Two Tivos To Paradise 01.06.11: Punk'd, Kim Kardashian, Howard Stern, American Horror Story, South Park, and more

Posted by Al Norton on 01.06.2012

From the return of Mad Men and Community to Howard Stern as an America's Got Talent judge and more, 411's All Norton looks at what to look forward to on TV in 2012! Plus thoughts on South Park: Six Days to Air and more!



Hello friends. Welcome to the first news column of 2011! I hope everyone had a happy and safe start to the New Year, and that you've managed to stick to whatever resolutions you may have made. We had our traditional Chinese take-out and dessert from the Cheesecake Factory that have been a staple of NYE with Mrs. Tivo and myself for the last 11 years and finally watched The Social Network. More on that a bit later on but I think that does illustrate just how committed I am to finding you the best that TV has to offer, that I am just now catching up on last year's Oscar winners.

Here's a look at Lillyhammer, a new original drama from Netflix that will be available next month…





Use the links at the bottom of the column to pull up my interview with Suburgatory's Jane Levy that ran on Wednesday. Coming up next week will be chats with Once Upon A Time's Lana Parilla and The Middle's Charlie McDermott & Eden Sher.

NBC is pulling out all the stops for the season two premiere of The Voice. I mean, it airs after the Superbowl, so it's not like you really need to advertise it at all…





All the other kids with the pumped up news.

Shot Like An Arrow Going Through My Heart, That's The Pain I Feel When We're Apart
Since it's been three weeks since we've last gone over the news, here's the big news that we've missed…

*Nielsen released a list of the Top 10 Most Time-Shifted Shows of 2011, their term for a show that is watched within 7 days of being recorded via DVR. Here is the list, with the % of which the show's audience increases when the +7 numbers are added in; American Horror Story (+95.3%), Covert Affairs (+95.1%), Suits (+94.5%), Franklin & Bash (+92%), PSYCH (+90.3%), Sons of Anarchy (+85.8%) White Collar (85.6%), Justified (+83.9%), Fringe (+80.3%), and The Glades (+78.8%).

*MTV announced that Punk'd would return on Monday, March 19th and instead of one host would have a new celebrity front person each week, with those lined up including Miley Cyrus, Justin Beiber, Dax Shepard, Bam Margera, and Kellan Lutz. Each episode will also feature a behind the scene look at how each prank was set up and executed.

Here's a clip from one of the episodes…





*Paul Kolsby, who has produced on Jersey Shore and Bridezillas (to name but two), has sold a drama pilot about reality shows to NBC. American Dream counts Mariska Hargitay and Andrew Lazar as executive producers and is a behind the scenes look at both the people who make and those who appear on reality TV. No question this has the chance to be a very, VERY interesting show, especially if NBC puts it on at 10pm and takes the gloves off.

*ABC cancelled Extreme Makeover: Home Edition after a 9 season run. The show will appear as 4 two hour specials during 2012 and the network is considering keeping it alive in that form depending upon ratings.

*Clearly folks were hungry for some basketball as the Christmas Day opening of the NBA schedule posted some huge numbers, starting with the Celtics-Knicks game at noon on TNT being the third most watched regular season NBA game ever and the most watched Christmas day game on cable ever. The Heat – Mavericks game on ABC was up 6% from that timeslot last Christmas and while the Lakers – Bulls game was down 11% from last season it was still the third most watched regular season game ever for ABC. The two ESPN games that night showed massive increases, with the 8pm game (Orlando – Oklahoma City) up 36% and the 10pm game (LA Clippers – Golden State) up 77%.

*FX is developing The Americans, a pilot about a pair of married KGB agents posing as suburban D.C. professionals in the early 80's, with two teenage kids who have no idea about the truth. The show was created by Joe Weisberg (Falling Skies) and has Justified creator/showrunner Graham Yost as an executive producer. As an interesting FYI, Weisberg's job prior to becoming a writer was working as a CIA officer.

