Two Tivos To Paradise 05.13.11: Smallville, Human Target, Community, The Voice, The Soup

Posted by Al Norton on 05.13.2011

New and thoughts on House returning to Fox for one more season, Smallville's run coming to a close, Fox cancelling Human Target, NBC renewing Chuck, J.J. Abrams' new series getting a pick-up and more!



Hello friends. The major story of the week was that I got to attend a taping of The Soup yesterday; Joel McHale is in town filming a movie and invited me to see how one of my favorite shows looks from the inside. This was my first face-to-face with Joel after years of emails and calls and he really couldn't have been nicer, not only to me but to everyone who showed up; he stayed for a half hour after the taping to shake hands and pose for pictures with the audience. He did ask me to pass along thanks to the TTTP faithful for supporting him and his series over the years. We got to hang out for a while after all the picture taking was done and he was just as great in person as he'd been via other mediums of communication, even taking the time to ask about my daughter's health. Oh yes, and the show itself was really quite funny, with a surprise on-set cameo from Jeff Probst.

If you were part of the TTTP Facebook community you'd already know I got to see The Soup in person and you'd even have seen a picture of me and Joel. And as a bonus it's the best way to stay up-to-date on breaking TV news.

Next week is the single biggest of the TV year, with all the networks revealing their line up's for the 2011-2012 season during the day while the majority of season/series finales are airing at night. Starting on Tuesday we'll run special daily columns with info about the previous day's announcements, including trailers for the new shows.

Perhaps I am more interested than I would be otherwise because of my recent weight loss (and no, I would in no way qualify for this show, nor The Biggest Loser) but this looks really good to me, particularly because they spend an entire year with each person, so it's not some sort of quick fix for TV…





ABC Family has a pretty tremendous track record with new series the last few years (in terms of hits if not quality), and here is a look at their new Switched at Birth





And since we're talking about ABC Family, here's a teaser for their new action series The Nine Lives of Chloe King…





The confirmations for our upcoming anniversary column (just 8 weeks away) keep coming in; this week Alison Sweeney RSVP'd (and until Sally Pressman does the same that puts Ali back in the "Queen of TTTP" spot) plus we got someone from the Army Wives cast (not Sally, yet) and a first timer from Are We There Yet?

I'd like to take a minute to wish my Dad a very happy birthday today. There is no person in the world who has had more of an influence over who I am than him, and I mean that as the highest of praise. I love you, Dad!

All of the news you've been throwin' my way, it ain't so hard to take.

THIS JUST IN - What began as a rumor Thursday afternoon seems to be becoming a done deal on Thursday night; CBS will bring Two and a Half Men back in the fall with Ashton Kutcher joining the cast to replace Charlie Sheen. More on this in next week's look at the fall lineup.

He Prayed For The Moon To Give Him Light For He Had Many A Mile To Go That Night
Fox's Up Front presentation of their 2011-2012 season won't officially happen until Monday morning but the network's choices began being reported late Tuesday night. Current comedies Breaking In and Traffic Light were cancelled, as were dramas Lie to Me, Human Target, and The Chicago Code. The new series you will see in the fall include…

*Alcatraz; JJ Abrams is a producer for this series, written by alums of the Lost writing staff, about a group of Alcatraz prisoners and guards who reappear after not being seen for decades.

*Finder; based on The Locater book series by Richard Greener, the characters that populate the show were introduced via an episode of Bones last month.

*I Hate My Teenage Daughter; comedy starring Emmy winner Jaime Pressley about two lifelong best friends who realize their daughters have become the kind of girls that tormented them in high school.

*The New Girl; comedy starring Zooey Deschanel where she plays a very orderly organized woman who breaks up with her live-in boyfriend and moves in to a roommate situation with three much more rowdy, take life as it comes kind of guys.

No word yet on the fate of the high profile Exit Strategy (Ethan Hawke as the leader of a government agency extraction team).

House was picked up for an 8th (and most likely) final season, and Robert Sean Leonard and Omar Epps signed new deals while Lisa Edelstein is expected to do so when she returns from an international vacation. The network also picked up new seasons of Family Guy and The Cleveland Show, although those renewals were for 2012-2013.

Much of this was very disappointing to me as I greatly enjoyed both Breaking In and The Chicago Code, both of which had done decently ratings wise and received a fair amount of critical acclaim as well. Basically any show that was on the bubble got cancelled, at least after Fringe got renewed two weeks ago. I had thought they might renewed two of the three dramas but do so giving each 11-12 episode orders, so it really only filled one slot, both in the lineup and the budget. The X Factor's premiere this fall is a factor (see what I did there) as it will occupy at least two full hours a week (and possibly as many as four in the beginning, similar to Idol for the first few weeks).

