Two Tivos To Paradise 12.19.08: The Pre-Holiday Edition!

Posted by Al Norton on 12.19.2008

Jessica Alba & Jack Black guest onThe Office, SAG Award nominations, changes to American Idol, which shows are DVR'd the most, details on the new Stargate series, a rundown of Christmas Eve and Christmas day television, raves for Best Year Ever, 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're back with our last all-news edition of the year. Oh, we'll still be here the next two weeks but with our annual year-in-review specials as opposed to the usual format. Despite the end of the year fast approaching there is still a pretty decent amount of TV news coming out every day, which is great because I was worried about how much filler I'd have to use this week.

Met my old lover at the grocery store, the news was falling Christmas Eve.

We Sing About Beauty And We Sing About Truth At $10,000 A Show
An internal Fox Network memo leaked last week that detailed some of the planned changes to the upcoming season of American Idol, the first of which is a reduction of the audition episodes that usually highlight the crazy and wacky potential contestants. The trickle down effect from there will be more episodes in the Hollywood rounds (which will take place at the same theater the finale originate from), an increase of the number of semi-finalists from 24 to 36, and the return of the wild card round, where previously eliminated singers get a second chance to make the finals. Another bit of information is that their Idol Gives Back charity fundraising special will become an every-other-year event. Producers have also confirmed they plan to spend more time showing the contestants when they are not on stage, airing rehearsal footage as well as shots of them hanging out and being themselves.

Here is a list of the key dates for the early part of Season 8
Tuesday, January 8th – Two hour season premiere
Wednesday, January 9th – Part two of season premiere (also two hours)
Tuesday, February 3rd – 1st Hollywood Episode
Wednesday, February 11th – 36 semi-finalists announced
Tuesday, February 16th – First performances that audience votes for
Wednesday, February 17th – First audience elimination
Thursday, March 5th – Wildcard round, Final 12 contestants announced
Tuesday, March 10th – First episode where final 12 perform

I know that some of you roll your eyes (or worse) at the mention of American Idol but the simple truth is it continues to be far and away the most watched show in the country and as such, commands some column inches. Plus, the new schedule should make some in-roads among those who think they spent too much time celebrating the weird and wacky those first few weeks. While the producers would like you think that specific change was made solely to shine a spotlight on more deserving contestants, there is no doubt that the recent suicide of a Paula Abdul obsessed fan who once auditioned for the show played a part in the decision making process.

He'd Like To Come Meet Us But He Thinks He'd Blow Our Minds
Robert Carlyle is taking is his first U.S. series lead on the latest edition of the Stargate Franchise. Stargate Universe is the third series from Brad Wright and Robert Cooper and has received a 20 episode order from Sci Fi. Production of the series begins in February and the show will be launched with a two hour premiere during the summer.

The network has billed this new series as "darker and edgier" than the two earlier shows, and Carlyle is a strong choice to play the leader of a group of survivors of an attack who must pilot an ancient and alien starship in order to find their way back home. He is best known for his roles in Trainspotting, The Full Monty and The World Is Not Enough, and he recently appeared in 24: Redemption on Fox.. Sci Fi plans to surround him with lesser known actors – "fresh faces" – so this is likely the last bit of casting news for SU.

We Have The Grace Of Actors On A Stage, We Orchestrate The Moves That Compliment The Play
Nominations for the 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards were announced on Thursday morning. The actual ceremony will take place on January 25th, shown on both TBS and TNT. Below is a list of the major TV awards.

Outstanding performance by a male actor in a drama series
Michael C Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House
William Shatner, Boston Legal
James Spader, Boston Legal

No Bryan Cranston for Breaking Bad?!?!? This is as an outrage, or as close to outrage as I can muster for the SAG awards. In my mind to not include such a clearly incredible performance devalues the award itself. Not to mention the lack of Michael Emerson's name among these nominees. I love Boston Legal as much, or frankly more than, the next guy, but they should not be on this list this year. If I was filling out my ballot I'd have Damian Lewis (Life) over Hugh Laurie.

Outstanding performance by a female actor in a drama series
Sally Field, Brothers and Sisters
Mariska Hargitay, Law and Order: SVU
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace
Elizabeth Moss, Mad Men
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

Despite my thinking she gave a tremendously overrated performance I am shocked Glenn Close (Damages) is not among these nominees. January Jones from Mad Men should be there in place of either Hunter or Hargitay, and I would put Rachel Griffiths over Sally Field if they are looking to nominate someone from Brothers and Sisters. Katy Segall's work on Sons of Anarchy deserves to be recognized as well.

