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Return of ‘Arrested Development’: The final countdown

Thursday, May 23rd, 2013

Source: USA TODAY

It’s no huge mistake: The Bluths are back!

Improbably, more than six years after Fox canceled the cult-comedy favorite, Arrested Development returns with 15 new episodes exclusively on Netflix, available for streaming all at once, Sunday at 3:01 a.m ET/12:01 a.m. PT.

And diehard fans can’t wait, if activity on Netflix and social media is any indication. “It’s seemingly reached a fever pitch in the last couple of weeks,” says Will Arnett, who plays the family’s misguided magician son George Oscar Bluth, more familiarly known as “Gob.” “Certainly the show’s never been more popular than it is now,” he says, as many younger fans discovered it online only after the show went off the air.

The return has been a labor of love for creator Mitchell Hurwitz, who presided — obsessively — over the show’s first three seasons and has tried to make a feature film ever since. This batch of 15 episodes (Fox aired a total of 53 from 2003-2006), is designed as the precursor to a still-hoped-for movie, but Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos says he’d “love” to do more.

Arrested “has always been among the most popular” TV series offered by Netflix, especially in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, Sarandos says, and this week, “the spike in viewing of the first three seasons has been enormous. The show is built to be watched over and over again” and in bunches, which fits Netflix’s business model. “It’s way too dense for 22 minutes a week.”

Reassembling the entire cast proved difficult, partly the result of the show’s rabid following. “We’ve all been given such a nice career boost or rehab from this show,” says star Jason Bateman, whose Identify Thief is the latest in a string of movies. “We’ve all been working very busily ever since, but we were excited to come back.”

And that forced some creative decisions that made the new episodes an ambitious, incredibly complicated jigsaw puzzle that’s tailor-made for binge viewing, but also a bit of a risk.

Each focuses on a single character — most of the major players get two apiece — and several scenes are replayed in two or more episodes from different vantage points, revealing new information or adding a joke that wasn’t apparent before. There are gags that refer to earlier episodes and earlier seasons, so sequential viewing is rewarded.

“No doubt it’ll get a very mixed reaction” from the show’s “very demanding” fan base, Hurwitz says. “How could it not, because it’s a new thing? But if people make it through the whole (season), it will be a very rewarding Arrested Development experience.”

The fourth season happily brings us back to Newport Beach, Calif., recaps what was thought to be the series finale, when hard-drinking matriarch Lucille (Jessica Walter) was caught by the Coast Guard after stealing the Queen Mary, and fills in the gaps in the five years or so since. She was put under house arrest, and the rest of her family hasn’t held up so well either, thanks partly to the collapse of the housing market.

Not even the one son who’s supposed to hold the family together. “Time has not been kind to Michael, who found himself a little closer to the frayed shape his family was in when we last saw them,” Bateman says. “He always had a bit of a superiority complex, but he’s kind of been slapped into reality, and he’s definitely more vulnerable, exposed and a little ashamed. He’s looking to get his dignity back, and he stumbles on a couple ideas. But it’s a little pathetic.”

Of course, the rest of the clan never managed success too well, either, so “they handle failure even worse,” Hurwitz says.

“Desperation is what makes these people funny,” Walters says.

But the intertwined storytelling also complicated the effort, and the entire season had to be shot piecemeal and out of sequence.

“On Day 1 we shot something for the last episode, which created a level of anxiety that permeated the whole thing,” Hurwitz says. Most of Bateman’s scenes were shot in the first month of filming, and some characters were digitally inserted into scenes with actors who filmed their own parts later. Though production wrapped in February, Ben Stiller became available only last month, for a day and a half of shooting, so the cameras rolled again for Gob’s magician nemesis Tony Wonder.

Plenty of guest stars lined up for the reunion. Kristen Wiig and Seth Rogen play younger versions of Lucille and George Sr., while Henry Winkler returns as inept attorney Barry Zuckerkorn (and Winkler’s son Max plays his younger self).

Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor, Isla Fisher, John Slattery, Carl Weathers, John Krasinski, Ed Helms, Andy Richter and Conan O’Brien make appearances, along with beloved returning characters such as Lucille Austero (Liza Minnelli), Ann Veal (Mae Whitman), Kitty Sanchez (Judy Greer), Stan Sitwell (Ed Begley Jr.) and Bob Loblaw (Scott Baio). And producer/narrator Ron Howard, seen on camera only in the third-season finale, is now a more frequent presence.

