Two Tivos To Paradise 11.21.08: A Pre-Thanksgiving Feast of TV News

Posted by Al Norton on 11.21.2008

Seth Rogan brings the porn to Showtime, ABC cancels three shows, Monk's next season will be its last, Hilary Duff is coming soon to a TV screen near you, the end of an era on Days of our Lives, a new dance show for NBC, a guide to Thanksgiving Day television, raves for Justin Timberlake and Dave Foley, tons of news and notes, the TV Pick of the Week and more, all in the latest edition of Two Tivos To Paradise!

Hello Friends. We here on the East Coast got an early dose of winter this week; I woke up on Wednesday morning to a wind chill that had the temps in the teens. Had to go down to the basement to find my winter coat. Also, all the Nortons have colds this week, so our house smells like a Vick's factory.

Anyone looking forward to Twilight this weekend (yes, Mrs. Tivo got us tickets on-line already for a Saturday afternoon show) - or for that matter any fans of House – should check out my interview with Edi Gathegi that posted on the site yesterday.

Some people want diamond rings, some just want everything, but everything means nothing if I ain't got news.

THIS JUST IN
Late Thursday multiple news sources were reporting that the producers of Eli Stone, Dirty Sexy Money, and Pushing Daisies were informed that only the 13 episodes that were initially ordered would be produced this season, essentially canceling all three series. While Daisies was considered already over at this point by most in the industry, the other two are mild surprises, DSM more so than Stone. While technically the door is open for more episodes to be ordered later, the likelihood is that all three shows are done. More on this next week.

This Just In, Part Two
As TTTP was going to press The CW announced they would no longer be airing the Media Right Capital's Sunday night programming, which included Valentine and Easy Money. As of this week their Sunday night's will look like this:

5 – 6 pm: Everybody Hates Chris & The Game (starting from the series premieres)
6 – 7 pm: The Drew Carey Show (starting with season two)
7 -8 pm: Jericho (starting with the series premiere)
8 – 10 pm: Movie

It may only be in reruns but Jericho has once again returned to primetime!

We Took A Boat Over Lake Geneva, It Was Raining All Night Long
USA ordered a 16 episode 8th season of Monk and at the same time confirmed it would be the series final batch of new episodes. The existence of an 8th season was a forgone conclusion but there was much surprise that the series was ending, especially since the numbers for season 7 were up 20% in total viewers and 13% in the demos. While Monk star Tony Shalhoub has been quoted as saying he'd love the series on-going mystery of who killed Monk's wife and why to be solved on the big screen, it's expected that the finale would provide a satisfactory wrap-up to any as-yet unanswered questions.

Shalhoub won three Emmy (nominated 6 times) along with two SAG awards and a Golden Globe for his work on Monk, and four of it's guest stars received Emmy nominations as well, so clearly the show was popular with both fans AND critics, a rare combination. The show's legacy will be essentially the entire original programming department of USA network; without Monk there would be no PSYCH, Burn Notice, In Plain Sight, The Starter Wife, and so on…

I was never a huge Monk guy - I always thought the cast was much better than the scripts plus I thought they went a bit heavy on the silly at times – but did enjoy the episodes I did see, plus the show had a magic touch with guest stars; Andy Richter and Sarah Silverman did some of the best TV work while appearing on the show. No word yet on if they plan on bringing back favorite characters from seasons past leading up the finale, including perhaps Bitty Schram's Sharona, who appeared on the show for the first three years before being replaced by Traylor Howard (as a different character who played the same role in Monk's life).

I Ain't Nothin' But Tired, Man I'm Just Tired And Bored With Myself
Former American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe's first new project after leaving the blockbuster Fox series is a new dance competition show for NBC; Superstars of the Dance World will be an Olympics style contest, pitting teams from different countries against each other in both solo and group dances. The show will feature an international panel of judges who won't be allowed to vote for their own country, and the Lord of the Dance himself, Michael Flatley, will serve as host. Countries expect to field teams include the US, South Africa, Australia, Russia, and Argentina.