Outstanding performance by a male actor in a comedy series
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carrell, The Office
David Duchovny, Californication
Jeremy Piven, Entourage
Tony Shalhoub, Monk

This group falls under the category of "same old same old." James Roday from PSYCH gets overlooked again, which is a shame. Matt Keesler from The Middleman should have received some consideration as well. No Neil Patrick Harris?!?!?

Outstanding performance by a female actor in a comedy series
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds
Tracy Ullman, Tracy Ullman's State of the Union

Natalie Morales' work on The Middleman is easily among the five best on TV this year, and I would swap her for Ullman in a heartbeat.

Outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series
Boston Legal
Dexter
House
Mad Men
The Closer

Again with the lack of love for Breaking Bad, which should listed above in place of House or Boston Legal. Sons of Anarchy should be on this list, too. I am pleased to see the exemplary cast of The Closer getting a spotlight.

Outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series
30 Rock
Desperate Housewives
Entourage
The Office
Weeds

I think Desperate Housewives has been excellent this season so I am pleased to see it on this list, although once again I wish more people had seen The Middleman. I would put How I Met Your Mother in place of Entourage without thinking twice.

Your Eyes Are Saying "Talk To Me, Talk To Me" But Your Attitude Is "Don't Waste My Time"
The Nielsen Company released a list of the shows that had the biggest increase of viewership when DVR use is factored in, the first time in history they have done so.

Largest Total Audience Increase
American Idol (Tuesdays), 2.15 million
American Idol (Wednesdays), 1.95 million
Heroes, 1.83 million
Lost, 1.79 million
Fringe, 1.60 million
House, 1.45 million
The Mentalist, 1.45 million
Survivor, 1.40 million
Grey's Anatomy, 1.36 million
Bones, 1.33 million

Largest % Audience Increase
Battlestar Galactica, 53%
Burn Notice, 37%
Heroes, 35%
90210, 35%
Sanctuary, 35%
Eureka, 35%
My Boys, 32%
PSYCH, 29%
In Plain Sight, 28%
The Starter Wife, 27%

Well the first observation is that people use DVR for a lot of cable shows; 8 of the 10 % increase series are on basic cable. After that there really aren't a ton of surprises but it's clearly worth noting that the DVR audience is more than enough to push a show from the bubble to clear renewal.

Here We Are As In Olden Days, Happy Golden Days Of Yore
For those of you who plan on spending any part of Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day plopped in front of the TV, here is a guide to some of the special programming available for your viewing pleasure.

Christmas Eve Movies/Specials/Sporting Events
Chronicles of Narnia, 8 pm, ABC
It's A Wonderful Life, 8 pm, NBC
Sheraton Hawaii Bowl (Hawaii – Notre Dame), 8 pm, ESPN
James Bond Festival, 9 am, Spike
A Christmas Story, 8 pm, TBS (Runs for 24 hours straight)

Christmas Eve Marathons
17 Kids And Counting (18 episodes), 6 pm, TLC
Dog the Bounty Hunter (25 episodes), 8 am, A & E
Scariest Places on Earth (11 episodes), 8 am, Sci Fi
Ghost Hunters (10 episodes), 7 pm, Sci Fi
Top Chef (13 episodes), noon, Bravo
Man Vs Wild (16 episodes), 11 am, Discovery

Christmas Day Movies/Specials/Sporting Events
Deal or No Deal, 8 pm, NBC
Sportscenter Year in Review, 8:30, ESPN
The Best of This is Sportscenter, 10 pm, ESPN
The Incredibles, 6 pm, ABC Family
Cars, 8:30 pm, ABC Family

Christmas Day Marathons
House (14 episodes), 11 am, USA
Law and Order (18 episodes), 2 am, TNT
Little People, Big World (36 episodes), 9 am, TLC
Ski Patrol (18 episodes), 9 am, Tru TV
Mythbusters (17 episodes), 9 am, Discovery
Star Trek: Next Generation (22 episodes), 8 am, Sci Fi
Snapped (38 episodes), 8 am, Oxygen
The Academy (Full season 2), 9 am, Fox Reality
Whacked Out Videos (14 episodes), 10 am, G$

