Two Tivos To Paradise 12.12.08: Start Your Weekend Right!

Posted by Al Norton on 12.12.2008

Jay Leno's new show and what it means for the future of TV, The CW is talking about a Gossip Girl spinoff, TR Knight wants off of Grey's Anatomy, Golden Globe nominations kick off the end of the year awards season, Pushing Daisies to get a finale (sort of), an update on the potential actor's strike, raves for Life, tons of news and notes, the TV Pick of the Week and more! It's all in the latest edition of Two Tivos To Paradise!

Hello Friends. Hey, we got our computer working this weekend, Facebook virus be damned! That will teach me to open up videos labeled "Not A Virus", huh? In case any of you missed them, interviews I did with Timothy Hutton and The Ikki Twins ran on the site this week.

I urge all of you to check out Childrens' Hospital on TheWB.com as it perhaps the funniest thing I have seen this year. Rob Corddry has put together some top comedic talent in this Grey's Anatomy spoof that has to be seen to be believed. If this were actual TV it would be a lock for my year's best list. Speaking of links, the first of 10 Battlestar Galactica webisodes is available today at noon.

Rudolph the red news reindeer, you'll go down in history.

The First Thing I Remember I Was Lying In My Bed, I Couldn't've Been More Than One Or Two
Days after NBC Universal head Jeff Zuckerman told reporters that he was considering cutting back prime time an hour a day, or perhaps one or two days a week, the network announced they had signed Jay Leno to host a nightly primetime talk show. Details were not available but it's hard to imagine Leno is taking any sort of pay cut. The Hollywood Reporter quoted insiders close to Conan O'Brien, who is taking over as host of The Tonight Show later this year, as being thrilled with the news as it means Leno would not be going head-to-head with him on another network.

This new show would reduce NBC's primetime total by five hours a week, or put in other terms, removing just under two full nights worth of programming. Since reality and news magazine shows are inexpensive to produce, it is the network's scripted dramas that will take the hit. Even with Knight Rider, Lipstick Jungle, Crusoe, and My Own Worst Enemy already cancelled, this new move will mean that at least one existing show will be taken off the schedule, and it calls into question exactly how much development NBC will do on new scripted shows in the future.

That didn't take long, did it? I was planning on writing a feature about what it would mean if NBC cut a night of primetime – they are down to six nights a week, really five and a half since they show NFL games 5+ months worth of Sundays – and before I could publish they went and made it a reality. Obviously they are thrilled to keep Leno in the fold as losing him to a rival network or a syndicate could have been disastrous, but I don't think it will end there. My guess is that when the fall schedule is revealed next year it will have Fridays as being entirely reality shows and/or Dateline-esque programming. Combine that with Saturdays, when they show reruns, and football Sundays, The Biggest Loser's two hours, and you are looking at what could be as little as six hours of original, scripted shows per week. Is that a bad thing? Yes, but really not as bad as you might think.

Television has changed dramatically over the last 10 years, with cable producing some, if not most, of the best shows in the time period. I am working on my year Top 10 Best list, and can tell you that more than half of the drama list, including 4 of the top 5, is from cable, and the top comedy of the year is as well. Does this mean that networks should abandon new series? Of course not, but the truth is if you think TV is lacking in quality scripted programming you simply aren't looking hard enough.

The new Leno show will give NBC three talk show hours a night – not to mention four hours of The Today Show – which begs the question, are there really enough interesting guests to go around? Two groups that will benefit the most from this are comedians and musicians as there will be a lot more booking opportunities. Also looking to take advantage will be ABC and CBS, which will have one less hour of competing dramas per evening.