*HBO cancelled Hung, Bored to Death, and How to Make it in America while picking up a second season of Enlightenment.
*The official cast list of the upcoming season of The Celebrity Apprentice is out (thanks, Zap2It.com); Lou Ferrigno, Arsenio Hall, Clay Aiken, George Takai, Adam Carolla, Penn Jillette, Paul Teutul Sr., Dee Snider, and Michael Andretti are the guy's team and Debbie Gibson, Victoria Gotti, Aubrey O'Day, Tia Carrere, Dayna Mendoza, Cheryl Tiegs, Teresa Giudice, Patricia Velazquez, and Lisa Lamponelli are the ladies' team. The 15 episode season begins Sunday February 4th and features a record number of contestants.






*Adam Scott told Grantland.com that a treatment for a big screen version of Party Down is in existence, "and if everyone's schedules work out, we'll shoot it over the summer." Party Down ran for two seasons on Starz, featuring Scott, Lizzy Caplin, Jane Lynch (season one), Ken Marino, Ryan Hanson, and Megan Mullally (season two), and a couple of memorable guest spots by Kristen Bell.

*Dick Clark Productions is bringing back Bloopers as a half hour syndicated show next fall. They are prepping 120 half hour episodes that they hope to compromise a three year run, and the episodes will run in hour long blocks. The blooper clips will be all new (with some classic segments as well) and there will also be hidden camera pranks as well as clips sent in by viewers. No word yet on a host, or if there even will be one.

*Fox has cancelled the weekly results episode of So You Think You Can Dance, meaning the summer's upcoming 9th season will need to be retooled a bit to accommodate the lost hour of time each week.

*The NFL is getting in the awards show business; starting this year NFL Honors, a two hour prime time special featuring the presentation of awards given by The AP and the league will air on Super Bowl Saturday (the night before the big game) and take place in the city where the game is being held. The special will be broadcast by the network with the game, and this year that's NBC. Alec Baldwin will host and Lenny Kravitz will perform this first time around. There will also be a one hour red carpet pre-show on the NFL Network.

*Noteworthy casting headlines since we've been away (one episode stints unless otherwise noted): Amy Acker to Once Upon a Time, Gary Cole to Hart of Dixie for multiple episodes, Kim Kardashian as herself on Last Man Standing, Michael B Jordan – one of the 2011 TTTP TV Entertainers of the Year – on House, Josh Stamburg (Drop Dead Diva) to Castle for multiple episodes, Jonathan Groff (Glee) to The Good Wife…

And If You Want To Hold On Fast, The Future Needs Arranging
The last two weeks worth of columns have all dealt with a look back at 2011 and I thought now would be a good time to offer up a few things I am looking forward to in 2012…

*Howard Stern as a judge on America's Got Talent.
I know it will be a circus at the start, especially during the audition rounds when the crazies come out of the woodwork, and that will be pretty entertaining, but I am more looking forward to the seeing how he does when the show gets down to the final dozen or so as I think much of the general public will be surprised by how on-target and serious his criticisms are. Stern takes his brand very seriously and isn't doing this as a joke, so while I certainly expect some laugh out loud moments, most of what I think we will get is what reality competition shows usually lack, namely an informed, honest opinion on that person's chances of making it in the entertainment industry.

*NBC airing the premieres of Awake, Bent, and Smash.
The three best NBC pilots I watched this summer – actually, the three best pilots from any of the major networks I watched this summer – were Awake, Bent, and Smash, and yet we are now in 2012 and NONE of them have aired. Smash is set to premiere in February, airing after The Voice, which guarantees a large debut audience that will likely be as enamored with the opening hour as I was. It's a drama about the making of a Broadway musical and does have songs but is not a traditional musical in that people are frequently bursting into song.





At the risk of boring you with yet another rave for Awake – among the best pilots I have ever seen - I will say that I lent the disc to a very smart friend of mine who called me the next day raving about its brilliance. He also suggested, as others have, that there is almost no way for the show to sustain that level of quality and perhaps that's why the network has yet to find a place for it on its schedule.

