Filed under: Industry, CSI, How I Met Your Mother, TCA Press Tour, Moonlight, Reality-Free

The first day of the combined CBS / CW / Showtime part of the tour kicked off with the executive session from CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler. Before she got on stage, the network showed a montage of their shows. It was then I realized, “Boy, I really don’t watch anything on this network, do I?” I mean, outside of the Monday comedies and The Price is Right, there isn’t one show on the Eye net that I tune in on a daily basis.

Anyway, she addressed the departure of William Peterson from CSI, just about right off the bat, giving the gathered writers a clue as to the nature of the character who will be coming in to fill his void. Oh, and Tassler is studying to become a cantor. For some reason, a reporter asked her about that.

Continue reading CBS executive session: Peterson’s CSI departure, Moonlight fans, and a different sensibility - TCA Report

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Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Industry, Programming, Celebrities, Pickups and Renewals

Sure, going to jail may be a poor life choice, but when you’re a reality TV star, it’s certainly not going to injured your career. Despite the fact that Khloe Kardashian is headed to the slammer for a 30-day stint, E! has just announced that it is renewing Keeping Up with the Kardashians for a third season.

Keeping Up follows Khloe, her sister Kourtney and the infamous Kim Kardashian as they deal with their family (mom Kris Jenner is married to former Olympic champion Bruce Jenner) and life in LA as they try to stay in the public eye. Previous episodes have dealt with the fallout from Kim’s sex tape, Kourtney’s underage naked pics, and Khloe’s DUI arrest. As Lisa Berger, E!’s executive VP original programming and series development understates, “There is never a shortage on drama, and we are certain the new season will be another wild ride,”

People are definitely watching. While its numbers would get a network show canceled in a heartbeat, Keeping Up with the Kardashians‘ 1.6 million viewer average makes it a hit on E! Ten episodes have been ordered for season 3, which will premiere early next year.

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Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Industry, Desperate Housewives, Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Hideous Betty, Brothers and Sisters, TCA Press Tour, Private Practice, Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, Reality-Free

I wanted to wait a bit before I posted about the ABC showrunner panel, because a) I already posted about the “news” from Shonda Rhimes about Katherine Heigl’s statements, and b) I wanted to consider why these panels seem to be so much more informative than the individual show panels?

We’ll get to that more later. On the panel were Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice), Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives), Silvio Horta (Ugly Betty), Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (Lost), and Greg Berlanti (seemingly the rest of ABC’s schedule). As you’d expect, Rhimes got the Heigl questions, Lindelof and Cuse got the most esoteric questions, and Chery made the most jokes. The funniest line, though, came from Horta.

Continue reading ABC show-runner panel: Heigl, Lost’s endpoint, and musical theater - TCA Report

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Filed under: Industry, Desperate Housewives, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free

Thanks to Marc Cherry and Shonda Rhimes, the ABC show-runner panel was a good way to begin the afternoon. Unfortunately, things went downhill from there, as the panels for Dirty Sexy Money, Private Practice, and Desperate Housewives were surprisingly dull, especially considering the fact that Cherry and Rhimes returned for the DH and Practice panels, respectively.

Even something Cherry said that seemed enjoy it would be news — that he’s going to end DH after the seventh season — turned out to be old hat, as he announced the very same thing at the Winter 2007 tour. “Yeah, I’ve made the decision that after seven years, I will probably keel over in a hump and die,” he said. “I love my baby, you know. I love working with these gals, but the idea of letting anyone else take the show from me kind of makes me sad and sick to my stomach.”

Continue reading Desperate Housewives panel: Five years older, and surprisingly dull - TCA Report

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Filed under: Industry, Grey’s Anatomy, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free

The always lively ABC show-runner panel just ended. Included on the panel were Shonda Rhimes, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, Marc Cherry, Greg Berlanti and Silvio Horta. Lindelof made some jokes, and Cherry tried to translate sports metaphors to musical theater metaphors. But we knew one question would come up a few times: How Rhimes reacted to Katherine Heigl’s remark about removing herself from Emmy consideration for her work on Grey’s Anatomy this season.

What I didn’t know was that the most interesting answers would come from my questions.

Continue reading Shonda Rhimes: Heigl requested lighter story in second half of season - TCA Report

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Filed under: Industry, Programming, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free

9:23: Here are all of the nominations. Leave your comments below as to what should have been nominated but wasn’t and the nominations that make you roll you eyes and state, “give me a break…”

9:22: I’ve a feeling James Spader is going to lose this year.

