Two Tivos To Paradise 08.19.11: Family Guy, Sarah Silverman, Supernatural, White Collar, American Ninja Warrior, and more!

Posted by Al Norton on 08.19.2011

News and thoughts on Family Guy being loved by guys, Sarah Silverman being the subject of a bidding war, Supernatural getting a Buffy reunion, raves for White Collar and more!



Hello friends. Hope the end of your summer is going well, enjoying the sunny skies and the (somewhat) cooler temps. I took the twins to the zoo last Friday and a great time was had by all. Emu was their favorite new word all weekend. Hard for me to believe they are already turning 3 next week.

We've got ANOTHER giveaway for you, and this one is a goodie – the complete second season of Cougar Town on DVD!! The set includes all 22 episodes, a blooper reel, a behind the scenes look at the show, the full Andy's Dreams webisodes, and more. Here's how it works – if you have a US mailing address and have not won anything from us in the last six months, go to the TTTP FB page (it's officially called Al Norton's Two Tivos To Paradise), click like if you have not already, and then post "TTTP is the Penny Can of TV news columns" on our wall. All those that do will be entered to win (one entry per FB account) and we will choose a winner at random on Monday afternoon.

We've got an interview with Joel McHale running today on the site, so check that out, plus we're lining up folks to chat about returning shows in the coming weeks, including official Friend of TTTP Ryan Hurst to talk about Sons of Anarchy. I mention this because it gives me the chance to tell you I just got the first three episodes of the new season on DVD and will be watching this weekend.

Here's a look at NBC's new drama Prime Suspect





Bored to Death is the best comedy most of you aren't watching…





The Chew is a new ABC daytime talk show all about food and health, featuring some recognizable faces…





The biggest news at my house is that tomorrow (Saturday) we will be switching from Comcast to RCN. This means that we have to watch everything in our Tivos now or we will lose the programming; part of the savings in the switch is that our RCN bill will include the Tivo subscription charges. Assuming everything goes well, the major pain will be re-adding all those Season Passes.

I don't need you or your brand new Benz or your newsy friends.

A Body Like Arnold With A Denzel Face
The Hollywood Reporter ran a cover story on the viewing habits of men last week, focusing on the 18-34 demographic that makes advertisers drool. Since I know this makes up a large chunk of the 411mania.com readership I thought I'd post the numbers and see where all of you lined up.

Top 10 Broadcast Network Shows, Men 18 – 34

1) American Idol (Fox), 1.5 million

2) Family Guy (Fox), 1.2 million

3) The Simpsons (Fox), 1.04 million

4) Bob's Burgers (Fox), 1.03 million

5) The Voice (NBC), 1.01 million

6) The Office (NBC), 975,000

7) The Cleveland Show (Fox), 943,000

8) America's Got Talent (NBC), 854,000

9) House (Fox), 801,000

10) Modern Family (ABC), 776,000

Clearly Fox is the network to advertise on if you are trying to reach this demo, with the top 4 slots and 6 of the top 10. Idol's performance episode is the # 1 show and if you counted the results episode as its own entity it would rank # 2 on the list. Also interesting is how there is only one drama series on the list, and nothing that airs CBS can be found.

Top 10 Cable Shows, Men 18 – 34

1) WWE Raw (USA), 775,000

2) Workaholics (Comedy Central), 506,000

3) Tosh.0 (Comedy Central), 402,000

4) Pawn Stars (History), 401,000

5) American Dad (Adult Swim), 400,000

6) Jersey Shore (MTV), 399,000

7) Justified (FX), 381,000

8) Tough Enough (USA), 380,000

9) Family Guy (TBS), 375,000

10) Falling Skies (TNT), 370,000

Family Guy makes BOTH lists, which is pretty damn impressive, especially considering that the reruns are available multiple times a day on local stations as well as their airings on TBS. And we have TWO drama series making this top ten; I was worried men's attention span couldn't crack the 31 minute mark.

A couple of things to take away from this are that, yes, Family Guy is THAT popular and that guys can't complain about Idol since it's the show they watch the most. Hell, The Voice is # 5, so that means the love of musical competition shows knows no gender boundaries.

And So What If I Love Each Feather And Each Spangle, Why Not Try To See Things From A Different Angle?
Rescue Me co-creator Peter Tolan had a very busy week, with two new projects at two different networks. The first comedy he is working on is with ABC and he is teaming with Drop Dead Diva creator Josh Berman for a dramedy about a female FBI agent who is working with local law enforcement to aid communication between the departments. The twist is that the homicide detective she is partnered with is her former fiancé, a man she hasn't seen since the day they were supposed to be married, the same day he came out of the closet. Berman is writing the script and Tolan would serve as an executive producer.