Bent is a MUCH funnier comedy than either Whitney or Are You There, Chelsea? and would make a perfect pairing with Up All Night in terms of tone and quality. You don't see a lot of shows that can get humor from a lead character with a gambling addiction, and that it does so without being offensive is high praise. I wouldn't be surprised to see NBC pair Bent with Community later this spring, perhaps in the 8:00 hour on Wednesdays, but am nervous it may go the way of Friends with Benefits.

*Community returning to NCB's Lineup.
It goes without saying that I am looking forward to the best comedy on TV returning to the airwaves but in particular I am wondering if all the publicity about the reaction to the show getting pulled will translate to any sort of higher profile for the show. There is no such thing as an easy timeslot on TV right this spring, with American Idol and The Voice launching new seasons so I don't think some magic shift will translate to sort of huge new audience but strong marketing combined with the cast doing their usual fantastic talk show appearances might help with an uptick. I still like my idea about having the cast do scenes from terrible sitcoms from history as a viral video campaign.

*Season two of Homeland.
This is kind of a no brainer. Homeland was easily the best new drama of 2011 with twists and turns that were both authentic and surprising – a difficult combination to pull off – and I can't wait to see what season two has in store. Claire Danes was such a force of nature as Carrie Mathison that TV seems like a lesser place while the show is on hiatus.

*The premiere of The Newsroom.
As I mentioned above, I finally saw The Social Network on NYE and aside from loving it I came away re-energized about Aaron Sorkin's brilliance and super excited for his upcoming cable news network drama series. Having Jeff Daniels as a lead certainly doesn't hurt its chances to be good, either.

*The Daily Show with Jon Stewart's coverage of Indecision 2012 and the return of Mad Men.
I group these two things together because I don't believe they need any other reasoning other than that first sentence.

Part Of Where I'm Going Is Knowing Where I'm Coming From
One Tree Hill's ninth and final season premieres Wednesday at 8pm on The CW, the start of a 13 episode run that will find many characters from seasons past making appearances, including the one episode return of Chad Michael Murray's Lucas Scott, who has not been on the show since the season six finale. We reached out to series creator and official Friend-of-TTTP Mark Schwahn to ask him for a preview of this final run…


It was nice having a definitive finish line when we designed the season. It reminded us to enjoy the work because our days together were numbered. Writing the final season was bittersweet, but also invigorating. Creatively, we'll see the return of familiar antagonists Dan Scott and Chris Keller, among others. It was my most enjoyable season, and most of the cast, crew and writers felt the same. I hope the fans feel that way, too.





Regardless of how you feel about the show, a 9 season, 170+ episode run commands respect. I've watched OTH since the pilot (actually watched it when The WB was smart enough to run episodes from the prior week on Sunday afternoons/early evening to give the pre-DVR world a chance to catch up on what they've missed) and while the show has had its ups and downs in terms of quality, there was certainly a period of time where they did a very good job capturing teen angst and all the drama that goes with it.

If I ever do a list of the most shocking episodes of TV I have seen, there is no doubt that With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept would rank quite high. What may have seemed like a ratings stunt in other hands felt much more real and therefore scary, and there are few times I have been as surprised by what I just saw than the closing seconds of the episode. The show also didn't let the plotlines from that episode fall away, with Jimmy Edwards name coming up many times over the future seasons.

Pictures of You, from the show's fourth season, was another highlight episode, partly a homage to The Breakfast Club and partly a truly honest look at the anxieties that high school students deal with.

Speaking of future lists, Dan Scott easily ranks on my list of favorite characters from the last 10 years of TV, with Paul Johansson turning in a layered and interesting performance that at times seemed unique on the TV landscape. When the plot had him as more of an over-the-top villain in season two he went with it in a big way, much to the enjoyment of viewers.

One Tree Hill has never been the best show on TV nor the top rated but it's inspired a legion of very dedicated fans who have watched these characters for almost a decade and they – and I – will certainly be following them through the very end.

