What are you watching this summer?

[lurkey]

AMPTP Walks From SAG Talks; Repeat Of Big Media Arrogance Towards WGA; SAG & AMPTP Spar In Statements

AFTRA Starts Its AMPTP Talks Tomorrow ETA: tomorrow as in today May 8th

[Brent]

AMPTP Walks From SAG Talks; Repeat Of Big Media Arrogance Towards WGA; SAG & AMPTP Spar In Statements

AFTRA Starts Its AMPTP Talks Tomorrow

Gah, it's dejavu all over again.

Oh well, at least SOME shows are preparing for a strike. (FWIW: Next week is upfronts, ABC and The CW Tuesday, CBS Wednesday, and FOX next Thursday, NBC already announced though I expect a major revamp after everyone else announces).

At their upfront presentations in May, the broadcast networks traditionally show clips from their new series and parade onstage the casts of their returning series.

This year, things will be flipped on their head.

With many pilots yet to be shot and many existing series already in production on their 2008-09 orders, networks might end up showing clips from returning shows' upcoming seasons and introducing new shows through their casts.

More series than ever are staying in continuous production after wrapping their current seasons or starting production on their next season's orders early this year.

NBC's "Heroes" and "ER," ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" and "Dirty Sexy Money" and Fox's "House" and "Bones" are among the shows already filming episodes for fall. About two dozen series will have episodes in the can by end of June. Some of them, including "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "CSI: Miami," "CSI: NY," "NCIS," "My Name Is Earl" and "Bones," are planning to film several episodes in May or June, then take about a month off before resuming production.

"To be in (early) May and to have so much in production as we have is definitely a change," Universal Media Studios president Katherine Pope said.

The studios have been experimenting with tweaks to the traditional series production cycle in the past few years. For instance, UMS-based Dick Wolf regularly kept some of his "Law & Order" series in production longer to film a half-dozen episodes for the following season before the summer hiatus.

But this year, the series' filming schedule was given a major jolt by the writers strike, which brought production to a halt for two months during the middle of the shooting cycle.

"What you see now is a slingshot effect from the strike," one studio topper said.

Then there is the prospect of another strike, which has become more real on the heels of the broken-off talks between SAG and the studios this week.

"It would be insincere to suggest that a potential SAG strike is not on our minds," 20th Century Fox TV chairman Dana Walden said. "We are thinking about it, but we are hoping it doesn't come to that. We've been through a debilitating time (with the writers strike), and no one is looking forward to another work stoppage."

But though the change in the production schedules this year guarantees that many series will have a few episodes in the can by June 30 -- the date when SAG's current contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers expires -- the decision to shift production to May and June was not driven by strike concerns, studio executive stress.

A main reason for extending production on some shows was to help their casts and crews.

Series normally get about two months off. The writers strike already forced a two-month hiatus, for which crew and cast members were not paid.

"We wanted to give our crew members a chance to supplement the income lost during the strike by staying in production longer," Walden said.

Studios also have been looking to produce additional episodes of their hit series to offset the losses of potential syndication and international revenue. Because the writers strike led to abbreviated seasons, fewer episodes were added to the series' syndication and the international coffers.

But most of all, the changes in the production schedules were dictated by the networks' needs. Nets might request new episodes of their returning shows sooner this year as most of them are expected to launch their seasons early, in part to take advantage of the massive viewership drawn to broadcast TV by the Summer Olympics.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/con ... 622818440f

[Miss Mary]

Two shows have season finales tonight: Scrubs and 30 Rock. If you're a fan of either or both, don't forget to watch.

NBC's lineup is all new too, from start to finish - Earl, Scrubs, Office, 30 Rock, ER.

Also, we have IMHO, the best show on TV, on tonight too - LOST!

Finally, we have the last new Thursday episode of Survivor, until the fall season starts. The Fans vs Favorites' finale is this Sunday, 8 to 10, with the reunion and winner announced at 10.