9:20: Battlestar Galactica fans will be happy to see a nom in the writing category.

9:18: So…no nomination for The Wire? That’s going to make fans throw their TV sets through their windows (though TV sets are harder to lift nowadays…maybe they’ll just kick them in). Still not sure why Jon Cryer is “supporting” and Charlie Sheen is “lead” on Two and a Half Men.

9:15: So I lied. Instead of reposting up here I just went back to the entries below (oh, the wonder of the web!) and put show titles in, made them italic, made everything easier to read.

Continue reading TV Squad Live Blogging: the Emmy nominations

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Filed under: Industry, Programming, Ratings, Reality-Free

Here are the weekly cable ratings, by number of viewers.

Yes! The second season premiere of Burn Notice hit #2 this week! Sure, it was expected, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fantastic news. USA has a ton of shows in the top 10, actually, taking six of the spots. Those Sprint Cup races seem to make an appearance every week now, as do Army Wives on Lifetime and something on Disney Channel that features a Hannah and/or a Jonas brother.

1. Monday Night RAW (USA)
2. Burn Notice (USA)
3. Sprint Cup - Chicago (TNT)
4. In Plain Sight (USA)
5. Monday Night RAW (USA)
6. Law and Order: CI (USA)
7. Picture This (ABC Family)
8. Camp Rock (Disney)
9. Law and Order: SVU (USA)
10. Army Wives (Lifetime)

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Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Industry, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free

For some reason, reporters were kicked out of the ballroom so ABC could set up for this press conference. But all I saw when I walked in an hour later was palm trees and 1973-era ABC signs (like in the picture above). Wonder why I had to abandon my laptop for that?

Anyway, because many of the critics were fans of the BBC original, the gathered throng of testy Television watchers were eager to question the panel for ABC’s version of Life on Mars. It was a relatively small panel, with executive producers Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec, and stars Jason O’Mara and Michael Imperioli. You have to realize that having no pilot to base questions on makes us critics a cranky bunch, and the fact that the show is undergoing a show-runner change (from David E. Kelley to the Applebaum and Nemec), a massive recasting (all of the original pilot’s cast, except for O’Mara, is being recast as we speak) and location change (LA to New York) only fuels more questions.

All things considered, the critics took it relatively simple on the panel.

Continue reading Life on Mars panel: A new mythology … and many more choices - TCA Report

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Filed under: Industry, Game Show, TCA Press Tour, Eli Stone, Reality-Free

The remaining panels on ABC’s first day were for Eli Stone, the Ashton Kutcher-produced game show Opportunity Knocks, and a panel for the upcoming Country Music Association events on the network. For the latter panel, Julianne Hough, who has twice partnered with the celebrity champion of Dancing with the Stars, sang a few songs from her current country album. Pretty girl. Nice voice. Dancer’s body. But that’s all I have the ability to say about the panel, because I bolted shortly after she was done singing.

The Eli Stone panel featured the entire cast along with executive producers Greg Berlanti (who seems to be producing two-thirds of ABC’s scripted dramas) and Marc Guggenheim. Surprisingly enough, there was only one question about the presence of Katie Holmes as a guest star this season. The reason why she’s there is a shock — they brought her in to get ratings! Will wonders never cease?

Continue reading ABC wrap-up: Eli Stone, a DWTSer sings, and Ashton Kutcher hates my question - TCA Report

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Filed under: Industry, Lost, Scrubs, Grey’s Anatomy, TCA Press Tour, Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, Reality-Free

After Jimmy Kimmel left the room, ABC Entertainment Steve McPherson got on with the business of facing the press at his executive session. I kicked it off with a question about Scrubs, following up on what Bill Lawrence told me in May about a possible “next generation” ninth season.

“We do think there’s an opportunity after (this eighth season),” stated McPherson. “If any or all the cast is a part of that, I think there’s a growth (opportunity) there. It’s a show that, despite being moved around into like 17 time periods and really never being given the marketing support, has really performed unbelievably well on NBC.” He went on to say that they hope “it won’t be a one-season situation.”

Other than that, most of the conversation revolved around the network’s returning shows, which makes sense, since the network is only debuting a few new shows (none of which had pilots that the network thought were suitable for preview) this fall.

Continue reading ABC president: We’re prioritizing returning shows, and Heigl is staying - TCA Report

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