You Broke My Heart ‘Cause I Couldn't Dance, You Didn't Even Want Me Around
The winter break is over; here is a list of the show's returning with new episodes this week…

TONIGHT
8pm A Gifted Man & Nikita; 9pm CSI: NY & Supernatural, 10pm Blue Bloods

SATURDAY
11:30pm Saturday Night Live

SUNDAY
8pm Once Upon a Time & The Simpsons; 8:30pm The Cleveland Show; 9pm Desperate Housewives, The Good Wife, and Family Guy; 10pm CSI Miami & Pan Am

MONDAY
10pm Castle

WEDNESDAY
8pm Whitney; 10pm Law & Order: SVU

THURSDAY
8pmBig Bang Theory & Bones; 8:30pm Parks and Recreation; 9pm Person of Interest & The Office; 9:30pm Up All Night; 10pm The Mentalist

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 21 days…

THURSDAY
The 12/15 GOP Presidential Debate on Fox news was watched by 6.7 million people, making it cable TV's most watched debate of the political season…The 12/15 Person of Interest was the most watched since the show's series premiere and won the night in scripted demos for the first time, although most of its competition was reruns…The last episode of Prime Suspect hit a season/series low in the demos…Surprisingly, the penultimate episode of X-Factor that aired on 12/15 was down from the week before; usually ratings for reality shows go up when it gets the late stages…

FRIDAY
Grimm won the 16th in demos while a Blue Bloods rerun topped in total viewers…Despite being up against reruns and a several years old movie, a new episode of Chuck dropped in the ratings on 12/30, down roughly 20% in the demos…

SATURDAY
The Jimmy Fallon hosted Saturday Night Live was the highest rated episode of the season…The NFL Network's special Saturday night telecast on 12/17 was up 27% from that game last year. The network on a whole was up 19% for the year…Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve won the battle of 12/31 programming in a big way, posting the best totals for the show in 11 years and the best demos in 8. The replay of the show that aired at 1am was also up double digits in both measures…

SUNDAY
The Homeland season finale was the most watched first season signoff in Showtime history, and the show's first season was the most watched for a freshman series in network history as well…The Dexter season finale was not only the most watched episode of the season but it was the most watched Showtime broadcast of 2011… The Patriots – Broncos game on CBS on 12/18 was not only the most watched Sunday afternoon game of the season it was CBS most watched regular season game since 2007…The Packers-Bears game was easily the most watched program on Christmas night, with the coverage of the game itself averaging more than 20 million viewers in primetime…The final Sunday Night Football game of the year was the most watched in the franchise's six year history and was the top rated Sunday or Monday night regular season primetime game in 13 years…The New Year's Day premiere of Oprah's Next Chapter gave OWN its best Sunday series debut numbers ever…

MONDAY
Whose Still Standing's premiere was down 37% in total viewers and 50+% in demos from what Fear Factor had done in that timeslot a week earlier…You Deserve It was up 20% in totals and demos on 12/19…The Terra Nova season finale was up almost 5% in totals and demos but came in below the season average…The 12/19 Rock Center with Brian Williams hit a season/series high in demos…The 12/19 Monday Night Football telecast won the night handily in totals and demos despite two delays because of a power outage and the game being a blowout…The Bachelor got off to a rough start this week, down double digits in demos and totals from last January. It was not a good sign that Fear Factor tied it for the demo win in the 9:00 hour…Two and Half Men was the most watched show on Monday the 2nd in both totals and demos…Hawaii 5-0 dominated at 10pm, up from its last original 2011 outing…The season two premiere of Pretty Little Liars was down 10% from its series premiere and down more than 20% from its mid-season return while lead-out The Lying Game hit a series high in its mid-season one debut, up 29% from its first outing…

TUESDAY
The series premiere of Work It did hold on to 80% of its Last Man Standing lead-in and was up from what Man Up had been averaging but it was also down 17% from Man Up's debut and was ABC's lowest rated in-season comedy series premiere ever…NCIS topped 20 million, giving the show its second best totals and demos of the season…NCIS:LA hit season highs in totals and demos…Unforgettable crushed all competition at 10pm in totals and demos…Parenthood hit a series low in demos…

WEDNESDAY
ABC entire lineup was up this past Wednesday, with Modern Family winning the night in totals and demos, the latter of which showing a 10% gain...Mobbed was down 20% from it's first outing in April...