THIS JUST IN – It was being reported that Fox was in talks to reverse field and pick up a second season of Breaking In. More on this next week.

We will find out next week what the actual line up will look like in terms of what airs on which days and in what timeslots.

Since we're on the subject of networks and renewals/new shows, word has leaked that NBC is in final talks to order a 13 episode fifth season of Chuck and that the following shows will be in their fall lineup…

*Smash; musical drama about the making of a Broadway show. Executive produced by Steven Spielberg, starring Debra Messing.

*Up All Night; comedy from SNL writer Emily Spivey and starring Christina Applegate and Will Arnett.

*Whitney; romantic comedy written by and starring Whitney Cummings, best known for her work on the Comedy Central Roasts.

*Prime Suspect; adaptation of award winning British series with Maria Bello in the lead role.

*The Playboy Club; drama set at The Playboy Club in 1960's Chicago.

*Awake; formerly known as REM, drama series from Lonestar creator Kyle Killen about a cop who is involved in a tragic car accident and creates a fantasy world in his head to avoid dealing with the reality of the situation.

*Grimm; fantasy drama/police procedural that takes place in a world where fairy tales are real.

They're Gonna Put Me In The Movies, They're Gonna Make A Big Star Out Of Me
The US version of The X Factor began taping audition episodes on Sunday with Paula Abdul joining Cheryl Cole, LA Reid, and Abdul's former Idol teammate Simon Cowell as judges/coaches. Nicole Scherzinger from the Pussycat Dolls and British TV personality Steve Jones will host the series, which will premiere in the fall. Abdul had been rumored to be coming on board for weeks, with Cowell telling the press he wanted her, but a deal wasn't finalized until the very last minute. Actually, she was asked to attend the audition taping without a deal and that they would work it out later but details were ironed out at the very last minute.

I am really unsure if The X Factor will be the hit Fox is hoping for; yes, there isn't any competition in terms of big reality competition shows airing in the fall but at that point American Idol, The Voice, Platinum Hit ,and America's Got Talent will have run in the last six months, and that's a lot to quench the viewing audience's appetite for such things.

Also, with The Voice using the teams concept and AGT already having in place the gimmick of the auditions taking place in front of a live audience, I'm not sure what will be so special and different about X to pull folks in. Sure, Cowell is a draw for his brutal honesty, but do people really set their TV schedules by Paula Abdul? CBS certainly has evidence to the contrary.

Restless Eyes Close, Maybe It'll Go Away, Please Rest Tomorrow, Bring A Satisfying Day
A recurring feature that looks at programming news from the cable networks…

PBS (not really a cable network but go with it)
*Ken Burns' Prohibition premieres in October, a look at the 18th Amendment's brief time in our country's history. Peter Coyote narrates, with voice work from Tom Hanks, Samuel L Jackson, Oliver Platt, John Lithgow, Paul Giamatti, Jeremy Irons, Adam Arkin, and Sam Waterston (among others).

*The inaugural PBS Arts Festival begins in the fall and will run through December, with documentaries that look at the different arts cultures that cities across the country have to offer. The series begins on Friday, October 14th and the first few outings will include Women Who Rock (inspired by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame exhibit of the same name), Give Me the Banjo (narrated by Steve Martin), and Great Performances: The Little Mermaid from San Francisco Ballet.

*Nova's latest is The Fabric of the Cosmos, running Wednesdays in November and hosted by author and physicist Brian Austin Greene. Wait, that's Brian Greene, my mistake.

*Nick At Nite
The network is getting into the original series game with Daddy's Home, a comedy created by and starring Scot Baio. Baio will play a sitcom star who becomes a slightly clueless stay-at-home Dad for his three kids because he promised his wife she could return to her soap opera career.

WE
*Renewed: Braxton Family Values and Cupcake Girls.

*New shows on the way: Texas Multi Mamas (support group of Moms of multiples), Amsale Girls (women who work for the famed bridal dress company), The Willis Clan (parents who push their 12 kids to succeed), and Family Restaurant (Canadian series about a family running a Chinese restaurant).

Spike
The network ordered six new reality series; The Sherriff (top level team of law enforcement consultants work with different Sherriff's Department each week), Pawn Games (folks answer compete to win their hawked items back), Hungry Men At Work (the chefs who feed men who do dangerous jobs in remote areas), World's Worst Tenants (professional evictor manages 150 residential & commercial properties), Auction In My House (deal hunters compete for a different person's hidden treasures each week), and The Hustler (top salesman goes head-to-head with the top sales people in a different industry each week).