[lurkey]

Two shows have season finales tonight: Scrubs and 30 Rock. If you're a fan of either or both, don't forget to watch.

NBC's lineup is all new too, from start to finish - Earl, Scrubs, Office, 30 Rock, ER.

Also, we have IMHO, the best show on TV, on tonight too - LOST!

Finally, we have the last new Thursday episode of Survivor, until the fall season starts. The Fans vs Favorites' finale is this Sunday, 8 to 10, with the reunion and winner announced at 10.

Scrubs will be moving to ABC next season .. . .

[Brent]

Two shows have season finales tonight: Scrubs and 30 Rock. If you're a fan of either or both, don't forget to watch.

NBC's lineup is all new too, from start to finish - Earl, Scrubs, Office, 30 Rock, ER.

Also, we have IMHO, the best show on TV, on tonight too - LOST!

Finally, we have the last new Thursday episode of Survivor, until the fall season starts. The Fans vs Favorites' finale is this Sunday, 8 to 10, with the reunion and winner announced at 10.

Scrubs will be moving to ABC next season .. . .

Yeah although I think it should be cancelled. The ratings have been horrific and Zach Braff gets paid way too much, but ABC is trying to a create a sitcom block.

[Brent]

*starts a The CW death watch*

How long before the network goes up for sale?

CW to sell off Sunday night
Conglomerate will develop programming, sell ads
By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER

Long a low-rated night for the CW, the net is planning to radically alter how it does business on Sundays.

The CW is close to sealing a deal with an as-yet unnamed media buyer to take over the night. Under the deal, the CW would sell the 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. block to an advertising conglom, which would turn around and develop programming and sell ad time.

In some ways the plan is a throwback to the early days of TV, when advertisers were more involved in programming primetime. More recently, UPN initially sold the slot for "WWE Smackdown" to World Wrestling Entertainment as a time buy.

Time buys have become the norm on Saturday mornings, where nets like NBC and Fox have sold their Saturday morning kids blocks to outside companies. The CW will do the same thing beginning this fall, when 4Kids takes over the block that had been Kids' WB.

Decision to sell the Sunday primetime block is an acknowledgement that the night has been a tough one for the CW - and before that, the WB, which also struggled to gain ratings traction there.

Deal would allow the CW to focus its attention on Monday through Friday nights. CW has been looking to create more weekday flow on its sked, and believes it will be able to do so after "Smackdown" departs its lineup at the end of September.

Time buy also allows the CW to maintain a presence on Sunday nights, rather than give the night back to affils.

The CW could not be reached for comment.

[lurkey]

Fox's Back to You has been officially canceled

[Miss Mary]

No big surprise there.

Although it was paired with Till Death, I preferred Back to You over Till Death (funny thing huh?). When I watched Back to You, it just felt like Frasier Crane had taken a new job. But in Seattle this time. Patricia Heaton's character was more likable than her former one, Debra Barone. But both actors/characters just felt recycled to me. Perhaps it was too soon after Everybody Loves Raymond and Frasier to jump into such similar characters.

Anyway, moving on.....BIG TV night.

All new:

Desperate Housewives

and

Survivor - 2 hour finale then the 1 hour Reunion.

I think DH may get bumped until tomorrow. We would have to start watching it at 11, and I'd be really dragging on Monday morning....LOL

[Brent]

and the season finale of Brothers and Sisters... crazy night.

FWIW... CBS is apparently interested in Back to You. Last spring there was a huge bidding war over it, everyone wanted it.

Reminder: ABC and The CW's fall schedules will be out Tuesday!

For ABC, here's what we know:

Boston Legal is officially renewed
Eli Stone and Miss/Guided are very likely to be renewed
Women's Murder Club is likely dead
Men in Trees and October Road are dead

All the rest of the shows are pretty much already renewed. Due to the strike there will only be a handful of new shows. Nothing is officially picked up yet, but drama Life on Mars which is a remake of a British series is said to be hiring writers. Also high on the lists are dramas Captain Cook's Extraordinary Atlas(which is said to be this year's Pushing Daisies and hugely expensive), Castle, Good Behavior, and The Prince of Motor City(not all of these will be on this fall, some will be midseason due to the strike). Comedies looking good are Bad Mother's Handbook, which could be a companion for Samantha Who? and the animated Goode Family which is already being produced. Oh and Scrubs will be moving from NBC to ABC.

