Two Tivos To Paradise 2.19.10: Taking the Gold Medal in TV News

Posted by Al Norton on 02.19.2010

The CW renews Supernatual plus a huge guide to what's coming back in the fall, a preview of The Marriage Ref, Kathryn Bigelow to direct an HBO pilot, American Idol's ratings streak stopped at 6 years, Steven Spielberg working with NBC, raves for Lost, tons of news & notes, the TV Pick of the Week and more, all in the latest edition of Al Norton's Two Tivos To Paradise!

Hello Friends. I hope everyone had a great long weekend and enjoyed Valentine's Day if they chose to celebrate. Shock of shocks, Mrs. TiVo and I made it to another movie, our second in a month after not seeing one in the theater in almost six months. Even better, we saw Up in the Air, which I thought was brilliantly written and acted.

A couple of weeks ago I shared Jimmy Fallon's great Glee parody so I thought I'd pass along his Lost spoof, Late…



On the interview front you can read my one-on-one with Scott Bakula this Monday on the main 411 movies/TV. In the coming weeks we'll have chats with Katee Sackhoff, Paula Marshall, James Marsters, Supernanny Jo Frost, and Southland's Shawn Hatosy.

After a bath this past week I commented that my son looked like Yahoo Serious and was greeted by Mrs. TiVO with a blank stare. For her and for all the rest of you too old to remember one of the greatest movie trailers of all time, I give you...



You came along just like a song and brightened my news.

Time And Time Again I've Said That I Don't Care, That I'm Immune To Gloom, That I'm Hard Through And Through
The combination of multiple news outlets running stories about the renewal status of current shows and The CW renewing five series for the fall made me think this was a good week to update my readers on what's going on. What follows is a list of all the current primetime programming on the 5 major networks; shows that have been renewed or cancelled come from the networks themselves while all the other status are a mix of research, buzz, and an educated guess.

ABC
Renewed
Cougar Town
The Middle
Modern Family

Guaranteed
The Bachelor
Brothers & Sisters
Dancing with the Stars
Castle
Desperate Housewives
Grey's Anatomy
Private Practice

Too Soon To Tell
FlashForward
V

Dead in the Water
Better Off Ted
The Forgotten
Scrubs

Cancelled
Hank
Ugly Betty

CBS
Renewed
The Amazing Race
The Big Bang Theory
How I Met Your Mother
The Good Wife
NCIS: LA
Two and a Half Men
Survivor

Guaranteed
CSI
CSI: Miami
The Mentalist
NCIS

More Likely Than Not
CSI: NY
Gary Unmarried
Ghost Whisperer
Undercover Boss

Too Soon To Tell
Accidently On Purpose
Medium
New Adventures of Old Christine
Rules of Engagement

Not Likely
Cold Case

Cancelled
Three Rivers

FOX
Renewed
American Dad
American Idol
Bones
The Cleveland Show
Glee
Hell's Kitchen


Guaranteed
Family Guy
House
Kitchen Nightmares
The Simpsons

More Likely Than Not
Fringe
Lie To Me

Too Soon To Tell
24
Human Target

Dead in the Water
Brothers
Past Life
Till Death

Cancelled
Dollhouse

NBC
Renewed
Friday Night Lights
Law & Order
Parks & Recreation

Guaranteed
30 Rock
The Biggest Loser
Community
Law & Order: SVU
The Office

More Likely Than Not
Celebrity Apprentice
Chuck
Heroes

Too Soon To Tell
Mercy

Dead in the Water
Trauma

The CW
Renewed
90210
America's Next Top Model
Gossip Girl
Supernatural
The Vampire Diaries

More Likely Than Not
Smallville

Too Soon To Tell
Life Unexpected
One Tree Hill

Dead in the Water
Melrose Place

So Let's Leave It Alone ‘Cause We Can't See Eye To Eye
NBC confirmed that Madonna would appear as a guest judge on an episode of their upcoming new reality series The Marriage Ref. Created and executive produced by Jerry Seinfeld, each week a different couple will use comedian Tom Papa to present their issue to a rotating panel of celebrity judges, with the judges issuing a ruling at the end of the hour. Already confirmed as judges include Alec Baldwin, Kelly Ripa, John Salley, and Seinfeld himself.