No One Knows Who She Is Or What Her Name Is, I Don't Know Where She Came From Or What Her Game Is
Trying to get as much accomplished as early as possible in preparation for a possible SAG strike, CW President Dawn Ostroff confirmed that the network is considering ways to create a Gossip Girl spinoff for the fall schedule. Conversations are taking place with executive producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage but nothing is in place yet. The network would most likely want to use the end of the current season to either introduce characters that would spinoff or lay the ground work for current members of the GG universe to go off on their own. Earlier this year there were rumors that they would be giving the Jenny Humphrey character her own show, which would follow the storyline in the Gossip Girl books where Jenny left NY to go to a private school, becoming the focus of a new set of books as well.

Spinoffs these days are less about taking a successful supporting character and giving them their own playground as they are using the current show to introduce some new people and then sending them on their way, with Private Practice being a notable exception. While I might think that The CW should be careful of becoming a teen only network, it's clear that advertisers love those demos so it would be foolish of them not to consider striking while the iron is hot.

Late Thursday afternoon Warner Brothers (the show's production company) issued a statement that read, "contrary to the rumors and false reports breaking in the tabloids, there is no approved concept and/or confirmation of a Gossip Girl spinoff at this time." Read that a second time and you'll realize what a non-denial denial that is. I don't know about the tabloids but my story is just that they are talking about it, and the above statement does nothing to convince me otherwise.

Ain't Got A Fever, Got A Permanent Disease
Just about every news outlet known to man was reporting that Grey's Anatomy star TR Knight had asked producers to be let out of his contract, with sources saying that it looks like he will exit the show in early 2009. While some think his leaving is related back to the Isaiah Washington incident two years ago and the producer's slow response to his anger over it, most think he is leaving due to a lack of storyline. Knight's character George has not received much screen time as of late and when he is on it's usually to comment on someone else's storyline.

Not a great year for Grey's, to say the least. First they fire Brooke Smith and end her character's on-screen relationship with Callie in a totally unsatisfying way, then they begin a very odd story where Izzy is sleeping with a ghost (not really a ghost but I don't do spoilers so stay tuned), and now one of the leads wants out. The worst thing I heard about the show this fall is that they are testing storylines on focus groups, basing decisions on the feedback they get. I am all for keeping your audience happy but if you think a story is worth telling, you need to take the time to see it through.

I Don't Wanna Talk About The Things That We've Gone Through, Though It's Hurting Me, Now It's History
The end of the year awards season hit its full stride this week, with nominations announced from the Golden Globes, the Producers Guild of America, and the Writer's Guild of America . Please to enjoy a list of major noms below.

Hollywood Foreign Press AKA The Golden Globes

Best Actor in a Dramatic Series
Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment
Michael C Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House
Jonathan Rhys Myers, The Tudors

Best Actress in a Dramatic Series
Sally Field, Brothers and Sisters
Mariska Hargitay, Law and Order: SVU
January Jones, Mad Men
Anna Paquin, True Blood
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

Best Actor in a Comedy Series
Alex Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carrell, The Office
Kevin Connolly, Entourage
David Duchovny, Californication
Tony Shalhoub, Monk

Best Actress in a Comedy Series
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Debra Messing, The Starter Wife
Mary Louise-Parker, Weeds

Best Supporting Actor (Combining Comedy, Drama, TV Movie, and mini-series)
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
Denis Leary, Recount
Jeremy Piven, Entourage
Blair Underwood, In Treatment
Tom Wilkinson, John Adams

Best Supporting Actress (Combining Comedy, Drama, TV Movie, and mini-series)
Eileen Atkins, Crawford
Laura Dern, Recount
Melissa George, In Treatment
Rachel Griffiths, Brothers and Sisters
Diane Wiest, In Treatment

Best Dramatic Series
Dexter
House
In Treatment
Mad Men
True Blood

Best Comedy Series
30 Rock
Californication
Entourage
The Office
Weeds

Producers Guild of America

Best Dramatic Series
Boston Legal
Damages
Dexter
Lost
Mad Men

Best Comedy Series
30 Rock
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Entourage
The Office
Weeds

Best Non-Fiction Program
60 Minutes
Deadliest Catch
Frontline
Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List
This American Life