For The CW, this network is a mess, most of the current schedule is back with the exception of comedies Girlfriends and Aliens in America, and Wrestling. Sundays is being sold to an independent company who is going to create 2 new dramas and 2 comedies(no details yet). The 90210 spinoff which will be starring Jennie Garth is a lock(and the most buzzed show of the fall I think on any network). Also How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls. Austin's Golden Hour may come midseason plus reality show Styledome and maybe a companion to America's Next Top Model.

Details on the shows if they are picked up will be released Tuesday.

I'll have CBS and FOX updates later this week(they announce Wednesday and Thursday respectively).

[lurkey]

V viewership still down in wake of 100-day writers strike

May 11, 12:47 PM (ET)

By DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK (AP) - Television heads into its biggest week with the hangover from a 100-day writers strike persisting.

Viewership is down, although it's hard to tell how much the strike is to blame. This week's "upfront" presentations by broadcasters outlining their fall schedules, which annually precedes a multibillion dollar ad buying binge, promises to be much different than before.

"The strike had a number of impacts," said Alan Wurtzel, NBC Universal research chief, "but as with everything it's never very clear or direct or black and white."

ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC had nearly 9 percent fewer viewers in April and May so far than during the same period a year ago, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Yet viewership declines are sadly typical for the big networks. Take the same period a year earlier, and the drop was more than 5 percent over 2006. People didn't watch less TV while the strike was on, they just watched cable more, said Steve Sternberg, an analyst for Magna Global.

Shows with ongoing stories seemed to lose the most momentum from the strike; ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" on May 1 had its smallest audience since moving to Thursday night. Decisions by NBC to keep "Heroes" for next fall and Fox to delay "24" until next season may prove prescient, unless people forget about the characters altogether.

Comedies were hurt least by the strike. CBS was so buoyed by the performance of their Monday night comedies that the network is considering adding comedies on another night.

CBS' rack of procedural dramas had done relatively well, at least until a week ago: "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" had its second least-watched episode for a Thursday original, and "CSI: Miami" hit a series low for an original.

"There's no question that it could have been a lot worse," said David Poltrack, CBS' top researcher. CBS' strategy was to make as many new episodes of existing shows as possible until the season ends later this month so people got back in the habit of watching again.

The explosive growth of digital video recorders, now available in 25 million homes, means more people are setting their own schedules.

They could also be bored. Broadcast viewing was already off 7 percent during the last three months of 2007, before the strike's impact was felt. Several weeks of reruns during the midwinter, when TV viewership is at its highest, really hurt. But the networks were already hurting.

The strike also constricted the networks' process of developing new material.

Networks made fewer pilots of prospective new shows this year, in part because the strike meant less time to prepare them. In some cases, network executives are making decisions on shows based only on scripts or brief "presentations" of what the series might look like, instead of a full episode, said Brad Adgate, who monitors series development for Horizon Media.

That's not entirely unwelcome in the business, particularly when the economy is bad. Pilots can cost millions of dollars to produce, and the shows may never make it on the air. Even the shows that do make it on the air are much more likely to fail than succeed.

It doesn't take an MBA to identify this as an area to save money.

This could be a wave of the future - unless, of course, the series developed without pilots fail miserably. Then there would be pressure to go back to the old way.

Pinched development also gives a real advantage to ideas and creators with proven track records, said Jeffrey Stepakoff, author of "Billion Dollar Kiss: The Kiss That Saved Dawson's Creek and Other Adventures in TV Writing."