NBC has very high hopes for the show and is giving it a HUGE push…Here's a video of Jerry Seinfeld explaining where the show came from…



And here's an extended trailer for the show, which previews at the end of the month.



So far, so good; based on what I've seen this show seems quite good. A huge part of Seinfeld's success (both as a stand up and with his classic sitcom) is his ability to find the humor and absurdity in everyday life, so who better to mine marital discourse for comedy?

When The Day Is Long And The Night, The Night Is Yours Alone
The Miraculous Year, a new dramatic series in development at HBO, took a huge step forward this week when current Oscar nominee Kathryn Bigelow signed on to direct the pilot. Bigelow was the first woman ever to win a DGA Award earlier this year for her work behind the camera on The Hurt Locker and is considered a co-front runner for the Academy Award along with her ex-husband James Cameron.

Year is written by John Logan, an in demand big screen writer whose resume includes The Aviator, Gladiator, The Last Samurai, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and follows a New York family as seen through the eyes of a flamboyant and self-destructive Broadway composer.

To say that getting Bigelow to helm the pilot is a coup would be a major understatement as she is just about the hottest director out there right now. She does have TV experience, having directed the fantastic two part season six finale of Homicide: Life on the Street as well as an episode of the critically acclaimed series Karen Sisco. Not that the project wasn't already fast tracked by coming from the pen of an in demand writer like Logan but the pilot would have to be awfully bad to not make it onto HBO's line up.

Face To Face, Out In The Heat, Hanging' Tough, Stayin' Hungry
Spike gave the green light to a pilot for Back Nine, a new comedy starring John Schneider as a former US Open golf champion struggling to qualify for the PGA Tour again. The script, picked up by the network over a year ago, features Schneider's character accompanied by a sex addicted caddy named…wait for it…Tiger.

As mentioned above, the script and the character named Tiger existed over a year ago, so it's not like Spike is trying to capitalize on the recent troubles of Mr. Woods…much. I am a huge John Schneider fan (loved his dueling roles on Nip/Tuck and Secret Life) and think he is perfect to play what amounts to a TV version of Roy McAvoy, but they really ought to have changed the caddy's name. Any extra publicity the project gets will be outweighed by the perception that the show is not that good and using any means necessary to get notoriety.

But You Were Up To Your Old Tricks In Chapters Four Five And Six
All you need to know about the Nielsen's for the past seven days…

THURSDAY
The premiere of Survivor: Heroes vs., Villains was the top demo performer of the night and it's totals (14.5 million) were second only to lead-out The Mentalist (15.7 million)…Grey's Anatomy put a series low in demos, although most series would still kill for its numbers…With Grey's down, lead-out Private Practice was as well…Past Life was down dramatically in its' new Thursday's at 9 pm time slot, which is what a Bones rerun instead of American Idol as a lead-in will do to you…NBC's comedy block match last week's strong numbers…Both The Vampire Diaries and Supernatural were down this week…

FRIDAY
The opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics drew 32.6 million, up 47% from the winter games in Torino in 2006 and the second highest total ever for a non-US hosted Winter Olympics opening…

SUNDAY
As expected, NBC coverage of the Winter Olympics dominated the night, averaging 26.4 million viewers. Overall the opening weekend was up 25% from the Winter Games in 2006…Undercover Boss had a very strong second week with a shade over 15 million viewers plus the night's top demo numbers…The premiere of the latest cycle of Amazing Race was up a bit from last year while Cold Case dropped in its new 10 pm time slot…Family Guy was the top performer for Fox, the # 2 network for the night, and its demos were the best for any scripted series…

MONDAY
The Bachelor's 11.5 million viewers on Monday night represented a very strong showing, dropping only 1/10th of a demo ratings point despite the Olympics as competition…The 25.2 million who saw coverage of the Winter Games on NBC represented a 19% increase from that same night in 2006…Life Unexpected held steady despite its One Tree Hill lead-in dropping in the demos…

