Filed under: Industry, Programming, OpEd, Cable/Satellite, News and Gossip

Have been itching for a fix of South Park, Spongebob or Bonanza?

Well, bite down on some leather, drink plenty of fluids, and get ready for some long nights of withdrawal, because Viacom is pulling 18 channels off the air from all of Time Warner Cable’s outlets in protest over their recent carriage fee raises.

That means if you’re a TWC customer and a fan of anything on Comedy Central, VH1, Spike, Nickelodeon, Logo, CMT or (if you’re totally blind and deaf) MTV, you’re boned.

Continue reading Viacom going black on Time Warner Cable

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Filed under: Industry, Scrubs, Reality-Free

It’s a question worth asking as we approach the show’s supposed final season.

In an article that ran in yesterday’s New York Times, Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence confirmed that ABC, the show’s new home, might continue the show in some form after the upcoming eighth season. As we reported in November, star Zach Braff and Lawrence are both leaving Scrubs after season eight, even if the show continues. I’m not opposed to the idea of keeping the show going without them, but I got one question — What would a Braff and Lawrence-free Scrubs look like?

“It would have to be like Frasier was to Cheers, ” Lawrence told the NYT.

Continue reading Would you watch Scrubs sans Zach Braff?

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Filed under: Late Night, News, Industry, Ratings, News and Gossip, Reality-Free

Remember the good old days, when becoming a joke in Johnny Carson’s monologue was considered a bad thing for politicians? Some wily, horny old goat on the Senate Subcommittee for Restocking the Senate Office Supply Cabinet would get caught with a hooker nest in the middle of an underground speakeasy. And before you could say “Heavens to Teddy,” he would be the punchline of some joke that involved a gallon of bathtub gin, a forklift full of Chinese geishas, and at least two camels.

Those days are deader than disco. 2008 marked an historic turning point in American politics, since politicians quadrupled the number of appearances they made on late night comedy shows.

Oh, and America elected their first African-American president, too.

Continue reading Late night no longer a threat to politics - VIDEO

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

It looks like the Flight of the Conchords premiere shown exclusively on the web at FunnyOrDie.com and HBO.com drew 250,000 views in the first 10 days. The article doesn’t state whether or not that represents very special views or the same person viewing it 250,000 times (where was Kristen Schaal during the past 10 days?), but it likely was the former.

It states a lot about the power of on the web buzz, given that the last season premiere had only 100,000 views (before Flight of the Conchords had mainstream popularity in the States). Fans like me have waited two years for the next season (which, I understand, was held up because the duo was busy writing new songs for the second season), and it was nice to be able to watch the premiere on the internet in advance of its initial TV broadcast. Other networks should follow HBO’s pattern to generate buzz for their programming.

I received a couple of their albums for the holidays (better late than never). My favorite song of theirs is “Bowie”.

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Filed under: Industry, OpEd, The Office, Reality-Free

Do you have a flair for design? Do you like television? Would you like to use your talents to do something television-related that doesn’t include you being a contestant on Project Runway, where you’ll eventually start crying at some point? Well, NBC might be the right place for you! Because they’re so strapped for cash right now they’re looking to their viewers to help design some of their new merchandise.

Specifically, they’re looking for some new T-shirts for The Office. All you’ve to do is download the T-shirt template that NBC is providing, choose a shirt color, create and save the design as a pic, and upload it to the Office website by January 29th. Visitors to the Office website will judge your designs and pick twenty of the ideal. It will then be up to the producers of the show to pick the three winning designs.

Continue reading NBC wants you to make their new Office t-shirt — cheap bastards!

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Filed under: Industry, Reality-Free

In a shining example of the sort of litigation that goes on all of the time in Hollywood, Warner Brothers Television has freshly sued CBS over residuals from the show Two and a Half Men. Mind you, this sort of behavior is nothing new in the entertainment industry. Just look at what’s happening with the Watchmen motion picture.

The creative bookkeeping of the entertainment industry never ceases to amaze me. I recall a business class in which I learned that on paper Gone With The Wind was still showing a loss six decades after its initial release.

My favorite part of the article was CBS’s response statement: “Wow, I wonder what they got the other networks for Christmas.” My sentiments exactly.

It’s a shame that the WB (whose own network, The CW, is in dire straits right now) couldn’t get into the spirit of the holiday and wait a day to deliver the summons. Bah, humbug.

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Filed under: Industry, Ratings, Reality-Free

No, I’m not referring to Jack Black or Lewis Black or our own Jay Black. I’m referring to the fact that CBS has managed to become the first network to actually show a profit in these difficult economic times, thereby proving that there’s still money to be made.

While I don’t watch the big CBS dramas like NCIS and The Mentalist, I have seen episodes of How I Met Your Mother and The Massive Bang Theory and enjoyed both, wishing that there were more hours in the day that I could watch even more Television than I do (although I still doubt I’d ever watch Two and a Half Men, but that’s just me).

Even more interesting is the fact that all the above shows have gone into reruns and yet CBS has still managed to swing a profit. Hopefully networks will take this as a sign that scripted shows triumph over all other types, but I tend to doubt it.

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Filed under: Industry, Reality-Free

In an economy where businesses fight to simply survive, it’s more and more unlikely that they will shell out the $3 million for a 30-second spot that the Super Bowl requires. Leave it to NBC and ad agency Cesario Migliozzi to figure out a way around that.

They’re taking the thirty second commercial and sharing it among advertisers each of whom pay a fraction of the cost. On one hand, it’s a brilliant business move. It only takes a few seconds for subliminal advertising to work (which is why there are billboards along the highways of most of the country). On the other hand, it’s unlikely we’d get any of the pleasing storyline commercials that take two or three spots (these are usually the best part of the broadcast).

If this works, then it could be new way for advertisers to inundate the public during one of the most watched television events of the year. It’s just another step in making television and the World wide web into the same thing.

UPDATE: It looks like NBC nixed the idea.

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Filed under: Industry, Programming, OpEd, Web, Festivus, Reality-Free, Webisodes

Um, I don’t know if anyone has told you yet, but the economy of the United Says, and the world, is in the crapper. Seriously, I saw it one day while doing my business. It was just floating there … one step away from being flushed into the world of depression. I had to get it out with a piece of toilet paper, and it’s now drying on my bathtub ledge. Gosh, I hope it’s okay.

Anyhoo, things are bad out there. And, not just for us working peons. This recession is affecting everyone, from the muckity-muck CEOs of the soon-to-be bankrupt corporations, to the hot dog vendor outside of Penn Station whose wieners are spending longer and longer amounts of time in their hot water bath. Somewhere in the middle of this are the television networks. Buffeted by both good and bad news, these former stalwarts of the economy are getting knocked around, as well. The meaning, for us poor schlubs, is a restructuring of television as we know it.

Continue reading Top Television Stories of 2008: The economy’s effect on the TV industry

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Filed under: Industry, Ratings, Reality-Free

It looks as if The CW might have backed the wrong horse. My Network Television is going strong in the ratings and has been beating The CW for the past three weeks.

The biggest mistake made by The CW was probably abandoning wrestling programming (which was picked up by My Network TV) in an effort to go for the Gossip Girl demographic. This tactic seemed unusual to me at the time because 1) wrestling, care about it or not, brings in strong ratings, and 2) usually after establishing oneself, a network tries to expand its programming to get to the widest base possible rather than limit itself to a particular group.

While I’m liking Smallville again this season, I have the ability to only hope that The CW uses this as motivation to create some programming that a variety of people like. If it doesn’t, then the channel reserved for The CW on my cable box could become My Network Television sometime in the near future.

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