I Had To Meet You Here Today, There's Just So Many Things To Say
Season Finale Season is at its apex; here is a guide to this VERY busy week of sendoffs…

Tonight
Shark Tank, 8pm, ABC
Smallville, 8pm, The CW
CSI: NY, 9pm, CBS
Blue Bloods, 10pm, CBS

Sunday, May 15th
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, 8pm, ABC
Survivor: Redemption Island, 8pm, CBS (3 hours)
Desperate Housewives, 9pm, ABC (2 hours)
The Cleveland Show, 9:30pm, Fox

Monday, May 16th
90210, 8pm, The CW
Chuck, 8pm, NBC
How I Met Your Mother, 8pm, CBS
Mad Love, 8:30pm, CBS
Gossip Girl, 9pm, The CW
Mike and Molly, 9:30pm, CBS
Castle, 10pm, ABC
Hawaii 5-0, 10pm, CBS

Tuesday, May 17th
NCIS, 8pm, CBS
One Tree Hill, 8pm, The CW
Hellcats, 9pm, The CW
NCIS: LA, 9pm, CBS
Raising Hope, 9pm, Fox
Traffic Light, 9:30pm, Fox
The Good Wife, 10pm, CBS

Wednesday, May 18th
Criminal Minds, 8pm, CBS
America's Next Top Model, 9pm, The CW
Breaking In, 9:30pm, Fox
Law & Order: SVU, 10pm, NBC

Thursday, May 19th
The Big Bang Theory, 8pm, CBS
Wipeout, 8pm, ABC
Rules of Engagement, 8:30pm, CBS
Bones, 9pm, Fox
Grey's Anatomy, 9pm, ABC
The Mentalist, 9pm, CBS (2 hours)
The Office, 9pm, NBC (1 hour)
Parks and Recreation, 10pm, NBC (1 hour)
Private Practice, 10pm, ABC

Sunny Day, Sweepin' The Clouds Away, On My Way To Where The Air Is Sweet
The Sesame Street video of the week…





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 7 days…

THURSDAY
While The Office dropped 17% in the first episode of the post-Steve Carell era, it was otherwise good news for NBC with 30 Rock (+11%), Parks and Recreation (+9%), and Community (slight jump) all gaining in the demos…Wipeout hit a series low…American Idol was up 11% (dominating the night, as usual) and Bones won 9pm in demos, not a regular occurrence…CSI hit a new series low…Nikita was up, helping its chances for a second season…

FRIDAY
Fringe dropped a bit in its season finale even though its Kitchen Nightmares lead-in jumped 23%...Blue Bloods was the most watched show of the night but finished last at 10pm in demos…Flashpoint's season premiere was not impressive; do you think CBS wishes it could rethink canceling Medium after seeing how other shows have performed in the same timeslot?...Friday Night Lights was up a tad…

SUNDAY
Game of Thrones was up for week four, although the combined audience of the multiple showings was even with week three, so perhaps people were simply watching earlier. In any event, HBO's newest drama has performed impressively so far…The Brothers & Sisters season (series?) finale was up 25% despite its Desperate Housewives lead-in being even with last week...60 Minutes jumped 53% with President Obama's interview…The Celebrity Apprentice's 3 hour average was down 23% from last week's regular two hour outing…Family Guy was the nights top demo performer…Bob's Burgers was up 5%...

MONDAY
How I Met Your Mother tied a series demo low, as did Mad Love, Chuck, The Event, Hawaii 5-0, and Mike and Molly…The Chicago Code was up 6%, which may not be enough to get a second season but it sure will help (clearly I wrote that sentence much earlier in the week)…Castle was up 9% at 10pm despite its Dancing with the Stars lead-in dropping 9%...

