Headlines 18
May 11, 2008

Gossip Girl has received a twenty four-episode season for next year, two above what a typical season would have. The show draws terrible ratings and this is somewhat of a surprise because The CW was considering scaling the order down to sixteen if ratings didn’t improve.

In similar news, Lost’s final two season will have seventeen episodes instead of the previously announced sixteen. Both of these changes in episodes have to do with The Writer’s Strike and I wouldn’t be too surprised to see other shows follow suit.

Comedy Central is bringing back The Gong Show. I don’t really know why anyone would want to do such a thing but if there’s hope for The Gong Show I wouldn’t rule out any of the hundreds of TV Hell shows from coming back. Anyone remember Steve Harvey’s Big Time Challenge? Maybe Comedy Central should bring that back to.

MTV has green lit a reality show by Justin Timberlake called The Phone. Its premise appears to be similar to The Amazing Race. This is somewhat hypocritical of Timberlake who stated at the MTV music Awards last year that MTV should “play more damn videos” but I guess MTV needs some more shows to complement it’s line-up of compelling hits such as Next and Parental Control.

Judging by the recent success in ratings, count on Moonlight getting another season. CBS has had trouble filling the nine o’clock slot JAG used to occupy and Moonlight has a better shot at holding the ratings than its predecessor, Close To Home, did.

Ugly Betty is moving to New York leaving a long list of shows that are based in New York but filmed in LA such as NYPD Blue and CSI: NY. I never thought I’d live to see the day when NY was cheaper than Hollywood to film in.

Headlines 17
April 28, 2008

The Tudors has been picked up for a third season. While ratings probably still aren’t what Showtime wants for a rather expensive show, the financial aid from the CBC and the popularity of the show in Europe helped it out. It’s good to see that some quality shows can live on in this era of television.

Jimmy Fallon has been confirmed as Conan O’Brien’s replacement on Late Night who in turn is replacing Jay Leno on The Tonight Show. This might be a problem for NBC considering Leno has no stated he does not wish to retire. Hopefully it doesn’t turn into another Leno-Letterman feud but personally I’m a big Jay Leno fan and would like to see him stay.

Viacom, the former parent company to CBS and its empire, is trying to launch a rival cable network to Showtime and HBO. This seems like a terrible idea considering that when Viacom split from CBS Corporation, CBS Corporation got CBS, Showtime, and UPN, which now is 50% of The CW. Viacom got MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, BET and Spike, which are all composed of mainly unscripted programming. How Viacom plans to compete with the scripted programming Showtime and HBO offer on a premium cable platform has yet to be seen.

Britney Spears is supposedly getting a recurring role on How I Met Your Mother. The episode she appeared on got 10.7 million, which is enough to keep it out of TV Hell for the time being. Whether or not Britney Spears will also kill the show is yet to be seen.

Nick Lachey is on board to host High School Musical: Summer Session on ABC this summer. I’d rather watch the washed up bubblegum pop star mentioned before than this washed up bubblegum pop star mentioned now.

Headlines 16
April 18, 2008

Friday Night Lights got a 13 episode order thanks to some additional funding from DirecTv for some exclusive first run broadcasting. History has not been kind to struggling shows that receive half season orders, but it’s still a chance. The Office is getting a little bigger next season. NBC has ordered an untitled spin-off to take Scrubs’s slot in the Must See TV Thursday line-up. Whether or not ABC will renew Scrubs is still up in the air.

In a rare and for once intelligent move, fans of the CBS drama Moonlight have launched a fan campaign for the show to be renewed before it’s cancelled by the network. Coming off the recent failure in Jericho’s second revival would all but guaranteed the vampire show to not come back form the dead. Getting a head start is a very good idea.

While most shows on the bubble will be given another month before a final decision is made, we could see a reversal of the decline in reality programming. Shows like Deal or No Deal and The Celebrity Apprentice have been doing very well. ER will close shop after next season. Law & Order most likely will too but its stellar performance in syndication may help it get past Gunsmoke as the longest running American primetime drama. It needs 2 more seasons to do so but it’s about 230 episodes to as seasons typically ran longer in the early days of TV.

Not a whole lot happening this week in TV as the scripted shows rev up for one final run of the year.

Headlines 15 – The Return
April 02, 2008

Rob Thomas, creator of 'Veronica Mars', has been on a winning streak lately, getting three pilots picked up. The writer turned producer has been commissioned by The CW to make a spinoff of 'Beverly Hills 90210' as well as a remake series of 'Cupid', a dramedy he created in the late 90’s. The third pilot is yet to be officially titled by follows the comedic drama formula Thomas practically pioneered this time about a crime family. Little else is known but if it’s from Rob Thomas is bound to be worth a look.

Speaking of pilots, Joss Whedon has a new show called Dollhouse which is supposedly airing on Fox despite Whedon publically saying he’d never work with them again over the handling of his masterpiece Firefly. Dollhouse is about a group of people who are brainwashed with false memories and identities to carry out special assignments for the government. Eliza Dusku aka Faith from Buffy and Angel has reportedly been cast. Knowing Fox and sci-fi type shows this shouldn’t be around long.

Speaking of Fox, Prison Break has been renewed despite the fact that it started out as a miniseries.

'The Return of Jezebel James' has entered TV Hell. Anyone care? Nah me neither.

CBS has publically announced that if NBC were to cancel 'Medium' it would pick it up, similar to what ABC has done with 'Scrubs'.

'Shark' has been sent swimming to Tuesdays in a feudal attempt to get ratings up. I guess 'Medium' might end up replacing it if James Woods can’t get his show from drowning in the mess that has been crime shows on CBS this year.

'Jericho' has been cancelled once again. Whether or not it will get two slots in TV Hell has not been decided.

That’s about it for the news in TV this week, hit me up at ian@tvhell.net for any other questions.