Writer's Guild of America

Best Dramatic Series
Dexter
Friday Night Lights
Lost
Mad Men
The Wire

Best Comedy Series
30 Rock
Entourage
The Office
The Simpsons
Weeds

Best New Series
Breaking Bad
Fringe
In Treatment
Life on Mars
True Blood

Best Dramatic Episode
Breaking Bad, Pilot
Breaking Bad, Grey Matter
Burn Notice, Double Booked
Dexter, There's Something About Harry
Eli Stone, Pilot
House, Don't Ever Change

Best Comedy Episode
30 Rock, Believe in the Stars
30 Rock, Cooter
30 Rock, Succession
My Name Is Earl, Vote For This and I Promise To Do Something Crazy At the Emmys
The Office, Crime Aid
Ugly Betty, Crush'd

A very quick perusing of these noms leaves me happy that Breaking Bad got some love from the WGA and perplexed that Bryan Cranston's brilliant performance was overlooked by the Golden Globes. In Treatment was well made on every front but was also incredibly boring, so I am not sharing the same love the HFPA seems to have for it. I was quite pleased to see Burn Notice in the writing nominations since I think too many award voters discount the high quality of the show because of bias against action shows.

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...
Sunday's premiere of Leverage set a TNT record for demo audience for a new series, and pulled in 5 million viewers total…A showing of the movie The Cutting Edge gave The CW its best Sunday numbers of the season…Desperate Housewives posted very strong numbers on Sunday, easily winning the night and helping lead-out Brothers and Sisters to an increase from last week, too…Boston Legal signed off to its largest audience of the season…Monday was a big night for CBS, with The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, and Two and a Half Men posting season highs. Theory's audience was large enough to set a series high, the second time in three weeks it has done so…As usual, House was far and away Tuesday's top show with the demos…Law and Order: SVU won the 10 pm hour on Tuesday…Eli Stone dropped below 5 million viewers on Tuesday, making any shot at a last minute pardon by the Governor a virtual impossibility…The New Adventures of Old Christine hit a season high of 8.25 million, helping lead-out Gary Unmarried pull in a little over 8 million as well…Life was up for the second week in a row…Criminal Minds won Wednesday night overall with 14.7 million, and lead-out CSI: NY benefited to the tune of a 9% increase from it's last new outing…Fox's Secret Millionaire had a strong second week, solidifying its status as a surprise success…