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...Even before the announcement of his upcoming prime time series, Jay Leno's Tonight Show ratings were surging; his 5.3 million average for the week ending December 5th was his best since the first post-WGA strike week in February…Laurence Fishburne's CSI debut helped the show to its best numbers since the season premiere, with 20.6 million tuning in. Those numbers helped lead-out Eleventh Hour to it's best night ever (13.4 million)…Thanks to ABC and The CW showing reruns, NBC's Thursday comedy block had it's best outing since the end of October…Sunday's season finale of Dexter was the most watched show on Showtime since 2004, up 9% from season two's end and 25% from season one. Californication signed off to a season high…The season debut of Intervention provided the A & E series its best demo numbers ever… CBS comedies did very well on Monday night, with The Big Bang Theory (total audience) and How I Met Your Mother (demos) both setting series highs...Two and a Half Men had it's biggest audience since February of 2007, which was the night after CBS aired the Superbowl…Even Worst Week scored, posting it's strongest numbers since its season premiere, the second time in two weeks it set that bar…Good news for Chuck fans – Monday's excellent outing had the best demos since the season premiere…NCIS picked up 1.3 million viewers from last week, which led to a series high 19.86 million tuning in, which in turn helped lead-out The Mentalist posting a series high of its own with 19.33 million...The season finale of The Biggest Loser was Tuesday's biggest demo winner…Momma's Boys debuted in front of just over 6 million pairs of eyes, a little over a million more than who watched Eli Stone and over 8 million less than Without A Trace…Muppet Christmas: Lettters To Santa finished thisclose to New Adventures of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried in total audience while topping both in the key adult demos…Secret Millionaire dropped over 20% from last week…

All The Young Dudes Carry The News
Industry News, Notes, and Hot Rumors…Jessica Alba and Jack Black will guest star on the hour long episode of The Office that will air following The Super Bowl in February. The plot finds the Dunder Mifflin employees trying to waste time during a day of work by watching a bootleg copy of new movie, a movie starring Alba and Black…Hugh Jackman will host The Oscars this February…The American Film Institute's list of the 10 best TV programs of 2008 was: Breaking Bad, In Treatment, John Adams, Life, Lost, Mad Men, The Office, Recount, The Shield, and The Wire…Fox has ordered 13 episodes of Glee, Ryan Murphy's (Nip/Tuck) new Fox dramedy set in the world of high school glee clubs. The network is so high on the show it's considering launching it in the spring with an American Idol lead-in…Russell Hornsby (Lincoln Heights) will be one of Gabriel Byrne's new patients on the upcoming season of In Treatment…Fox Reality is moving forward on Hollywood Househusbands, picking up 9 hour long episodes of the series that chronicles the day-to-day activities of some stay-at-home-Dads, all of whom are married to very successful women. Two of those taking part are Darryl M Bell (married to Tempest Bledsoe) and Grant Reynolds (married to Jillian Barberie Reynolds). Former LA Dodger Billy Ashley is also one of the househusbands…Michael Weston, last seen stealing scenes as House's private eye, will do a guest appearance on CSI during March sweeps…NBC Universal has picked up a 5th season of the syndicated Martha Stewart Show…Bravo ordered a new season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta…The Mark Burnett produced reality show Toughest Cowboy will begin it's first season run on Spike on January 29th. 12 cowboys will compete in roping and riding competitions, with one person being eliminated each week and the winner getting his own ranch in Wyoming…Halle Berry and Tyler Perry will host The 40th Annual NAACP Image Awards on Fox this February…Fans of Flight of the Conchords can watch the season two premiere at www.funnyordie.com now, weeks before it's January 18th airdate on HBO…With NBC's exclusive rights package for the Olympics ending with the 2012 winter games in Vancouver, CBS and TNT are considering a joint bid for the games. ESPN and Fox are already on record as mulling (individual) offers…Sci FI has signed Ghost Hunters creator Craig Pilligian to a new multi-year deal that includes a sixth season of GH, a second season of Ghost Hunters: International, six episode order of Ghost Hunters: Next Generation (college students investigating paranormal activity), and at least one other new show…HBO officially gave Hung a 10 episode order. Starring Thomas Jane, the dark comedy from the creator of The Riches tells the story of a down on his luck high school gym teacher who learns to use his being extremely well-endowed to his advantage in life…Speaking of HBO, Big Love returns with it's third season on Sunday, January 18th…

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…I am nothing if not open minded and even handed so it's with great pleasure I report that despite not liking what they have done to the weekly series at all, the 2008 in review Best Year Ever was a highly entertaining hour of TV. I love Paul F Tompkins but think that he is at his best with people to play off of, and BYE brought back many regulars from the pre-makeover BWE, including TTTP favorite Doug Benson. I am sure VH-1 will be re-showing it quite a bit over the next week or two so find a hour that fits into your schedule and plop yourself down on the couch for 60 minutes of quality snark.