Familiar names like Joss Whedon ("Dollhouse" on Fox), Brian Grazer ("Lie to Me" on Fox), Jerry Bruckheimer ("Eleventh Hour" on CBS) and David E. Kelley ("Life on Mars" on ABC) have projects with good chances of making it on the air next season.

Networks are also pursuing an unusually large number of adaptations of series that have succeeded overseas, Adgate said. "Life on Mars," with Kelley remaking a BBC series, hits both buttons.

"It's not smart to develop by throwing darts on a wall," said Stepakoff, who's written for several prime-time series over the past decade. "Similarly, it's not good to develop with just A-list writers. Some of the greatest television in history, even in the modern age, came from totally unexpected sources."

"Desperate Housewives," which Marc Cherry wrote totally on his own and shopped around, is the most prominent recent example.

Not surprising for television, some of the ideas have a whiff of familiarity. Cedric the Entertainer is developing a comedy for ABC about a suddenly rich family moving to Beverly Hills ("then one day he was shooting for some food, and up through the ground come a bubbling crude").

The strike likely accelerated changes in how the networks present their schedules to advertisers.

Fox is staying traditional, but the glitzy upfront presentations of the past are gone. It was only a few years ago that CBS brought the Who to Carnegie Hall to perform privately for advertisers. This year ABC and CBS both plan more sober, abbreviated sales pitches. NBC announced its schedule a month ago, and will invite guests to an NBC Universal pep rally.

The increasing tendency of networks to order early a new season of episodes of some favorite shows means much of the mystery has already been removed from such announcements. There are some shows on the bubble, however, like "Boston Legal,""'Til Death" and "The New Adventures of Old Christine."

When the announcements are over, it will be up to advertisers to speak with their wallets, to say what programs they find promising and want to place commercials on.

That will be the most important measure to date of the strike's impact.

[Brent]

Brothers and Sisters, what the HECK was that?! I can't believe what has happened to this show. That last scene just might have turned me off to next season.

DH was awesome, 2-hour finale next week and the ending will change the series forever.

[lurkey]

Boston Legal: David Kelly Series to Return for Season Five

-- sidenote: I'm looking forward to Life From Mars . . I enjoyed the British version and it's sequel Ashes to Ashes. . . I hope they don't screw it up . . .

Aliens in America canceled

Back to You: Kelsey Grammer, Patricia Heaton Sitcom May Not Be Dead

[Brent]

NBC: Most of the major announcements were made at Ben Silverman’s early bird quasi-upfront last month, but today we’ll also learn that:
* Jimmy Fallon is taking over for Conan O’Brien.
* Ryan Seacrest is launching a new reality dating series called Momma’s Boys, in which overprotective mothers find a bride-to-be for their son.

ABC (announcements to be made Tuesday):
* Boston Legal will return, but with a significantly scaled down cast. (Reminiscent of The Practice’s cleaning and firing of six castmembers in 2003, which led to spinoff Boston Legal.)
* Women’s Murder Club is gone, as we reported last week.
* Eli Stone will get picked up and may possibly move into Boston Legal’s spot on Tuesday.
* Miss/Guided is likely to be picked up.

CW (announcements to be made Tuesday):
* Jury’s still out on Reaper. It may return midseason. I may go insane waiting for the official word.
* Aliens in America is gone.
* 90210 has been picked up, with special guest appearances by Jennie Garth and likely Tori Spelling.
* How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls has become Surviving the Filthy Rich and has been picked up.
* Stylista, a new reality series from Tyra Banks and Ken Mok, has been picked up. Contestants compete for an editorial job at Elle magazine.
* Returning series: Gossip Girl, Smallville, Supernatural, One Tree Hill, Everybody Hates Chris, The Game, America’s Next Top Model.
* Pussycat Dolls and Beauty and the Geek have been canceled.