All The Young Dudes, Carry The News
Industry News, Notes, and Hot Rumors…AMC picked up a second season of Hell on Wheels…The chances of Showtime picking up the Liev Schreiber starring dramedy pilot Ray Donovan just increased as Allen Coulter has signed to direct the pilot. Coulter previously directed pilots for Sons of Anarchy, Damages, and Nurse Jackie, and he worked on The Sopranos as well. Donovan was created by Ann Biderman, who also created Southland…Showtime is working on an adaptation of the 2010 movie Animal Kingdom, with John Wells executive producing and Jonathan Lisco, who currently is an EP on Southland, writing and executive producing…2011 was the most watched year in Style Network history, up 33% in their target women 18-49 demo…PSYCH returns with the final 7 episodes of season six on February 29th…Real Housewives alum NeNe Leakes will do multiple episodes of Glee as a swimming coach and rival of Sue Sylvester…Spike TV, which recently lost UFC programming including The Ultimate Fighter to FX, will run classic episodes of the show on Friday nights starting on March 2ndSyfy picked up a second season of Paranormal Witness…The new season of The Real Housewives of Orange County hits Bravo on February 7th…ION has picked up a 5th season of Flashpoint…Find Our Missing is a new TV One series hosted by Law & Order vet S. Epatha Merkerson that looks into missing persons of color cases from around the US…Cybil Shepherd has been cast as a regular in Lifetime's upcoming Jennifer Love Hewitt series The Client List…The fifth and final season of In Plain Sight hits USA on Friday March 16th at 10pm, preceded by season two of Fairly Legal at 9pm…PBS will launch Market Wars, their first reality competition show, in the late summer. From the producers of Antiques Roadshow (it will air paired with Roadshow on Mondays), the hour long series finds to antiques dealers battling it out to see who can make more money in an auction held at the end of every episode…The CW has ordered a pilot for Cult, created by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage and about a series of missing persons that seem to be connected to a TV show called Cult…ABC is thisclose to ordering a pilot for the Shawn Ryan executive produced Last Resort, a wartime drama set in the near future that will be directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale)…Speaking of ABC pilots, they officially green lighted one for an untitled one from Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) with supernatural themes that uses the 2012 Presidential election as its backdrop…

Turns Out Not Where But Who You're With That Really Matters
(The Best of What's Around aka The Best Thing I've Watched In The Last Seven Days)…
As you'll read below most of my TV viewing the last three weeks was catching up on stuff I had recorded and never got to, and so it happened that I stumbled upon Six Days to Air in my Tivo, which was one of the more pleasant surprises of the holiday season.

Six Days was a look at how an episode of South Park is put together and yes, they really go start to finish in six days, which is even more astounding than you'd think once you watch them do it. I am more in awe of the brilliant episodes and somewhat more understanding of the mediocre ones now that I see the time constraints they put themselves under and fully get why they do it; their angst and second guessing of almost every scene would go on forever if they didn't work with a hard and firm deadline.

The hour long special also worked as an introduction for those unfamiliar with South Park, going over the show's history in a way that I think would have made it worth watching even if someone had never seen an episode. I liked this format so much I am really hoping Comedy Central hires the production team to make a few of these a year with their other original programming; how awesome would a special that looks at how an episode of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report is put together? If they did one every 4 – 6 months (I assume they must take a lot of time to edit) than they could go a couple of years just based on the shows they have now.

Six Days to Air was one of the better documentaries about the making of a TV show that I've ever seen and I highly recommend any with a passion for TV check it out.