TUESDAY
23.6 million tuned in to American Idol to see the first few finalists announced on Tuesday night…NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics was watched by 19.7 million…Lost drew 7.4 million and dropped 10% in the demos…

WEDNESDAY
For the first time in six year and 222 episodes, American Idol did not win its time slot; the show's 18.9 million viewers were the lowest since 2004 and were topped by NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics, which averaged 29.4 million people watching three Americans win Gold medals…

All The Young Dudes, Carry The News
Industry News, Notes, and Hot Rumors…Nine Lives, a Steven Spielberg produced project developed by Syfy as a mini-series three years ago but never made, is being looked at by NBC as a drama series. The plot follows a group of people who use near-death experiences as a way to reunite with loved ones who have died but in the process unleash a powerful evil into the world. Leslie Bohem, who wrote the Emmy winning Spielberg produced mini-series Taken, is re-working his own script for the network…Barbara Walters announced that that this year would be the last for her Oscar night interview special, which will sign off after 29 years… ABC will have a six episode second season of Shaq Vs. this summer…TLC's latest food show is Cupcake Sisters – two sisters who run Georgetown Cupcakes – debuts in July…Marsha Thompson, not seen on White Collar since the series premiere, will return for the season finale and be a regular in season two, which means TTTP fave Natalie Morales is not coming back next season…The great Brian Dennehy has been signed to co-star with Dana Gould in Gould's ABC comedy pilot. Not that I wasn't excited about this show before being the huge Dana Gould fan that I am but not only is Dennehy on board but so is TTTTP favorite Todd Stashwick (The Riches, Heroes)…Michelle Borth (The Forgotten) and Jonathan Scarfe (Raising The Bar) joined David Straitharn and Zach Gilford in the ABC pilot Matadors…Five time Emmy winner David Canary will retire from All My Children after 27 years of playing Adam & Stuart Chandler. His last episodes are due to air in April…FX's new comedy Louie will have the benefit of Rescue Me as a lead-in when it premieres in June….Kevin James will host The Kids Choice Awards, airing live on Nick on March 27th…Eugene Levy is the first cast in the Josh Schwartz CBS comedy pilot Hitched…Joe Manganiello is red hot right now; along with a huge role on the upcoming season of True Blood, the actor, best known previously for his season on One Tree Hill, landed the lead in CBS comedy pilot Livin' On A Prayer, which is from the How I Met Your Mother team of Carter Bays and Craig Thomas…Poppy Montgomery (Without A Trace) and Buffy alum Marc Blucas have joined the ABC drama pilot True Blue, playing two of six former friends from the San Francisco Police Academy who reunite when one of their classmates is murdered…Courtney Thorne-Smith will do multiple episodes of Two and a Half Men as a love interest for Jon Cryer...NBC jumped on Friends with Benefits, a new sitcom from the writers of (500) Days of Summer just moments after ABC passed on the project…A group of young people backpacking across the world taking jobs as spies for the CIA is the plot of Nomads, a new action pilot that Numb3rs executive producer Ken Sanzel is working on for The CW. Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, and David Zucker are on board as an executive producers…This week's evidence that Better Off Ted is done comes from the news that series lead Jay Harrington has been cast as the title character in Nathan vs., Nurture, where he plays a super successful surgeon who finally meets his more than a little less high achieving birth family…The History Channel is in talks to adapt the hit BBC series Top Gear for the US…Donald Faison has been cast in the CBS comedy pilot The Odds as a Las Vegas homicide detective…

Turns Out Not Where But Who You're With That Really Matters
The top thing I watched since the last column went to press AKA The Best Of What's Around…Don't call it a comeback…Wow, was this week's Lost a return to form; after last week's deathly boring outing we got an hour that reminded us why this show will go down as one of the best in TV history, mixing rich, deep characters with thought provoking plot revelations.