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…Finally, a Top Chef episode I could sink my teeth into. It's not a coincidence that the first episode I really enjoyed this season was one that ran an hour and 15 minutes, meaning they actually had some to time to delve into the personalities of the chefs and not just food…It's too bad Saturday Night Live couldn't have given Amy Poehler a better send off; other than the couple writing their annual holiday letter, I hardly laughed at all…The Starter Wife signed off on a decent note, although one that made me think the producers didn't really know if they are getting a second season. What is not in question is Debra Messing's ability to handle dramedy…The Boston Legal finale was just ok to me, lacking in any real celebration of the history of the show and instead focusing almost entirely on Alan and Denny. Don't get me wrong, I love the two characters and found their marriage to be quite the fitting way for them to go out, but nothing reminded me of the highs the show hit in its history. Don't get me started on Shirley's rather odd prejudice against the Chinese or the huge missed opportunity by David E Kelley in the naming of the new head of litigation; I was sure he was going to pull a Mary Tyler Moore and have Harlan named to lead the department…Chuck wrapped up 2008 with a fantastic episode, one that gave us the most tended and real moment between Chuck and Sara in series history and then one that gave us a truly shocking moment at the end. Having her go to such extremes to make sure he remained safe was a stroke of genius from the writers as it made the audience aware of just how deeply she cares for him and made him aware of just what she is capable of. I am really looking forward to how this plays out over the rest of the season. LOVED the Die Hard references, right down to Reg VelJohnson eating a twinkie…Terminator: The Sarah Connor is so good that even episodes that I don't fully understand, like Monday's "fall season finale", are still highly entertaining…Barney's dirty Christmas carols about Ted's sister were enough to make Monday's How I Met Your Mother worth watching, let alone the Marshal's bar, Lily's inability to keep a secret, and the mix of comedy and warm fuzzies that make the show among the best sitcoms on TV...

TV Pick Of The Week
I know that the NBA shows games on Christmas – I have watched part of at least one most years – but was unaware how much they have taken over the day as far as sports programming goes. There are FIVE games that will air over three networks, one of which is a rematch of last year's finals, with both teams reign as the best in their respective conferences continuing on into this season…

New Orleans Hornets – Orlando Magic, Noon, ESPN
San Antonio Spurs – Phoenix Suns, 2:30 pm, ABC
Boston Celtics – LA Lakers, 5 pm, ABC
Washington Wizards – Cleveland Cavaliers, 8 pm, TNT
Dallas Mavericks - Portland Trailblazers , 10:30 pm, TNT

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

*NBC counts down The Greatest Holiday Moments in movie & TV history Friday night at 8 pm.

*The Brotherhood season two finale airs Sunday at 8 pn Showtime. Rumor has it this will be the series finale as well.

*Fox reruns this year's Treehouse of Horror episode of The Simpsons Sunday at 8 pm.

*Rock of Love: Charm School wraps up its first season Sunday at 9 pm on VH-1.

*The Today Show gets an hour long year-in-review prime time special – 2008: Today Looks Back - Monday at 8 pm.

*Catch the Prison Break fall finale Monday at 8 pm on Fox.

*The annual Year in Soup special debuts Monday at 10 pm on E!.

*Kevin Nealon is back as host of TBS Funniest Commercials of 2008 Tuesday at 9 pm.

*Frank TV brings its second season to a close Tuesday at 11 pm on TBS.

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, Iron Chef, 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. I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday next week, surrounded by loved ones. This year will be extra special for us as it will be our first with the twins.

Don't forget to check out www.willdailey.com for the Dailey Weekly, a regular interview feature I do with the official singer/songwriter of Two Tivos To Paradise.

We'll be back next week with the TTTP list of the Top 10 Comedy and Drama series of 2008. 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.