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 twenty one days…Caught up on my Raising Hope's and continue to admire series creator Greg Garcia's refusal to put his show in the mainstream. Hope is wonderfully odd and it's so organic that you embrace it as opposed to being distracted by it. I mean, Frank's miniature city is pretty frakin' out there and yet it came across as kind of sweet (and yes, a little creepy, as it should have been). The It's a Wonderful Life homage episode they did had some great touches, including a bartender named Clarence and a poster outside the theater for My Name Is Earl, The Movie…Speaking of catching up, did a little Covert Affairs marathon and was pleased to see Annie have to use her gun to take someone out. I'm not a sucker for violence but it will add some toughness to the character as that is the sort of thing that changes a person. They did a very good job of acknowledging the chemistry between Annie and Auggie but then putting another obstacle between them; it would have been way too easy for her to just confess her feelings and then have them kiss. Sweet car, though…Who's Still Standing was the definition of forgettable. I think the networks pulling out game shows for week long runs in slow times of year could work – I'd enjoy a week of Deal of No Deal, 1 vs. 100, classic Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, or even bust out some Weakest Link – but when the hook is someone falling through the floor, I am out…Had a four episode Up All Night marathon to get fully caught up and my feelings about the show remain the same; the half of the show that takes place at home and/or is about Regan and Chris and the baby gets a B+, the stuff that is focused on Ava and the show gets a C+, averaging the show out at the line between B- and B. To me the issue is that the family stuff is comedy that is firmly based in reality, with real life situations any parent can recognize exaggerated somewhat for comedic purposes while the stuff at the TV show is so wildly over the top that they simply don't match up…I very much enjoyed the Conan One Hour Earlier highlight special – laughed out loud a few times – but at no point did it make me think I should actually be watching his show every night…I burnt through about a dozen episodes of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and thoroughly renewed my love affair with Craig and Geoff Peterson; their chemistry really has to be seen to be believed…Last Tuesday had perhaps the worst pair of series premieres on the same night in recent memory (certainly for non-September premieres); ABC's Work It was truly awful, a comedy that seemed to be taken from a leftover late 80's script, and one that wasn't funny then, either. I will say it was almost so bad that it was worth watching in that they seemed to think they were actually making a good show, so its badness was organic and not some sort of winking, forced cheesiness. The other half of the duo was ABC Family's Jane By Design, which had plotlines and character development that were borderline amateurish…How I Met Your Mother gave us a highly entertaining episode to start 2012. The last couple of minutes got me a little misty, although regular readers know getting my tear ducts working is not exactly a high degree of difficulty task. Did everyone catch the Slap Bet poster behind Chris Elliot at the board game convention?...I enjoyed the first episode of Rachael vs. Guy : Celebrity Cook Off since it was task and not personality based. Lou Diamond Phillips is clearly the favorite and the first one who went home was clearly the one who should have. Perhaps if this season does well than a high caliber of celebs might show up next time around…We're just halfway through the TV season but it's entirely possible that Craig T Nelson won himself a Norty for Tuesday's Parenthood. With Friday Night Lights gone, Parenthood is far and away the best drama series the big five has to offer…

TV Pick Of The Week
Those of you without Showtime are in for a HUGE treat the next couple of days as the pay cable network is doing a Free Preview Weekend; not only will the season premieres of Californication and Shameless and the series premiere of the Don Cheadle dark comedy House of Lies air but you'll also have access to Showtime On-Demand, including the entire first season of Homeland and most recent seasons of Dexter, Shameless, Californication, The Big C, Weeds, Episodes, and Nurse Jackie. Movies airing that weekend include The King's Speech, Red, The Mechanic, I am Number Four, Blue Valentine, and Twilight's New Moon & Eclipse.

As an FYI, I have seen and greatly enjoyed the first three episodes of House of Lies, which may set a new standard for the amount of sexual thrusting in a cable series. If that alone doesn't get you to watch (I am thinking of the opening of the second episode in particular, by the way), I can tell you that if you are a big Don Cheadle fan, and frankly who isn't, you will not be disappointed as he has a character with some depth to work with here. The main team, which also consists of Kristen Bell and Ben Schwartz (Jean-Ralphio, himself) really gels over the first three outings, producing some real chemistry and plenty of laugh out loud moments.