Let's see – the American viewing audience loves the Olympics, and they love dance competition shows. Now factor in that the guy in charge was in charge of both American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance? (which he still executive produces as well as serves as a judge on), both HUGE hits, and it's a pretty safe bet that this project will take off fast. The only question will be one of scheduling for NBC. They already have the biggest show of the summer (the last three years running) in America's Got Talent, so do they rush this out for the spring or use it as part of the fall line up.

They Never Get Tired Of Puttin' Me Down And I'm Never Sure When I Come Around What I'm Gonna Find
Hilary Duff signed a one year development deal with NBC that hopes to end with her starring in her own show for the network while having her guest on existing series in the meantime. Duff, who rose to fame as the star of Disney's Lizzy McGuire, has appeared in multiple movies as well as enjoying a musical career where she has sold over 13 million CD's world wide.

NBC is going to have a lot of room in its schedule next year, with My Own Worst Enemy and Lipstick Jungle already gone and Crusoe likely to join them, and that's not including likely bubble shows Knight Rider and Life. So far Duff has certainly proved to be a marketing whiz; along with her acting and musical career she also has her own line of clothing, her own doll, and her own fragrance. Can she handle a series lead? Who knows, but the network has the rest of this season to try her out in their existing shows to see what she can do; let's give her a gritty Law and Order: SVU role along with a self deprecating turn on 30 Rock as a former teen star and see what happens. Actually, that's not a bad idea for a show; have her play a teen star who is struggling to find her way in her 20's. Give her a couple of sassy girlfriends and have it been Entourage meets Sex and the City. Get Ben Silverman on the phone!

I'm Changing Lanes And Talkin' On The Phone, Drivin' Way Too Fast
Days of our Lives fans rejoiced at last week's news that the long running daytime soap had been renewed but the other show dropped on Wednesday when the producers issued a statement saying that Diedre Hall and Drake Hogestyn were being let go for budgetary reasons. The saga of John and Marlena (the characters they play), has been one of daytime's biggest and most popular storylines over the last 20 odd years; Hall has been playing Marlena on and off (mostly on) since 1976, and Hogestyn joined the show in 1984 as an amnesiac who for a while was thought to be Marlena's dead husband Roman but has since turned out to be, well, I don't have enough space to run down his lineage. The producers have promised that the couple, currently estranged because John's memories were put on computer disc and then erased, will be reunited before departing in 2009.

Clearly part of the deal for renewal was a cutting of the budget, and I've got to imagine these two are the show's highest paid cast members, so I suppose in some ways this was the fastest and most effective way to save money. The problem is that the audience doesn't really care as much about the crew of early 20's actors who the show is trying to turn the focus to; it doesn't matter how cheap your show is to produce if your fan base keeps shrinking. For many fans, John and Marlena ARE Days of our Lives, so this could be another nail in the coffin for NBC's daytime programming. At one point the network had three soaps but now are down to one, with those hours being given back to the affiliates in return for the four hour block that is The Today Show.

I am sure there will be a ratings spike when they invite fans to "tune in to say goodbye to John and Marlena" but I am also sure the drop off that follows will be even greater.

Eat That Turkey All Night Long, 50 Million Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong
As is the case every year, Thanksgiving finds television with a wide assortment of viewing options. Here is a rundown for those of you who plan on spending at least some part of the day in front of the tube.

*Sports options include Titans-Lions at 12:30 on Fox, Seahawks-Cowboys at 4:30 on Fox, and TNT has an evening doubleheader with Magic-Wizards at 8 pm followed by Hornets-Nuggets.

*The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade airs on both CBS and NBC staring at 9 am.

*NBC has The National Dog Show at noon followed by Miracle on 34th Street – the single best Christmas movie EVER – at 2 pm.

*Versus has a Rocky marathon, with I – V starting at 9 am.

*AMC has a series of modern classics that begin at 6 am and include The Sting, Godfather I and II, and the highly underrated Absence of Malice.