Over at NBC Tolan and his writing partner Michael Wimer have signed on to the network's untitled project that would serve as Emmy winner Sean Hayes' return to TV. The untitled series would be about a gay couple raising an almost-teenage son. Tolan would be head writer and executive producer of the show. Hayes received a combined 12 Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his work on Will and Grace but his recent work on TV has been as a producer, including the smash TV Land hit Hot in Cleveland and NBC's upcoming Grimm.

The Berman-Tolan pairing at ABC has some serious potential in that Berman has written for Bones and CSI so he knows he way around procedurals while Tolan's comedy writing credits are about as good as it gets, with The Larry Sanders Show, Murphy Brown, the criminally underappreciated The Job, and Ellen as well as Analyze This up on the big screen.

While there are more gay couples on TV than ever before, the NBC show would be the only series focused on a gay couple raising a child, so there is plenty of material there to work with. Tolan's unblinking eye for comedy in all situations was evident throughout Rescue Me's brilliant run and makes me think this show could really be something.

Also, I am not kidding about The Job being criminally underappreciated; I am working on an item for a future column about the best shows people have never seen and The Job was one of the things that made me start developing that idea. You can get it on DVD, and I urge you to do so.

You Run, Run, Runaway, It's Your Heart That You Betray
Matt Iseman is a Doctor-turned-comedian/TV host who can currently be seen on both G4's American Ninja Warrior and Style's Clean House. He is not only an official Friend of TTTP but is also a former TTTP TV Entertainer of the Year winner (he shared the award with his fellow Soup hosts Joel McHale and Danielle Fishel). We recently caught up with Iseman via email to discuss ANW's finale, which is airing this Monday on NBC.

TTTP: For those who aren't regular G4 viewers, can you describe American Ninja Warrior?

MI: A group of phenomenal athletes fanatically push themselves with one goal: conquering Mt. Midoriyama, the world's most difficult obstacle course. We start with 300 athletes running a qualifying course that we built in Venice Beach, California. After a semifinal round on an extended course, we send the top 15 athletes to a boot camp where they train relentlessly and compete daily. We then take the 10 best and fly them to Japan where they get their shot at Mt. Midoriyama. It's unlike any other show out there in that the level of difficulty is so high: over the past 14 years, 2600 people have attempted the course, only 3 have competed it. I watch the whole thing and feel like I really need to do more sit-ups and lay off the beers.

TTTP: How do you do prep for commentary on a show like this?

MI: Well, the obstacles change from year to year, so I talk to our testers to get a sense of what the new obstacles entail. I also make an effort to meet as many competitors as I can to hear their approach to the course as well as what motivates them. And I sit on my couch and watch all of last season. I also watch all of Michael Dudikoff's work, as he will always be an honorary American Ninja.

TTTP: Not that the show doesn't do well on G4 but how big an opportunity is it to get an NBC primetime slot?

MI: It's huge. It's like when a Hooters waitress gets to be the centerfold in Playboy, it's great exposure. Okay, that's a terrible analogy, but I think I'm craving buffalo wings right now. The point is, the G4 audience has been awesome, but NBC will be our first big introduction to America. And we hope we have a lot of people out there who love America and Ninjas. And buffalo wings.

TTTP: Does Ken Jeong have to give you royalties since you paved the Doctor-to-comedian path?

MI: Ha. When Ken was practicing, he actually hired me to perform at a noontime conference for his hospital, but he made me promise not to mention that he did comedy as well. Now, I made Ken promise that he throws me any roles he turns down. Alas, he is very hardworking. It's awesome seeing Dr. Ken doing so well and convincing a generation of doctors to just let those sick people die and start telling jokes.

TTTP: Are American's houses really THAT messy? Do you ever worry about running out of houses to clean?

MI: Yes. No. It's America… even in a recession, we'll always have slobs.

TTTP: If someone hasn't watched before, why would they want to tune in to the ANW finale this Monday?

MI: It's preseason in the NFL, instead of watching millionaires warm the bench after one series, watch our show and see some American athletes travel to Japan to show them how our Ninjas tackle an obstacle course whose record is 2597-3.

Don't miss the season finale of American Ninja Warrior, Monday at 9pm on NBC.

There's So Much That We Need To Share, Send A Smile And Show You Care
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation's Fourth Annual Primetime Emmy Season Online Auction has begun, with some pretty cool items for big TV fans with big checkbooks…

*An Emmy VIP package including town car transportation and two tickets to the Emmys plus passes to the HBO After Party.