CBS (announcements to be made Wednesday):
* No official word yet on How I Met Your Mother, but sources connected to the series say they are expecting a fourth-season pickup, thanks in part to the recent ratings uptick and media attention over Britney’s guest spot.
* The Unit is very likely to receive a pickup.
* Moonlight is likely to receive a pickup.
* The Mentalist (Simon Baker), Eleventh Hour (Jerry Bruckheimer) and Game Show in My Head (reality competition from Ashton Kutcher) all picked up.
* Geena Davis’ drama pilot Exit 19 has not been picked up.

FOX (announcements to be made Thursday):
* J.J. Abrams’ pilot Fringe, which reportedly cost $10 million to produce, has been picked up to series. In the vein of The X-Files, the series will feature weekly freaky-deaky investigations.
* Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse will premiere midseason, perhaps in a Monday time slot.
* Arrested Development reunion! This fall look for a new animated series, Sit Down, Shut Up, from AD creator Mitch Hurwitz. Based on a live-action Australian sitcom, the U.S. version is centered around the lives of seven high school teachers in the Northeast and will be voiced by the likes of Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Henry Winkler.
* Peter Berg—you know, the guy behind Friday Night Lights—has been asked to direct the two-hour backdoor pilot for Ronald D. Moore’s new space-exploration drama, Virtuality.
* According to Deadline Hollywood Daily, the network is said to be enthusiastic about the Bernie Mac drama Starting Under, but it needs a new show runner.
* Back to You has been canceled, but rumor has it that CBS, which produces the show, is looking at it for a pickup.
* New Amsterdam will also not be returning, as we previously reported.
* ‘Til Death will be back.

From Kristin at E! Online

[JonathanBelles]

Ryan picked that show why?!?! lol

Hopefully Boston Legal wont lose much

[Brent]

Ryan picked that show why?!?! lol

Hopefully Boston Legal wont lose much

LOL, and apparently it'll air immediately out of the Olympics on NBC in August.

Boston Legal is cutting costs big time, they came very close to getting cancelled.

[Cyclenall]

* Jimmy Fallon is taking over for Conan O’Brien.

I have never heard of him.

* Pussycat Dolls and Beauty and the Geek have been canceled.

That is a stupid move, that is the best show on the whole network (Beauty and the Geek). Even though this current season sucks, it's better then no show at all.

[Brent]

* Jimmy Fallon is taking over for Conan O’Brien.

I have never heard of him.

He's a regular on SNL

[Cyclenall]

* Jimmy Fallon is taking over for Conan O’Brien.

I have never heard of him.

He's a regular on SNL

I don't know the names of many SNL actors. I think I do recall that name but I don't know who he is.

[RL3AO]

Jimmy Fallon

[lurkey]

Ryan picked that show why?!?! lol

Hopefully Boston Legal wont lose much

The scuttlebutt about Boston Legal:

Boston Legal: David Kelly Series to Return for Season Five

Boston LegalIt looks like ABC’s Boston Legal will be returning this fall. Though the drama has a devout audience, its future was up in the air because of another David E. Kelley series.

Kelley owns the U.S. rights to Life on Mars, a BBC series which follows a 21st Century detective who finds himself thrown back to the 1970s. Kelley has been developing an American version of the show since 2006 when ABC committed to the pilot. He was serving as scriptwriter and executive producer but has recently decided that he wants to bow out. ABC wants to give the Mars series a greenlight but apparently needed to negotiate a new deal with Kelley. Legal was caught in the middle of those negotiations.

A deal for Mars has been worked out and the network has given the series a greenlight. ABC has also renewed Legal for season five.


The Legal good news may come with a cost however. As part of the renewal deal, it sounds like Kelley will have to do some cost cutting.

To start, ABC may cut its episode order to just 13. It also looks like the show’s cast list will be trimmed once again. Word is that all but Alan (James Spader), Denny (William Shatner), Shirley (Candice Bergen), and a few others will return as regular characters. Will Carl (John Larroquette), Jerry (Christian Clemenson), Clarence (Gary Anthony Williams), Katie (Tara Summers), Lorraine (Saffron Burrows), or Whitney (Taraji P. Henson) survive to see the new season? Who would you like to see return?