Here is a list of the day's marathon programming:

*Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is (BET), 11 episodes, 9 am

*House (USA), 24 episodes, 6 am

*The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (TBS), 12 episodes, 9 am

*Jon & Kate + 8 (TLC), 16 hours, 6 am

*The Closer (TNT), 9 episodes, 10 am

*CSI: NY (Spike), 8 episodes, 9 am

*Keeping Up with the Kardashians (E!), 10 episodes, 1 pm

*I Love Lucy (TV Land), 20 episodes, 8 am

*The Blue Planet: Seas of Life (Animal Planet), 16 episodes, 2 pm

*Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman (Travel), 12 episodes, 9 am

*Chowder (Cartoon Network), 15 episodes, noon

*Cold Case Files (A & E), 11 episodes, 9 am

*Dirty Jobs (Discovery), 17 episodes, 9 am

*Reno 911 (Comedy Central), 8 episodes, 3 pm

*Clean House (Style), 40 episodes, 6 am

*Bad Girls Club (Oxygen), 12 hours, 7:30 am

*Hell's Kitchen (Fox Reality), 11 episodes, 11 am

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 last week…The return of Anthony Edwards helped ER to win the Thursday at 10 demo battle yet again, showing a 16% increase from last week…The big Thursday match up ended as usual, with CSI winning total audience and Grey's Anatomy carrying the demos…Back-to-back episodes of Kitchen Nightmares were up from the previous week, which makes two weeks of gains in a row…All the Ghost Whisperer buzz is paying off as the ratings for Friday were up 6%, with the 11.67 million viewers being a high for the night…Numb3rs was down 17%, mostly due to having a Price Is Right special as a lead-in instead of a high performing NCIS rerun…Barack Obama's 60 Minutes interview gave the show it's best ratings since 1999, with 24.5 million tuning in…Desperate Housewives continues to be Sunday night's highest rated scripted series…Fox's Animated Sunday night line up continues to thrive, with The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and American Dad all gaining viewers this week and The Family Guy maintaining it's already good numbers. American Dad's ratings have been a major surprise all season…True Blood continues to impress the industry as it grew its ratings for a sixth consecutive week. Sunday's episode was an increase of 85% from the premiere audience. Lead-out Entourage also hit a season high…How I Met Your Mother scored season high numbers on Monday night…Heroes set a series low for total audience, AGAIN, as did My Own Worst Enemy…The 150th episode of CSI: Miami was up 13% and had its best numbers since September's season premiere…As Dancing with the Stars enters the final stretch it's audience is getting bigger; it's 8 pm recap show was up 13% and the live elimination that followed was up 11%...NCIS was still Tuesday's most watch program with 18 million, albeit down 13% in their already small demo audience…The Mentalist held steady with a shade under 16 million tuning in…House won Tuesdays demo contest…It's not looking good for Eli Stone; not only were ratings done but the audience at the end of the hour was 31% smaller than they started with…Both The New Adventures of Old Christine (18%) and Gary Unmarried (21%) showed major improvements from their last new episodes…Pushing Daisies was down 27% from it's last new outing (which had the Obama infomercial on all the other channels as competition) and down 14% from the last time it went head-to-head with other series…The America's Next Top Model finale gave the show it's biggest audience in just under a year…Criminal Minds topped Wednesday with 16.38 million viewers…14 million tuned in to the 100th episode of CSI :NY, a spike of 20% from last week…

