci Fi, Television.1 comment so far
NBC Universal has announced via press release that the SCI FI Channel has recorded its most-watched summer ever. Over the summer, the network broke records for total viewers (1 million), young adults aged 18-34 (253,000), men 18-34 (143,000) and among the women demos of 18-34 (110,000), 18-49 (278,000) and 25-54 (310,000).
Leading the way in terms of individual programming were Eureka with an average audience of 3.1 million viewers thus far, Ghost Hunters International (2.6 million), Scare Tactics (2 million) and Saturday Night Original Movies (2 million).
The full press release follows after the jump.
“Gossip Girl: Season One”: DVD Review September 9, 2008 10:22 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in DVD Review, Gossip Girl, Television.2 comments
Based on the #1 New York Times best-selling book series by Cecily von Ziegesar, Gossip Girl is a one-hour drama based on the lives of privileged Manhattan prep school teens. The students first learn that Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively), once the Upper East Side’s most notorious party girl, is back in town the way they learn all the important news in their lives — from the blog of the all-knowing, albeit ultra-secretive, Gossip Girl. No one knows Gossip Girl’s identity, but everyone in this exclusive and complicated vicious circle relies on her website and text messages for the latest scoop. Even Serena’s closest friend, Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), is surprised to find that Serena has suddenly ended her self-imposed exile to boarding school and returned to Manhattan. Keeping track of the shifting friendships, jealousies and turmoil in this wealthy and complex world isn’t easy, but it’s what Gossip Girl does best!
Read my review of the complete first season DVD after the jump.
Broadcast TV Ratings for Monday, September 8, 2008 September 9, 2008 5:10 pm
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Broadcast TV Ratings for Sunday, September 7, 2008 September 8, 2008 6:17 pm
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A complete breakdown of the night’s ratings follows after the jump.
Live-Action ‘TMNT’ Movie Planned September 3, 2008 7:25 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Movies, News, Teenage Mutant Chronicles, Television.2 comments
Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle franchise, posted the following message on the Heavy Metal forum confirming rumors about a possible live-action TMNT film:
“Yes, it is true. Although the CGI film did well enough to warrant a sequel, there has been much talk between Imagi and Warners to do a better “re-invention” (newest Hollywood buzzword) of the TMNT’s, in a live action film–like what was done with Batman. Back to basics, back to the origin and the intro of the Shredder, etc…there have been talks, trips to Northampton to talk to Mr Laird, and discussions with the original “first” TMNT film director Steve Barron to come back and do it right–but no official word yet…will keep you posted.”
TMNT‘s gross was just shy of $100M ($95.01M), drawing $54.15M domestically and $40.86M from overseas markets. It had a relatively low-end budget of $34M.
Source: ComingSoon.net
Five NBC Shows Premiering Online September 3, 2008 7:19 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in 30 Rock, Chuck, Hulu, Knight Rider, Life, Lipstick Jungle, NBC, News, Television.add a comment
NBC has announced that they’ll be premiering five shows online on the newly formed service Hulu before their TV premiere. The five shows are Knight Rider, 30 Rock, Lipstick Jungle, Life and Chuck. The episodes will air a week prior to their broadcast premiere.
The shows will likely appear on NBC.com as well, though that hasn’t been announced yet.
Lipstick Jungle
Hulu: Wednesday, September 17th, NBC: September 24th
Knight Rider
Hulu: Wednesday, September 17th, NBC: September 24th
Life
Hulu: Monday, September 22nd, NBC: September 29th
Chuck
Hulu: Monday, September 22nd, NBC: September 29th
30 Rock
Hulu: Thursday, October 23rd, NBC: October 30th
Source: Hulu
Broadcast TV Ratings for Monday, September 1, 2008 September 2, 2008 3:25 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Broadcast TV Ratings, Nielsen TV Ratings, Television.3 comments
Season Two Will Be Last for “Flight of the Conchords” September 2, 2008 12:59 am
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Cancellations, Flight of the Conchords, HBO, News, Television.add a comment
It looks like the upcoming second season of the HBO series Flight of the Conchords will be its last. Stars Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement have revealed that they’re struggling with “a difficult second series” because they’ve “got a lot of half-songs,” Clement said. “We’ve got an album’s worth of beginnings of songs.”
McKenzie added that this season, made up of 10 new episodes, would likely be its last: “The second series seems to me like it would be a good end to the show. I feel like another 10… that will be enough.”
Source: The New Zealand Herald
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