All The Young Dudes Carry The News
Industry News, Notes, and Hot Rumors…Here's the latest on the potential of a SAG strike; the ballots are going out to guild members on January 2nd, with tabulations due to finish by the 23rd of the month. Currently the thinking is the vote could go either way, and that even if it does pass, a strike would not be an immediate next step. SAG negotiators hope to be able to use the threat of a strike to get the AMPTP to up their offer…Thanks to some editing it looks like Bryan Fuller has given the last episode of Pushing Daisies a new opening and ending, meaning the cliffhanger that was planned and would anger fans is now going to be replaced with something that offers at least a modicum of closure…Speaking of Fuller, it looks like the first episode of Heroes that will have his fingerprints will be # 19 of the season…Will Ferrell's upcoming one man show on Broadway – You're Welcome America. A Final Night with George W. Bush – will get a live telecast on HBO on night towards the end of its three month run…The Roots will be the house band when Jimmy Fallon takes over Late Night next year…TBS has greenlighted a pilot for TBS Comedy Roadshow, a weekly comedy series hosted by Harlan Williams that tapes at famous vaudeville locations from across the country…Maura Tierney will appear on several episodes of the upcoming season of Rescue Me, with a strong chance the character will continue on into the following batch of episodes…Sara Rue and Lauren Holly have booked guest spots on Leverage…Florence Henderson will play Sam's Grandmother on Samantha Who? this January…Fred Thompson will make his first post-Presidential run TV appearance on a February episode of Life on Mars…ABC will try and pull in some Super Bowl viewers when they air a special min-episode of Wipeout during halftime, when NBC is showing a live Bruce Springsteen performance. They will also air a full episode featuring cheerleaders up against the hour long outing of The Office that follows the big game…Series creator Marc Cherry is considering extending Desperate Housewives' run by two years. For some time he has said the show, currently in its fifth season, would end after 7, but the success of this past season finds him and ABC in contract extension talks…Scrubs star Sarah Chalke will a four hour mini-series adaptation of Gigi Levangie Grazer's novel Maneater for Lifetime. Timothy Busfield will direct…Flash Forward, a hot ABC project that is being groomed to be a companion piece for Lost, has added Joseph Fienes, Sonya Walger (Lost), and John Cho to the cast over the last two weeks. Based on a science fiction novel, the series opens with the entire world passing out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, during which they see a vision of their future…The End of Steve, Matthew Perry and Peter Tolan's dark comedy for Showtime, brought Martha Plimpton, Kiele Sanchez, Eddie Shin, Nate Torrence, and Dreama Walker on board…Speaking of Showtime, the network is developing a reality series where each week a person reveals their homosexuality to their friends and family. Way Out is from one of the executive producers of A & E's Intervention…From the Never Ending Story That No One Really Cares About file comes news that Tori Spelling is once again in talks to appear as Donna Martin on the new 90210…The great John Glover will play Sylar's Dad on an upcoming episode of Heroes…ABC has signed Taylor Swift, the Jonas Brothers, Lionel Ritchie, Fall Out Boy, Ne-Yo, and Pussycat Dolls to appear on Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve, while Fox has lined up David Cook, Scott Weiland, and Robbie Knievel jumping over a volcano for their New Year's Eve Live…

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…Regular readers know that I am a huge fan of NBC's Life, and last Wednesday's Evil…And his Brother Ziggy episode could have received this honor thanks to Damian Lewis' continued excellence as Charlie Crews, for the wonderful dinner scene at Charlie's house, or even just for the dialogue involving deer stew, but the truth is the moment Sarah Shahi walked slowly out of the bathroom and straddled the very lucky Donal Logue during the show's opening scenes, this award was in the bag. Sure, I can look at TV intellectually, breaking down the high and low points of just about any show, but sometimes I am just a man.

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…I am not saying that Ed Westwick's brooding performance on Gossip Girl was over the top this week as Chuck Bass dealt with the death of his father but Holly Hunter called in from the set of Saving Grace and said she thought he might have pushed it a bit…Nice turns by Katee Sackhoff and the highly underrated Clancy Brown on last week's Law and Order, although I am not sure I buy Tom Everett as the Governor of New York…Am I the only one who thinks that this season of House has been pretty pedestrian? Maybe it's because the final two episodes of last season were so good but other than the Cameron/Chase-centric outing a couple of weeks ago, almost everything so far this fall has been blah. Sadly, the most interesting character was the private eye, who has since disappeared…Brothers and Sisters on Sunday was a great example of long term storytelling; I had actually forgotten about Tommy not being the biological father of his child, and bringing it up for the first time in over a year made the whole thing seem much less manipulative than it could have otherwise. Any parents who were watching were more than likely as much of an emotional wreck as I was while watching…Hey, Gary Busey just sent a text saying he thought Ed Westwick might want to dial it back a notch…Desperate Housewives continued it's run of strong episodes this Sunday with a nice mix of comedy, romance, and plot revelations. I was right about Dave's connection to Wysteria Lane after all!!!...Another week, another stellar episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I made a comment last week about how they change things up each time out and this week was no exception, using flashbacks and flashforwards to tell their story…This is my weekly Gary Unmarried confessional; I know it's bad but it still makes me laugh a couple of times and is perfect to watch while ironing or doing a late night feeding of the twins. Ed Begley, Jr. was particularly funny this week…John Lithgow's Facebook status is that Ed Westwick would have been a welcome addition to the Third Rock cast…I know I promised some in-depth coverage of Top Chef this season but I am finding the opening episodes to be so packed with the challenges that it's hard for me to really feel that strongly about the contestants one way or the other. Sure, I like Carla and Fabio, but none of them have really grabbed me…The move to New York and the development of the Betty – Amanda friendship have gone a long way to returning Ugly Betty to the high quality of its first season…It was great to see Brian Benben return to TV when he appeared in what will clearly be a recurring role on Private Practice. Dream On was many a teenage boy's best friend back in the day…Rip Taylor stopped by to say he thinks Ed Westwick nailed it…I have been extremely disappointed by Dirty Sexy Money this season but the twist of having Simon own half of Darling Enterprises was a good one, as is the tension between Trip and Nick. Too bad the show is ending soon. My prediction as to Dutch's murdered, which they are saying will be wrapped up by series end? He's not really dead…The last new Grey's Anatomy episode of 2008 took a step towards a return to respectability; the Sloane – Little Grey pairing could be one of the hottest of the season, and someone finally noticed that Izzy is nuts.