Though some fans despaired that Arrested would ever be revived, some cast members were convinced that Hurwitz, a former Golden Girls writer who followed Arrested with a few short-lived comedies, would get his wish.

“I hoped it would happen, but I didn’t want to hope too hard because the odds were against getting us all together,” Walter says. When they did — the entire cast reassembled for just one day, though scenes were sprinkled into several episodes— “it took about 30 minutes for everyone to calm down. We were really excited.”

After so long, “the only people who changed were the kids; they’re all grown up,” Walter says. “It was very easy to slip right back in.”

The details:

‘Arrested Development’

The new season: The entire 15-episode fourth season (each 29-37 minutes) will be released at Netflix.com, available to subscribers online or on Internet-enabled TVs, Sunday, May 26 at 3:01 a.m. ET/12:01 a.m. PT

The history: Show aired 53 episodes on Fox from 2003-06, now also on Netflix and IFC; won best-comedy Emmy in 2004 and top writing awards in 2004 and 2005.

The characters: Each is the focus of two episodes except for Lucille, Buster and Maeby, featured in one apiece.

• Stable son Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman)

• His awkward, lovestruck son George-Michael (Michael Cera)

• Scheming Bluth patriarch George Sr. and his twin brother Oscar (Jeffrey Tambor).

• His boozy, bossy wife Lucille (Jessica Walter)

• Misguided magician son George Oscar Bluth (Will Arnett)

• Meek motherboy Buster (Tony Hale)

• Imperious daughter Lindsay (Portia de Rossi)

• Her estranged, sexually confused husband Tobias Funke (David Cross)

• Their daughter Maeby (Alia Shawkat)

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

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Leslie Moonves, CBS’ master showman

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013

Source: USA TODAY

NEW YORK — Leslie Moonves, the CEO of CBS, took the stage at Carnegie Hall Wednesday for a springtime ritual he relishes: Unveiling the network’s fall schedule for an audience of thousands.

It helps that the network has been America’s most-watched for 10 of the past 11 years, and will win this season by a margin of more than 4 million viewers over No. 2 ABC.

And though he’s never shy about chest-thumping, he had an even bigger boast this year. The network is also home to TV’s top series, NCIS, and its top comedy, The Big Bang Theory. And importantly, CBS will also take the ratings crown among adults ages 18 to 49, the coin of the realm in ad sales, for the first time in 21 years, unseating perennial winner Fox.

“There’s no calling CBS the old-fogey network” anymore, he says, a rejoinder to the frequent Geritol jokes that greet its senior-friendly programming.

It was not always so. When he joined CBS as entertainment president in 1995 from Warner Bros. Television, the network was in last place, and had lost rights to NFL games.

” I had one of the greatest jobs in television,” Moonves says. Warner Bros. “had 23 shows on the air, including ER and Friends,” which had become instant hits the previous fall, extended NBC’s run of “must-see” TV, and eventually were a cash machine for the studio. “Life was great. To come to the last-place network, basically on my own without my teammates behind me, was unbelievably difficult.”

Worse, CBS was about to begin a drastic makeover to shed its stodgy image, earned from such stalwart shows as Walker, Texas Ranger and Diagnosis: Murder, by injecting youth appeal with newcomers such as Central Park West, a soap set at a glitzy magazine, and a sitcom called Dweebs.

The effort failed spectacularly.

Months before they’d premiered, but after he’d been hired in secret, he attended the fall programming presentation and watched in horror.

“I’m saying, ‘Oh my god, we’re in trouble. We had 11 new shows, and (they) weren’t particularly good. Only one made it back to a second year, and that one was cancelled after 13 episodes. There was a realization that there was a lot of rebuilding to do. But even though you inherit a losing basketball team, you’re still the coach of that basketball team. That September, after having come off this high of being at Warner Bros. where I had all these huge hits, looking at the numbers day after day at CBS was very trying. It was a really tough period of time where I said, ‘What have you done?’”

It all worked out eventually, but “I rarely watched another episode of Friends or ER after that,” he says. “I just couldn’t. I had an emotional response to these shows that I helped with the creation of, and I knew they were killing me. My job was to go get them. And it wasn’t easy.”

Former actor found his calling

Moonves, 63, entered showbiz from an unusual perch in front of the camera. Bored studying science at Bucknell University and uninterested in medical school, he started an acting career, appearing in bit parts in 1970s series such as The Six Million Dollar Man and Cannon (he played Pascual, a cliff diver who threatened to kill someone). But he lacked the chops to turn it into a career, and now says that was one of the hardest things he’s had to contend with.