Lost has always been about the people to me, so much so that I care much more about where the characters end up than I do finding out what brought them all together in the first place, and I mean that as high praise for both the writers and the actors. After five years invested in them, this season of flash-sideways is giving up some pretty emotional moments, like when Helen opens the door and we realize she and Locke are together. John's interaction with Hurly was great but nothing compared to the scene with Rose, where it was confirmed that her not being on the island did indeed mean her cancer had not gone into remission.

We also got just enough plot revealed to us that we ended up with a whole bunch of new questions, including whether or not it's Jin or Sun that is meant to be on the island. And the numbers!!!

Lost gave us a wonderful episode this past week and made me realize for the first time just how much I am going to miss it next year.

People Say I'm Crazy Doing What I'm Doing. Well, They Give Me All Kinds Of Warnings To Save Me From Ruin
What's flashed before my eyes the last seven days…Last Wednesday's A Very Juliet Episode of PSYCH was one of the best of the season, with some great Juliet – Lassiter dialogue (who knew Lassie was so fluent in Grease?) and one of the rare examples of Shawn getting physical with someone...As good as Esai Morales and Eric Stoltz have been so far, Sam Adama is the breakout character on Caprica, with Sasha Roiz giving a layered and complex performance that never quite goes where you think it will…<>b>Modern Family seems to hit new highs each week, with Clive Bixby being pure genius. Let's hope we haven't seen the last of him…Michael Emerson proved his timing knows no bounds in his very funny guest spot on The Soup…Life Unexpected continues to develop the relationships between the characters, this time with Baze and his Dad finding some common ground. I also like how the writers are developing Baze's two best friends; maybe soon I'll be able to remember their names and not just call them "Baze's two best friends"…I don't want to make Joel McHale nervous but if I had to give the award right now, Craig Ferguson would be the TV Entertainer of the Year. I defy anyone to tell me he is not the single best thing going in late night television…Loved the Valentine's Day episode of 30 Rock, and not just because Elizabeth Banks rocks my world. Liz' hallucinations were hysterical, as was the first Stalker montage in television history…Was there a funnier visual this week than the dogs mouths attached to Andy's crotch on The Office? Michael's inability to adjust to life on the floor was well handled although could have been dragged out a bit more…I was very impressed with the premiere of How To Make It In America, and not just because any show that uses both Luis Guzman and Bryan Greenberg almost automatically qualifies for a season pass; the comparisons to Entourage are many but what makes this new show strike a chord is the scope is smaller; they are trying to make a buck, not become world famous actors. This is not to say they don't want to get rich, just that there means of doing so are much more familiar to the average viewer. I also love the on-location filming that adds a lot of flavor…Ryan Seacrest is a frequent target for bashing but the reason why he is the perfect guy for his American Idol job is that he really does get invested in the contestants; you can see how genuinely happy he is when they've moved forward and how gentle and kind he is when they are sent home. These are people's dreams we are talking about and he gets that…

TV Pick Of The Week
Usually a Friday morning statement to the press isn't cause for one to rearrange their schedule but Tiger Woods stepping in front of the cameras for the first time since his Thanksgiving weekend incident and all the chaos and scandal that followed guarantees this won't be the usual statement. Woods isn't even going to answer questions but my guess is all the cable news networks will carry it live, and I wouldn't be surprised if the big three do as well. Thrown in ESPN, The Golf Channel, and the internet and we're probably looking at one of the biggest audiences 11 am on a Friday morning has seen in years.

What will he say? My guess is an apology, some insight as to what he's been doing the last month or so, and an announcement about exactly when he will resume his golf career. Does this really matter in the grand scheme of things? Of course not, but it will be on the front page of most newspapers Saturday morning and will definitely be a hot topic of conversation over the weekend.

Don't miss Tiger Woods' press statement, Friday morning at 11 am.