TV Pick Of The Week
Regular readers know that I like reality show that take me into a world I wouldn't otherwise see, ideally teaching while entertaining, and Secrets of the Kung Fu Temple more than qualifies. The Shaolin Temple in rural China is the birthplace of kung fu and this documentary special on National Geographic traces its history while showing the monks who currently occupy the temple going through their intensive training. It also delves into the multi-million dollar business empire that has been built around Shaolin. And yes, there will be some kick-ass kung fu moves, too. Don't miss Secrets of the Kung Fu Temple this Thursday at 10 pm on NatGeo.

Here is some other noteworthy programming of the next seven days…

*The Starter Wife wraps up its first season tonight at 10 pm on USA.

*Those wishing to feel bad about themselves and that they need to get more exercise should tune into the Ironman World Championship Triathlon Saturday at 2:30 on NBC.

*Heat and Snow finally get their due when ABC Family debuts the new holiday special, A Miser Brother's Christmas Saturday at 8 pm.

*Sunday is finale night; Survivor: Gabon (8 pm, CBS), Dexter (9 pm, Showtime), and Californication (10 pm, Showtime) wrap up their current seasons.

*Tom Cruise sits down with Matt Lauer on Monday's Today Show (7 am, NBC), 3 1/2 years after their infamous faceoff.

*Speaking of finales, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (8 pm, Fox) and Heroes (9 pm, NBC) air what their networks are calling "mid-season finales" on Monday.

*A & E's Intervention begins a new season – just in time for the holidays – Monday at 10 pm.

*The Biggest Loser (NBC) crowns a new champ Tuesday at 8 pm, and later on that evening Lifetime's Blush picks its first winner. Speaking of new reality shows selecting winners, Stylista does so the next night (Wednesday, 8 pm, The CW).

*Who doesn't love the Muppets?!?!? They're back with a new holiday special – Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa – Wednesday at 8 pm on NBC.

*TTTP fave Garrett Dillahunt reprises his first season role as a Russian mobster on Life (Wednesday, 9 pm NBC).

*30 Rock airs back-to-back reruns of standout episodes Thursday at 9; first up is the Oprah outing that I thought was the show's best ever, and it's followed by Jennifer Aniston's guest turn as Jack's new psycho girlfriend. Speaking of Jen, how about that GQ cover, huh?

*Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew (VH-1) brings season two to a close on Thursday at 10 pm.

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. We'll be back next week with the regular news report before you get two weeks of year-In-review; first up will be the Top 10 Comedy and Drama series of 2008, followed the next week by the annual Top 10 TV Entertainers of the Year edition. I'm making my list and checking it twice, and it looks like a couple of winners may stop by with acceptance speeches. See you next Friday!

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.