*Matt Bomer's fedora from White Collar, signed by Bomer.

*Family Guy mementos signed by Seth MacFarlane.

*An oversized House tennis ball signed by Hugh Laurie.

*VIP tickets to tapings of Conan, The Daily Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Wendy Williams Show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Rules of Engagement.

*Guided tours of the sets of Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless.

*Private dinner for four cooked by season 8 Hell's Kitchen winner Nona Sivley.

*A pair of Louboutin shoes signed by Covert Affairs' star Piper Perabo.

There's more goodies, too – go to www.ebay.com/emmyfoundation for the full list plus the latest bids. Proceeds from the auction benefit the foundation's education and archival programs.

There' s no real commentary on a story like this; anything that combines cool TV stuff and lending a helping hand is ok in my book.

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
Fox News drew very strong ratings for the latest Republican Presidential Debate, up 55% in totals and 67% in demos from the last on in May…So You Think You Can Dance was up 24% in demos and 17% in totals from last week but it was down double digits from last summer's finale…Big Brother was up 13% from last week and was the night's top show by a wide margin…Jersey Shore may have dropped a bit in week two but it still pulled in 7.4 million viewers and topped all of TV for the night in the 12-34 demo. THR.com tells us that the top 15 non-sports cable telecasts of 2011 in the 12-34 demo are ALL Jersey Shore episodes.

FRIDAY
The premiere of Strike Back gave Cinemax their best Friday at 10pm numbers in 6 years (you have to go back to a 2005 airing of Titanic for something better) and it compares well to the debut of Spartacus: Blood and Sand (Starz), Episodes (Showtime), and Torchwood: Miracle Day (Starz) when you factor in the difference in households that receive the channels.

SUNDAY
4.2 million tuned into the season finale of Next Food Network Star.

MONDAY
Hell's Kitchen & MasterChef each won their timeslot in demos and gave Fox their best Monday night demo performance in four years (and best Monday night totals in three years)...2.1 million tuned in for the season finale of Teen Wolf, including a season/series high in MTV's target 12-34 demos…ABC Family's The Lying Game did not come out of the gate strong, holding on to only 58% of its Secret Life lead-in and giving the network their smallest series premiere numbers in some time…Last week Tia and Tamara gave Style their best female demo numbers ever for a series premiere and week two set a new record in that group, up 56% in women 18-34 as their most watched telecast ever in that demo. The total audience was up 22%, making it the second most watched telecast in network history…

TUESDAY
The two hour season finale of MasterChef was up 30% from last year and won the 8-10 timeslot in demos. The final hour was up 40% from last year and hit a series high in totals and demos…America's Got Talent was the most watched show of the night and finished second in the demos…Take the Money and Run had a Wipeout rerun as a lead-in and as such dropped 22% in the demos…

WEDNESDAY
Big Brother was up 11% from last week in the demos and was the nights most watched show among total viewers...America's Got Talent was # 1 in the demos...