Hope You Need My Love, Babe, Just Like I Need You
Here is some other noteworthy programming of the next seven days


*HBO offers up a big night of comedy tonight with the series premiere of The Ricky Gervais Show at 9 pm followed by the sophomore season debut of The Life and Times of Tim. Real Time with Bill Maher returns at 10 pm with Seth Macfarlane, Eliot Spitzer, and Wanda Sykes among the guests. At midnight you've got the premiere of Funny or Die, a new sketch comedy show that pulls videos from the popular website of the same name.

*Patton Oswald made his debut on Caprica last week playing a Jay Leno-Jon Stewart mix but you'll get to see much more of his acting chops in tonight's episode (9 pm, Syfy).

*Sins of the Mother (Sunday, 8 pm, Lifetime Movie Network) may not be the best TV movie in the world but a fantastic performance by Jill Scott makes it more than worth your time.

*For those of you who have been going through Sunday night dramedy withdrawal, Desperate Housewives (9 pm, ABC) and Brothers & Sisters (10 pm, ABC) are back with new episodes.

*Sinbad: Where U Been? (Sunday, 10 pm, Comedy Central) is the comedian's first stand up special since jokes about what part of the chicken the mcnugget comes from went out of style.

*Former Oakland Raider Terry Crews was always my favorite thing about Everybody Hates Chris, so I am more than a little interested in his new BET reality series, The Family Crews, which premieres Sunday at 10 pm.

*Men of a Certain Age wraps up its stellar first season Monday at 10 pm on TNT. It's obviously early but Ray Romano, Andre Braugher, and the show itself are already candidates for Norty Award nominations this summer.

*American Idol (Fox) goes live for the first time this season; the top 12 women perform Tuesday at 8 and the top 12 men follow on Wednesday. Thursday finds four finalists going home.

*While nothing is official it seems pretty clear that Thursday's season finale of The Deep End (8 pm, ABC) is also the series finale.

Two Tivos To Paradise
30 Rock, The Academy, Accidentally on Purpose, American Idol, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Antiques Roadshow, Better Off Ted, Big Love, Bones, Bored To Death, Breaking Bad, Brothers & Sisters, Burn Notice, Celebrity Apprentice, Cake Boss, Chef Academy, Chopped, The Chris Isaak Hour, Chuck, The Closer, Community, Cougar Town, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Daddy's Girls, Damages, The Deadliest Catch, Demons, Desperate Housewives, Destination Truth, The Dish, Entourage, Eureka, Flipping Out, Food Network Challenge, Gary Unmarried, Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters Academy, Ghost Hunters International, Ghost Lab, Glee, Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, The Hills, House, How I Met Your Mother, Hung, Iron Chef America, Launch My Line, Law And Order, Law And Order: Criminal Intent, Law And Order: Special Victims Unit, Life Unexpected, Lost, Mad Men, Make Me A Supermodel, Man v. Food, Medium, Men of a Certain Age, The Middle, Models of the Runway, Modern Family, The New Adventures Of Old Christine, Next Food Network Star, Next Iron Chef, The Office, One Tree Hill, Paranormal State, Party Down, Private Practice, Project Runway, Psych, Real Time With Bill Maher, Rescue Me, Royal Pains, Rules Of Engagement, Run's House, Sanctuary, Saturday Night Live, Scrubs, Shark Tank, Shear Genius, So You Think You Can Dance?, Sons of Anarchy, The Soup, Spectacle: Elvis Costello with…, Sports Soup, Supernatural, Table For 12, Top Chef, Top Chef: Masters, Top Design, Torchwood, True Blood, Ugly Betty, V, The Vampire Diaries, The Wanda Sykes Show, Warehouse 13, Web Soup, Will Work for Food, Worst Cooks In America,

People Love You When They Know You're Leaving Soon
Here ends another edition of Two Tivos To Paradise. We'll be back next week with a full run down of all the latest TV news as well as another of our recurring Q & A sections (send me your questions on everything from your favorite shows to how I choose my weekly news items).

Feedback is encouraged at [e-mail] as well via the comments section below.

Sources for this week's column include Daily Variety, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, and Hollywood Reporter (plus the web sites for those publications) as well as Aintit.cool.com.