“To make the realization that I wasn’t going to be successful as an actor, and switch over to the production side, first with theater and then TV, was a tough call. To admit to yourself: ‘You know what? You’re not that good at doing this.’”

He spent years overseeing the production of made-for-TV movies, and eventually became chief at Lorimar, the studio behind Dallas. When that company was acquired by Warner Bros. he moved over to run the combined operation, selling programs to all the major networks. But the prospect of assembling a winning schedule by choosing shows rather than making them was too great, and in 1995 he moved to CBS.

A year later, he picked up military legal dramaJAG, which NBC had canceled after one season, and turned it into a hit from which NCIS was eventually launched. By 1999, CBS had moved up the ranks to become the top-rated network again, and in the summer of 2000 — after first expressing skepticism — he launched Survivor, a daring competition series that stranded contestants in a jungle setting and changed the face of reality TV. Fifty-two million viewers watched the first-season finale.

That fall, CSI started slowly, but eventually built into a billion-dollar franchise after rival ABC’s studio backed out of the series.

“He’s a unique combination of somebody who has a very strong business sense and a very strong creative sense, which is very rare in this business,” says Jerry Bruckheimer, who delivered CSI, Without a Trace, The Amazing Race and several other shows to the network along with the upcoming drama Hostages, a thriller that marks CBS’ only new fall drama.

Moonves says his management style is “tough but collegial. I find good people and entrust them with a great deal of power,” though unlike many big-picture guys, he also tinkers with details. “I’m hands-on, sometimes maybe more than I should be,” he says, making final calls on scheduling, marketing and casting of shows, where he’s always had a penchant for promotable stars. (This fall’s crop will include Robin Williams and Will Arnett).

It was he who suggested both William Petersen and Marg Helgenberger for the lead roles on CSI, Bruckheimer says. While both have since departed, they proved “two key elements that helped the show become as successful as it turned out to be.” Helgenberger is also returning to CBS next season in a new drama.

The Eye Network widens its gaze

Now heading a standalone public company, Moonves oversees a growing empire that includes pay channel Showtime, radio, syndication, the Simon & Schuster publishing house, billboard and online businesses, along with a half-interest in the CW network.

“To be at a company that does Homeland, that does Big Bang Theory and does Entertainment Tonight equally well is a great thing.” (So is his pay package of $62 million last year, ranking him among media’s most highly paid CEOs.)

But the “Eye Network,” so-called for its iconic logo, remains the mothership, accounting for the lion’s share of record first quarter earnings announced earlier this month. Yet the network-TV business is challenged mightily, by new technology, ever-more distracted viewers, and more nimble cable networks that program fewer hours with edgier shows that claim buzz and top awards.

“This wasn’t broadcast television’s greatest year in terms of new product,” he says of the season that officially closes next week. “There were a few single and doubles, but there were no home runs hit by anybody.” Still, he notes CBS renewed 20 shows. “Having that sort of consistency … we’re able to pull shows off a year early rather than a year late, which means our chances of success are better than anybody else’s.”

Thanks partly to the Super Bowl, CBS’ prime-time ratings are up this year, while ABC, Fox and NBC all dropped.

But as in most businesses, technology has changed the game. Live TV viewing, with commercials intact, continues to drop as viewers time-shift on DVRs or watch shows elsewhere.

He’s had plenty of PR headaches as well. CBS took heat for a 2003 miniseries on Adolf Hitler, fired Don Imus from its radio group after the host made derogatory comments about female basketball players, sued Howard Stern in 2006 in what the shock jock called a “personal vendetta,” and with Warner Bros. fired Charlie Sheen from Two and a Half Men after a drug-fueled public meltdown in which the addled actor verbally attacked producer Chuck Lorre, among others.

CBS News and trying times

Among his biggest hurdles was dealing with the “mess” created with “Dan Rather and the Memogate situation,” in which the network retracted a 2004 story based on unverified memos about George W. Bush’s National Guard service. Rather was moved off the evening news and eventually fired, prompting a lawsuit.

It “was extremely trying,” Moonves says. “We had to protect the integrity of CBS News, which had this great legacy, and I wanted to make sure we did it properly so that CBS News could thrive again, which I think they’ve done.”