All The Young Dudes, Carry The News
Industry News, Notes, and Hot Rumors… NBC topped ABC and Fox a bidding war over a new comedy written by and starring Sarah Silverman. The show, which has Oscar winner Ron Howard on board as a producer (and not just in name only – he's so involved he's going to all the pitch meetings), is based on Silverman's real life, focusing on a woman fresh out of a long term relationship and trying to reestablish herself…There will be a Buffy reunion of sorts on the 5th episode of Supernatural this fall, with James Marsters and Charisma Carpenter guesting as a married couple with a secret (she's a witch!)…Multiple networks are in discussions for the rights to Candace Bushnell's The Carrie Diaries but it's being reported that The CW is the front runner for the Sex and the City prequel, with the Gossip Girl team of Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage in line to executive produce. The book follows Carrie Bradshaw's senior year of high school and if things go as mentioned above, Amy Harris, who wrote and produced on SATC and is currently writing for GG, would script the pilot…TNT picked up a 15 episode fifth season of Leverage…MTV cancelled The Hard Times of RJ Berger after two seasons and picked up a second season of Awkward…TLC cancelled Kate Plus 8. When the last episode airs in September the Gosselin family will have given the network 150 episodes of content…Shawn Ryan (The Shield, Terriers) and former Criminal Minds showrunner Simon Mirren have sold a pilot to CBS about a scientist who discovers he has the serial killer gene and uses this to help the FBI find catch killers. Real life UC Irvine Professor James Fallon is the inspiration for the show. Wow, a CBS show about tracking serial killers – what a game changer… Luka Jones (Upright Citizens Brigade) has replaced Adam Pally in the NBC comedy BFF. Pally played the role in the pilot but Happy Endings got renewed by ABC so he was not available…Courteney Cox will make her directorial debut with an episode of Cougar Town…Nick Cannon has landed a recurring role on Up All Night…ABC Family is working on an adaptation of the Mexican drama Terminales, described by Deadline.com as "What if Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw had cancer?"…CBS is not picking up the option for Leah Remini and Holly Robinson Peete to return to The Talk in the fall. Julie Chen, Sara Gilbert, and Sharon Osbourne will return, and no word yet on if the network plans on replacements for both or will cut down on the panel…Todd Haynes, John Wells, and Christine Vachon – the team behind the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce, which is up for TWENTY ONE Emmys next month – are developing Dope for the network. Julianne Moore is talks for the lead role, playing a women in 1950's New York who becomes a Private Investigator after completing a heroin rehab program…Bill Paxton's first post-Big Love TV project will be to star opposite Kevin Costner in the History miniseries The Hatfields and the McCoys…Jim Belushi has teamed with Murphy Brown creator Diane English for a new sitcom with ABC Studios…Stephen Collins will guest on The Office as Andy's father…Harvey Fierstein will appear as a judge this fall on The Good Wife…Viola Davis, currently seen on the big screen in The Help, is rumored to be close to signing on for the lead in untitled HBO pilot, playing a private school headmaster with big career aspirations dealing with corruption in the city where she lives and works. The project comes from Dee Rees, who wrote and directed the Sundance hit Pariah, and Margaret Nagle, who wrote and produced on Boardwalk Empire last season…Jerry Bruckheimer's production company has sold a pilot to ABC about the work and home life of a team of Navy SEALs. The show comes from Rand Ravich, who created the TTP favorite Life for NBC…Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles showrunner Josh Friedman has a new pilot with Fox; The Asset is about a female agent working out of the CIA's New York office…Goran Visjnic (ER) has signed for 4 episodes of ABC's new Pan Am…Adult Swim renewed Childrens Hospital for a 4th season…

Turns Out Not Where But Who You're With That Really Matters
(The Best Thing I've Watched in the last 14 days aka The Best of What's Around)…
Wow, were those last two White Collars of the summer hot! Hot in terms of great, well paced action that had an impact on the long term storytelling of the show, hot in terms of a killer performance by Eliza Dushku, hot in reference to Ross McCall's showing that underplaying can be just as sinister as going over the top, and hot with an ending that made me wish I could start watching the second half of the season at that moment.

Keller taking Elizabeth is a great plot twist in that it leaves the audience with all sorts of questions; will Peter help Keller find the treasure? Will Neal give the treasure away to help Peter? Will Mozzie come back into the fold to help get Mrs. Suit back? How long will they keep this story going? Even better, assuming everything plays out at least reasonably close to the way I think it will, eventually you'll have Peter not trusting Neal at all because he knows he lied but at the same time feeling indebted to him because he helped get Elizabeth back safe and sound, which creates a new level of tension between the two partners.

I also want to take a minute to say that based on her work this season on White Collar, there is definitely a place for Anna Chlumsky on a TV series; she was smart, funny, and, I must say, rather sexy. Is there an opening at Stern, Lockhart, and Gardner? Maybe she could be Juliet's sister who catches Gus' eye? A new client of Sterling Cooper Draper Price? Get her more work, stat!

USA is on a roll of pretty epic proportions right now and <,i>White Collar raised that bar with the last two hours of their summer season.