Cheadle's character also has an interesting home life and what might have felt gimmicky or tacked on instead shines a light on who he is and why he does what he does. It helps that the cast is pretty much note perfect throughout. Also, any series that puts Greg Germann's talents to full use is more than worth checking out. House of Lies is highly recommended.






Don't miss Showtime's Free Preview Weekend, which starts today!

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

*Anyone with tweens living in their house knows that The Wizards of Waverly Place one hour series finale airs tonight at 8pm on Disney.

*New seasons of Merlin (9pm, Syfy), Portlandia (10pm, IFC), and The Increasingly Bad Decisions of Todd Margaret (10:30pm, IFC) premiere tonight!

*Are you ready for some playoff football?!?!? NBC has Cincinnati – Houston at 4:30pm and Detroit – New Orleans at 8pm on Saturday, with Sunday's coverage split between CBS (Atlanta - New York at 1pm) and Fox (Pittsburgh - Denver, 4:30pm).

*I haven't seen the pilot for The Firm yet but after watching David E Kelley drift further and further into absurdity, I like the idea of an old school, heavy handed legal drama, with clear cut good guys and bad guys, so I am more than ready to give this adaptation of the John Grisham book a shot. The story picks up after the events of the book/movie, with Mitch McDeere and his wife getting out of witness relocation and back into the real world. NBC is giving the show a two hour premiere on Sunday followed by a new episode in the show' regular timeslot of Thursdays at 10pm.

*Major League Baseball has turned it's Hall of Fame announcement into a TV special, with the 2012 inductees being revealed Monday at 2pm on the MLB Network as part of a two hour special.

*Work It and Man Up keep Are You There Chelsea? (Wednesday, 8:30pm, NBC) from being the worst new comedy of the year. That's about all I have to say about that.

*One of last year's more surprisingly entertaining new reality shows was Syfy's Face Off, a competition series featuring special effects makeup artists. Really, it's quite good, and starting Wednesday at 10pm its back for a second season.






*USA is ever-so-slightly sticking their toes into late night programming with Out of Character with Krista Smith, a one hour special tonight at 11pm. Smith, Vanity Fair's West Coast editor, will interview Gwyneth Paltrow, Seth MacFarlane, and fashion designer Jason Wu in taped pieces similar in style to 60 Minutes or a Barbara Walters special, with the conversations taking place in the stars homes and/or offices to give viewers an added look into their lives.

*Thursday is a big night for season/series premieres, with 30 Rock (8pm, NBC) returning, the Rob Schneider comedy Rob (8:30pm, CBS) debuting in the cushy post-Big Bang time slot, and Fox launching The Finder (9pm) following the last new episode of Bones until the spring.

Two Tivos To Paradise
24 Hour Restaurant Battle, 30 Rock, After the Catch, American Idol, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Antiques Roadshow, Archer, Auction Hunters, 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, Crave, 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, Family Guy, 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, Haunted Treasure, Hawaii 5-0, Hell on Wheels, Hollywood Treasure, House, How I Met Your Mother, How To Make It In America, Hung, If You Really Knew Me, Iron Chef America, Justified, 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, The Middle, Mike and Molly, Modern Family, Necessary Roughness, New Girl, Next Iron Chef, The Office, One Tree Hill, Outside the Lines, Parks & Recreation, Private Practice, Project Accessory, Project Runway, Psych, Raising Hope, Real Time With Bill Maher, Restaurant Impossible, Revenge, Ringer, Rocco's Dinner Party, Royal Pains, Rules Of Engagement, Sanctuary, Saturday Night Live, The Secret Circle, Shear Genius, So You Think You Can Dance?, Sons of Anarchy, The Soup, Suits, Suburgatory, Supernatural, Table For 12, Terra Nova, Top Chef, Top Chef Just Desserts, Top Chef: Masters, Top Design, Torchwood, Tosh.0, True Blood, Up All Night, 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 Friday with all the latest TV headlines plus a preview of the Golden Globes.

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.