TUESDAY
The Voice dropped 17% in both totals and demos but still topped the night in the latter…NCIS was the night's most watched scripted series with 17.1 million although it hit a new season low in demos…The second hour of Dancing with the Stars won 9pm in totals and demos…Raising Hope was up 22% in the demos…The Good Wife was the most watched show at 10pm but lost 17% of last week's demo numbers to finish last in that category…Body of Proof helped its chances for a second season with a slight demo increase…Game four of the Celtics-Heat series was TNT's most watched basketball telecast of the 2010-2011 season (not including the All Star Game)…

WEDNESDAY
Great night for ABC comedies, with The Middle (+5%), Better with You (+19%), Modern Family (+11%), and Cougar Town (+9%) all up in the demos with Happy Endings being up in totals…American Idol was up 17% in the demos from this week last year…Criminal Minds was up a bit from last week's not-so-good showing…Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior won 10pm in totals while SVU won in demos…

All The Young Dudes, Carry The News
Industry News, Notes, and Hot Rumors…Deadline.com says Hugh Grant was thisclose to signing to replace Charlie Sheen as the lead on Two and a Half Men with a deal for over $1 million per episode but backed out at the last moment over creative differences. ..CBS set summer premiere dates for Big Brother (July 7th) and Same Name (July 24th). The network also announced hosts for The Tonys (Neil Patrick Harris), The Daytime Emmys (Wayne Brady), and the 4th of July Boston Pops Celebration (Michael Chiklis)…Ryan Reynolds and writer Alan Loeb have created a TV production company and signed a first look deal with 20th Century. Fox TV…Colin Hanks will do a major guest role on the upcoming season of Dexter, with Mos Def doing multiple episodes as well…Golf Channel has ordered a 12 episode first season of Feherty, an interview series with former pro-golfer and current golf journalist Dave Feherty…Meredith Vieira confirmed that she was leaving The Today Show in June, with Ann Curry taking her spot as co-host and Natalie Morales bumping up to news anchor…The great Charles S Dutton has been cast in the FX superhero police procedural Powers…Shemar Moore has re-signed with Criminal Minds, meaning Thomas Gibson is the only series regular unsigned for next season, although contract talks are ongoing…Michael Moore and Ken Burns will be regular contributors when Countdown with Keith Olberman premieres on Current TV next month…Discovery Channel's Shark Week begins July 31st…Season six of Keeping Up with the Kardashians premieres June 12th on E!...Jillian Michaels (The Biggest Loser) will be a co-host of the daily daytime talk show The Doctors come the fall…Craig Kilborn has signed a deal to develop a comedy for ABC that he would also star in…

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…
Modern Warfare, the freshman year finale of Community, was to these eyes and ears the single best half hour of comedy of the 2010-2011 season, so the idea that they might top that this time around was not exactly a safe bet, especially when they were revisiting the campus-wide paintball game concept again. When I sat down to watch part one of Fistful of Paintballs last Thursday night it was almost with a, "sure, this will be good, but it won't be great" attitude, so imagine my surprise when the first segment and opening credit sequence had me reaching TV-gasm levels of entertainment.

What Community managed to do was nothing short of brilliant, perfectly spoofing Westerns in a way that made it clear that they were fans (nothing snobbish about the humor here), having the character inhabit the standard archetype roles associated with the genre but at the same time still being themselves, and finding a way to actually move the plot along, too. Throw in a top notch guest star – in this case, Josh Holloway – and set the timer for 30 minutes.


Someone asked me the other day if Community was really as good as I say on these pages week after week and I said yes, and that if anything my praise of how strong the writing and acting is doesn't do justice to the fact that it's laugh out loud funny, with its throw away lines being better than the meat of most of television's other comedies. As I write this I haven't see part two of the finale yet but at this point it would be more surprising if it weren't brilliant than if it found a way to top part one.