All The Young Dudes Carry The News
Industry News, Notes, and Hot Rumors… Rashida Jones has been cast in the untitled Amy Poehler sitcom from Office executive producers Greg Daniels, Howard Klein, and Mike Schur…Seth Rogan is producing an untitled comedy for Showtime about three friends who run a porn shop…Prison Break creator Paul Scheuring is teaming up with Thomas Schlamme for AR2, a new series about a second American revolution for FX. The show will be set in Michigan, where college students rebel against a government they feel is controlled by big business. Schlamme is a 9 time Emmy winner who executive produced The West Wing and has directed episodes of some of the top shows of the last 20 years (The West Wing, ER, Larry Sanders, Friends, The Wonder Years, Mad About You, The Practice, and Sports Night)… The legendary Brian Dennehy has joined the cast of TNT's Bunker Hill, which stars Donnie Wahlberg as a cop who goes back to his Boston home to deal with corruption and organized crime…ESPN will air the four games that make up the College Football BCS starting in 2011. The rumored bit for the rights to these games is $500 million for four years…Look for Diddy to do a two episode spot on CSI: Miami as a prosecutor who goes head to head with David Caruso's character…CBS picked up Gary Unmarried for the full season and ordered another three episodes of Worst Week…NBC ordered 6 more episodes of Medium, which is expected to return in January in the Monday at 10 pm slot currently occupied by the just-cancelled My Own Worst Enemy. This means the network will produce 19 episodes of the Emmy winning series for this run…Joan Cusak is developing a comedy set in the world of psychiatry for NBC that she will star in as well as executive produce. Big week for Joan as she also signed to headline the Lifetime movie Acceptance…NBC is developing a sitcom based on Criss Angel's experiences as an up-and-coming magician…Showtime has not made it official but it looks like the current season of Brotherhood will be the last…HBO is making a movie about the life of Sam Kinison; Brother Sam will air in 2009 and is based on a book by Kinison's brother and manager, with a script from the team that did American Splendor…The next three items are follow up's from the last few weeks: MTV is in final talks to bring Beauty and the Geek to its line up, with the idea being they would have a celebrity version featuring women from previous Real World casts as well as Playboy Playmates…Lifetime's all-star cast for its upcoming Georgia O'Keefe bio pic got even all starrier; joining Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons are Ed Begley, Jr., Tyne Daly, and Henry Simmons will all play supporting roles…The Middle, an ABC sitcom that was in development, got a greenlight for a pilot because they got multiple Emmy winner Patricia Heaton to sign on as the lead. The pilot will be directed by Julie Anne Robinson, who has helmed episodes of Grey's Anatomy, Samantha Who?, Big Love, and Weeds…Here ends the follow up stories…Oscar nominee Laura Linney will host PBS' Masterpiece Classic in 2009, replacing Gillian Anderson…Josh Schwartz' (The OC, Gossip Girl, Chuck) new WB.com series Rockville, GA, about the goings on at a fictional music club, will feature real bands in every episode, including Travis, Kaiser Chiefs, Bishop Allen, Lights, The Kooks, Death Mental, and Phantom Planet. The 20 episode first season will debut sometime in early 2009…Look for Scrubs to make its ABC debut on Tuesday, January 6th…

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…It's a two-for this week, with individuals as opposed to series getting the spotlight. Saturday Night Live was shaping up to be a pretty mediocre outing that wasted the talents of host Paul Rudd when, out of nowhere, Justin Timberlake showed up on Weekend Update. He was there to apologize for not being able to host the following week's Thanksgiving episode, wanting to give the audience an idea on what they would be missing. What followed was a two minute review that was funnier than some (many) entire episode of SNL, with Timberlake showing the full range of his comedic talents. Aside from doing surprisingly good impressions of Kristin Wiig's Target Lady and Michael McDonald, and ever-so-briefly reprising his role on The Barry Gibb Talk Show (one of my favorite all-time sketches), he also displayed an ability to make fun of himself that so many in the industry seem to lack. It was easily the most entertaining two minutes of TV of the week. Right after that commercial break came a segment with Timberlake and two others as Beyonce's new backup dancers, which was far and away the top sketch of the show.