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…The time travel re-set that Eureka did last year continues to play out very well, with characters showing much more depth than in seasons past. It's really reinvigorated the show, which was solid to begin with, and made it much more interesting. The floating bank episode gave Colin Ferguson a wonderful showcase for his physical comedy skills – I laughed out loud several times. Also worth noting is how strong an addition to the cast Felicia Day has been…This may be Burn Notice's best season, with a great long term story arc that started being about Michael's return to the CIA and is now a murder mystery as well as some great "cases-of-the-week". Lauren Stamile has been surprisingly good in her role as Michael's new handler and the person in charge of the murder investigation; she was very good on both Community and Grey's Anatomy but I didn't see anything that made me think she could be this convincingly tough…Why is Food Network Star my favorite long running reality competition program? Because of the judges, because it mixes food and TV (two of my favorite things), and because people go home in the right order (more or less). Jeff is a totally deserving winner and one who can represent the network well. I've been watching since season two and this is the first time I've made a note to Tivo the winner's show…Aldis Hodge has been strikingly good on Leverage this season, showing dramatic chops I didn't know he had…I was really into MasterChef's second season and thought they seemed to get it right; Adrien was a better cook than Jennifer overall but she made a superior final meal…There are two types of TV viewers, those who recognize Breaking Bad is the best show of 2011 and those who don't watch…The last two In Plain Sights of the season solidified this as the show's strongest season yet. The moving the witness sequence in the finale was as tense and well done as anything they've ever done. With the next season being the last, do you think we finally get to meet Mary's Dad?...Loved the graphics/special effects in this week's Warehouse 13. The show's always fun but this was a notch above…The Suits love keeps on growing. It's not a guilty pleasure, it's an incredibly well done freshman series that would be recognized as such on any network; any of the big 5 would kill to have something with this level of finish in their line up's next month…I am not a huge Royal Pains fan – I like it enough but find the patient of the week stuff pretty limiting – but what I do enjoy the most is the growth of Evan R Lawson over the show's seasons; Hank acknowledging he has not believed in him enough followed up Evan reminding his brother that without him the business would not exists and he (Hank) would be sitting in his apartment alone, unemployed, and drunk, demonstrated just how far the character has come…

TV Pick Of The Week
I've been singing the praises of The Glee Project (see what I did there?) since the show premiered and now were at the end, where one of the four remaining contestants will win a multi-episode guest role on Glee – and not just stuff in the backgrounds but a real storyline that could extend much longer. This is about as cool a prize as I can think of for a reality competition show to give away, especially when those taking part are young and unjaded by the cynicism that permeates the industry. There's something very Mickey and Judy about the idea that a group of kids got together and one of them is going to have a real chance to be a star (there are no guarantees but a big part on one of the most popular and buzzed about shows on TV is just about the opportunity of a lifetime).

Don't miss The Glee Project finale, Sunday at 9pm on Oxygen.

Hope You Need My Love, Babe, Just Like I Need You
Other viewing options from the next seven days…

*Tanked (tonight, 9pm) is a new Animal Planet series about a company that builds custom fish tanks.

*Rock ‘n' Roll Fantasy Camp is a new reality series on VH-1 Classic where wanna-be rock stars get coached with and play alongside some high successful professional musicians.

*Showtime premieres Talihina Sky – a documentary about Kings of Leon – Sunday at 10pm.

*The always entertaining Parker Posey guests on The Big C (Monday, 10:30pm, Showtime).

*Tuesday's Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson looks great, with Lewis Black and Amos Lee making up the guest list.

*Antiques Roadshow fans will recognize the Keno brothers on their new series Buried Treasure (Fox, Wednesday, 8pm), where they come to your house to see what you've got in the attic or basement. Like Roadshow on the road, almost.

*The second season of Top Chef Just Desserts (Bravo) premieres Wednesday at 10pm. Season one seemed more about the personalities than their culinary skills so let's see if they've made any changes this time around.

Two Tivos To Paradise
24 Restaurant Battle, 30 Rock, After the Catch, American Idol, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Antiques Roadshow, Archer, Auction Hunters, Awkward, The Big C, Boardwalk Empire, Being Human, Bones, Bored To Death, Breaking Bad, Burn Notice, Celebrity Apprentice, Cake Boss, Chopped, Chuck, The Closer, Community, Cougar Town, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Deadliest Catch, Desperate Housewives, Destination Truth, Entourage, Eureka, Fact or Faked, Falling Skies, Fairly Legal, Flipping Out, Food Feuds, Food Network Challenge, Food Network Star, 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, Haunted Treasure, 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, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Law And Order: Special Victims Unit, Louie, Mad Men, Man v. Food Nation, Men of a Certain Age, The Middle, Mike and Molly, Modern Family, Necessary Roughness, Next Great American Restaurant, Next Iron Chef, The Nine Lives of Chloe King, The Office, One Tree Hill, Parks & Recreation, Private Practice, Project Runway, Psych, Raising Hope, Real Time With Bill Maher, Rescue Me, Restaurant Impossible, Rocco's Dinner Party, Royal Pains, Rules Of Engagement, Sanctuary, Saturday Night Live, Shear Genius, So You Think You Can Dance?, Sons of Anarchy, The Soup, Suits, Supernatural, Table For 12, Top Chef, Top Chef Just Desserts, Top Chef: Masters, Top Design, Torchwood, Tosh.0, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, The Voice, The Walking Dead, Warehouse 13, Web Soup, Wilfred, 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 week with all the latest in TV news and a chat with the winner of The Glee Project!

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.