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 …





That didn't exactly make up for his touring with Kenny G all those years but Michael Bolton got a little street cred back last Saturday night…Will Ferrell's stint on The Office can only be looked at as a colossal waste of talent and opportunity. Sure, there were some funny moments but this really did seem to be a case of the writers creating a character after they'd signed an actor and not the other way around, which is almost always a formula for failure…30 Rock ended its rather uneven season with, you guessed it, a rather uneven episode. I laughed a few times but there is no doubt that the show has fallen to fourth on my list of NBC Thursday night comedies…On the plus side of that programming block is Parks and Recreation, which continues to add charming to its list of attributes. Amy Poehler has really shined as she and Adam Scott have danced around a romance, and the ever-so-slight softening of Ron Swanson has made him that much more funny. P&R is second only to Community for NBC comedies and clearly ranks among the best on TV right now…John Rich offering to personally cover any funds raised by Meat Loaf is his (Meat Loaf's) team lost on The Celebrity Apprentice was a genuinely moving moment in a genre not known for them. What was up with Jim Cramer's facial expressions?!?!…Wow, was the Justified season finale great. All the actors had their A game, as usual, and it set in place multiple plot lines for next season (a baby on the way, the inevitable showdown between Boyd and Raylan). There will be more than a few Norty nominations for the show this summer…Ted and Zoey broke up on How I Met Your Mother. Boo hoo. Josh Radnor is so good he actually made me care for a minute or two but the real highlight of the show was the guy interrupting the meeting to ask what rhymed with "beck and call"…I liked the way Grey's Anatomy juxtaposed how easy it was for Derek and Meredith to get married while Callie and Arizona had a moving but in no way recognized by any official body ceremony…The powers that be are being very quiet about what role Benjamin Bratt will play on Private Practice other than saying he will appear in the closing moments of the finale and is signed as a full time regular next season, but my best guess is that the medical board will appoint his character to run the practice in the aftermath of their investigation. Really enjoyed Cooper and Charlotte's elopement, too…If last Sunday's episode ends up being the Brothers & Sisters' series finale (which is certainly possible) I am quite pleased with the ending; that long wedding dancing scene set to Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters was very emotionally rewarding for long time fans of the show and put all the characters we've grown to care about over the years in a good place. Sally Field and Beau Bridges continued to put on a master class on relaxed, unforced chemistry, while Bridges specifically has made underplaying an art form…I mention last week how the previous Friday's episode of Friday Night Lights was the first truly great hour of the show's final season and now they've given us two in a row. The episode was mostly a moving and honest look at the relationships between parents and their children and every scene - every word - rang emotionally true…Casey Wilson keeps making quite the case each week on Happy Endings that the worst decision Lorne Michaels has made in the last few years is letting her go. The woman is flat out funny…

TV Pick Of The Week
Smallville brings its 10th and final season to a close tonight with a two hour series finale that has fanboys and girls everywhere giddy with anticipation. While details are top secret, its known that Michael Rosenbaum will return to reprise his role as Lex Luthor, and there are rumors of other surprise appearances as well as the possibility of a flash forward of sorts.

I haven't been a regular viewer since season three but I have my Tivo set and am such a Superman fan that I get goose bumps when I think of finally seeing Clark take the final steps on his journey.

If the episode is half as good as this fan made trailer than it's going to be epic…





Don't miss the Smallville series finale, tonight at 8pm on The CW.

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

With all the season/series finales detailed above, there's hardly a need to give you other shows to watch this week.

Two Tivos To Paradise
24 Restaurant Battle, 30 Rock, After the Catch, American Idol, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Antiques Roadshow, Archer, Auction Hunters, The Big C, Big Love, Boardwalk Empire, Being Human, Bones, Bored To Death, Breaking Bad, Breaking In, Brothers & Sisters, Burn Notice, Celebrity Apprentice, Cake Boss, The Chicago Code, Chopped, Chuck, The Closer, Community, Cougar Town, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Deadliest Catch, Desperate Housewives, Destination Truth, The Dish, Entourage, Eureka, Fact or Faked, Fairly Legal, Flipping Out, Food Feuds, Food Network Challenge, Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters Academy, Ghost Hunters International, Ghost Lab, Glee, Gossip Girl, Great Food Truck Race, Grey's Anatomy, Happy Endings, The Hard Times of RJ Berger, Hawaii 5-0, Hollywood Treasure, House, How I Met Your Mother, How To Make It In America, Hung, If You Really Knew Me, Iron Chef America, Justified, Kate Plus 8, The Killing, Last Comic Standing, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Law And Order: Criminal Intent, Law and Order: Los Angeles, Law And Order: Special Victims Unit, Mad Men, Man v. Food, Men of a Certain Age, The Middle, Mike and Molly, Mr. Sunshine, Modern Family, Next Food Network Star, Next Great American Restaurant, Next Iron Chef, The Office, One Tree Hill, Parks & Recreation, Private Practice, Project Runway, Psych, Raising Hope, Real Time With Bill Maher, Rescue Me, Restaurant Impossible, Royal Pains, Rules Of Engagement, Sanctuary, Saturday Night Live, Shear Genius, So You Think You Can Dance?, Sons of Anarchy, The Soup, Spectacle: Elvis Costello with…, Sports Show with Norm McDonald, Supernatural, Table For 12, Top Chef, Top Chef Just Desserts, Top Chef: Masters, Top Design, Torchwood, Traffic Light, True Blood, V, The Vampire Diaries, The Voice, The Walking Dead, Warehouse 13, Web Soup, Worst Cooks In America,

People Love You When They Know You're Leaving Soon
Here ends another Two Tivos To Paradise.





We'll be back next Tuesday with the first in our week long guide to the Up Fronts and then on Friday with a HUGE look at the fall schedule. Also, check back on Sunday to read my interview with Desperate Housewives' star Doug Savant.

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, TVline.com & Deadline.com.