On Sunday night TTTP favorite Dave Foley guested on Brothers and Sisters, taking an incredibly stock character (the ultra needy, over sharing blind date) and giving it some life. His "oh, dinner AND A show" final line was great and he was the highlight of an otherwise pedestrian episode, proving he can make even "meh" material entertaining. Throughout his highly underrated career he has proven he can play all sorts of different types of comedy (and he showed a surprising edge in his guest spot on In Plain Sight earlier this year. Once again I feel the need to bring up my dream sitcom, where Dave Foley and Patrick Warburton play a gay couple, with Charisma Carpenter as Warburton's ex-wife and Jackson Brundage as their son. Recent additions to the supporting cast include Jeffrey Tambor as Foley's ex, and a recurring role for Steven Weber as Warburton's brother. I just need to find a way to get Luis Guzman on the show.

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 Thursday's Grey's Anatomy was easily the worst of the season. The exit of Dr. Hahn was extremely poorly executed, I didn't believe that Meredith's old/new best friend was anything other than a writer's creation (as opposed to something resembling a real person), and the whole "interns cutting themselves" storyline is wholly uninteresting. The only saving (Seattle) grace was the "little Sloan, little Grey" conversations…Desperate Housewives is having a very strong season, thanks mostly to the work of Neal McDonough, Kyle McLaughlin, Marcia Cross, and Dana Delaney. I also liked that Lynette thinking Tom was having an affair was cleared up in one (very funny) scene. I was expecting a major character to die during last Sunday's fire but the slow build should pay off…Speaking of slow builds, regular TTTP readers know how much I enjoy that style of storytelling, taking the time to introduce me to the characters instead of going all crazy with plot twists out of the gate, and that's one of the reasons Sons of Anarchy is so good. I haven't watched this week's episode yet but clearly Opie is going to be die and because they have taken the season to let us get to know him and his family, it's going to be that much more powerful – and tragic – when it does…I am a couple of weeks late talking about the Army Wives season finale but wow, what a difference a year makes; last year was the hit Lifetime series first season and they ended with a bomb going off and most of the main character's lives in jeopardy. Now that they are an established show they went the Grey's route, ending the year not with a cliffhanger but rather with all the major players at a crossroads, and most of them heading the wrong way…Can't say enough about how much Sports Soup has grown on me. Each week both the host and the writers seem to be more and more comfortable in their skin…Quirkiness cuts both ways and this week I thought it undercut the tension of the hostage situation on Life on Mars. The speech by Harvey Keitel at the end more than made up for it, though…The remastered print of Wizard of Oz that TBS and TNT showed this past weekend was amazing – the most vibrant version of the classic I had ever seen…Monday's How I Met Your Mother was an instant classic, a fantastic mix of laugh-out-loud jokes and some genuinely clever writing as well…I am not saying that Christina Applegate is the single best comedic actress on TV right now but I am saying that there is no one – male or female – who carries their show as much as she does Samantha Who? This is not to take away from the great supporting cast but rather to show just how strong her work is…One Tree Hill's dream episode was a stylistic success but Chad Michael Murray's first foray into script writing shows he has a long way to go…We are three weeks into D.L. Hughley Breaks the News and what were initially perceived as rough edges are now starting to come across as amateurish production values. What's even more shocking is how uncomfortable Hughley seems; the guy is a seasoned stand up, so why is his monologue so lame? Maybe they should get him out from behind the desk and let him walk around a bit…Ok, I thought about it some more and I guess I am saying that Christina Applegate is the single best comedic actress on TV right now…Seeing Cameron and Chase get so much face time on House these last two weeks just illustrates how much of a waste it is most other weeks when they have one scene (at most) and are not in any way central to the story…I enjoyed the season premiere of Top Chef (this season is the first that I will watch start-to-finish) and felt really bad for the girl who didn't even get to put her white jacket on. I like the Hawaiian dude with all the tattoos but I know it's early to pick a horse. I do think it's strange to watch a reality show and not really be able to tell how the contestants are doing. I mean, you can tell when people are out of control but for most of them you are waiting around for the judges to stop chewing to find out if they are in the upper half or the lower half…It's not that the writing has gotten any better on The Starter Wife but after four or five episodes, the winning cast has made me care about the characters, so the show is much better now than in week one…This week's Gary Unmarried was easily the best in the show's short history, taking a pretty standard plot (couple pretends to still be together for appearances sake) and making it laugh out loud funny. Top episode of its kind since Will Truman tried to convince wedding guests that that he was a pro tennis player…

TV Pick Of The Week
You don't have to be a regular viewer of The Shield to recognize that the show will have a place among the top cop series of all time, one that broke new ground for it's gritty, almost dirty portrayal of police work and the people who did it as well as for it's sophisticated, long term storytelling. The Emmy winning FX series ends its sever season run this Tuesday at 10 pm and anyone who has even casually tuned in over the years should be in front of their TV sets to see if the ending does justice to the epic saga of Vic Mackey and his crew.

Don't miss the series finale of The Shield this Tuesday at 10 pm on FX.

Other noteworthy programming of the next seven days…

*24: Redemption (Sunday, 8 pm, Fox) gives Jack Bauer fans their first look at their favorite action hero in spring of 2007 plus some insight into the coming season.

*The soul-bearing documentary Britney: For The Record debuts on both MTV and Logo on Sunday night.

*HBO has two season finales on Sunday, with True Blood signing off until next year at 9, followed by the final Entourage of 2008 at 10 pm.

*Comedy Central presents A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All at 10 pm on Sunday.

*I love a good meal of toast and popcorn, which is why A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (Tuesday, 8 pm, ABC) is my favorite of the Peanuts specials.

*Emmy winner Zeljko Ivanek stops by House on Tuesday (8 pm, Fox), with a gun.

*Tune into ABC Tuesday at 9 pm to find out who wins the latest edition of Dancing with the Stars.

* A new season of Real Housewives of Orange County begins Tuesday at 10 pm on Bravo.

*Ryan O'Neal proves that given good writing, he can still bring his A-game when he stops by Bones (Wednesday, 8 pm, Fox).

*Rosie Live (Wednesday, 8 pm, NBC) is the test run for what could – and probably will – turn into a weekly variety show for Rosie O'Donnell.

*Sons of Anarchy wraps up its first season Tuesday at 10 pm on FX, one in which they have established themselves as one of the best new dramas on TV.

Two Tivos To Paradise
30 Days, 30 Rock, The Academy, American Idol, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Antique Roadshow, The Apprentice, Battlestar Galactica, Best Day Ever, Best Week Ever, Big Love, Bones, Boston Legal, Breaking Bad, Brothers And Sisters, Burn Notice, Chocolate News, Chuck, The Closer, Criss Angel Mindfreak, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Deadliest Catch, Desperate Housewives, Destination Truth, Dirty Sexy Money, The Dish, Entourage, Eureka, Everybody Hates Chris, Flipping Out, Gary Unmarried, Ghost Hunters, Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, The Hills, House, How I Met Your Mother, Last Comic Standing, Last Restaurant Standing, Law And Order, Law And Order: Criminal Intent, Law And Order: Special Victims Unit, Life On Mars, Lost, Mad Men, Make Me A Supermodel, Medium, The Middleman, My Name Is Earl, The New Adventures Of Old Christine, Next Food Network Star, Nip/Tuck, The Office, One Tree Hill, Private Practice, Project Runway, Primevil, Pushing Daisies, Psych, Real Time With Bill Maher, Reaper, Rescue Me, Rules Of Engagement, Run's House, Samantha Who?, Sanctuary, The Sarah Jane Chronicles, Saturday Night Live, Scrubs, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Shear Genius, Skins, So You Think You Can Dance?, Sons of Anarchy, The Soup, Sports Soup, Step It Up and Dance, Supernatural, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Top Chef, Top Design, Torchwood, True Blood, Ugly Betty

People Love You When They Know You're Leaving Soon
Here ends another edition of Two Tivos To Paradise. Have a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday and never forget to be thankful for the friends and family who support you throughout your lives. Eat your fill but don't forget to leave a little room as we'll be back next Friday with the latest in TV news.


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.