While CBS is top-rated in prime time, its news division remains a perennial laggard ratings-wise. Katie Couric, lured from Today for $15 million a year to become the evening anchor, left after a five-year deal in 2011 in what Moonves calls a disappointment. (He had first promised to “blow up” the evening-news format, but ultimately gave up on that notion.)

“She gave 100%; it wasn’t the right fit. CBS News deserves some of the blame for that, (but) clearly (Scott) Pelley is working much better.” And “there were a few iterations of The Early Show that didn’t work, that were failures, including one that had my wife in it.” (That would be second wife Julie Chen. They married in 2004, and she now hosts daytime chat show The Talk and summer staple Big Brother).

That executive isn’t big on predicting the future or the next big thing. “I really don’t know, we’ll know it when we see it,” he says, noting “the people who are so sure about business trends are usually wrong.”

Says Moonves, “If you had asked me five years ago where the world would be today I wouldn’t have come close to giving you the right answer. If you ask me what it’s going to be in two years I wouldn’t know. But it’s going to be different, and we better be ready for it. “

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

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’24′ to return next spring, with 12 episodes

Monday, May 13th, 2013

Source: USA TODAY

The clock will start ticking again on Fox’s real-time thriller 24.

The network on Monday confirmed plans to restart the action thriller, which starred Kiefer Sutherland as counter-terrorist agent Jack Bauer and ended its eight-season run in 2010.

The new season, one of two “limited series” Fox plans for 2014, will be compressed into 12 weeks and premiere next May, says Fox entertainment chairman Kevin Reilly. “We’ll go in chronological order with the hours of the day, but we’ll skip some hours,” he says.

Producer Howard Gordon, now working on Homeland and other series, “always had the idea of maybe someday doing a feature film” on the series, Reilly says. A script underwent several revisions but never got the greenlight by Fox’s sibling movie studio.

So a Fox executive suggested a revival that would span fewer episodes. “I don’t think I’d ever want to do 24 (episodes) again,” Gordon says. “It was a crushing high-wire act; we look back with wonder and amazement but we have no desire to try to repeat that.” Doing half as many episodes “helps you to avoid the contortions we were forced to make on the show, (and) we can use the time deletions to account for some of the distances the story had to improbably travel.”

Adds Reilly: “The spine of 24 episodes was really about 12 hours,” with the rest made up of “little twists and connective tissue.”

Gordon was swayed by the availability of Sutherland and co-writers Evan Katz and Manny Coto, now wrapping up other TV projects. As for other actors, “everybody who’s not dead is still in play,” he says. The series expects to resume production in January.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

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Fox goes for guys, sci-fi in fall lineup

Monday, May 13th, 2013

Source: USA TODAY

Fox is going back to the future in a pair of new fall dramas as it seeks to rebuild after a 20% ratings decline this season.

A big slump at American Idol has knocked the network out of first place among young-adult viewers after an eight-year run.

While Glee, New Girl and The Mindy Project remain on the schedule, the network’s new shows tap into its roots and center on young men. Monday brings Sleepy Hollow, a modern-day version of the classic in which Ichabod Crane is resurrected and plunged 250 years ahead to a dystopian future in which he teams up with a cop to unravel a mystery and save the world. And in late fall, producer J.J. Abrams (Fringe) returns to Fox with Almost Human, a sci-fi action futuristic action drama about cops who are teamed with robots.

For its Tuesday comedy block, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, an ensemble cop comedy starring Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher, will be paired with Dads, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane’s (non-animated) series featuring Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi as two pals whose lives are disrupted when their overbearing fathers move in.

Also due is Junior Masterchef, a kids’ version of Gordon Ramsay’s cooking show, and in late fall Enlisted, a comedy about three brothers and assorted misfits on a Florida military base, will air on Fridays with a relocated Raising Hope.

Kevin Bacon thriller The Following will return in January with 15 new episodes. In 2014, Fox plans a shorter “limited series” revival of Kiefer Sutherland’s 24, after he lost his Touch, and Wayward Pines, a miniseries from M. Night Shyamalan starring Matt Dillon.

Also at midseason, look for Us & Them, a comedy starring Jason Ritter and Alexis Bledel as a young couple whose love life is threatened by their messed-up circle of family and friends; Surviving Jack, another comedy starring Christopher Meloni; Gang Related, an L.A. police drama; and Rake, a legal drama based on an Australian series, starring Greg Kinnear as a damaged defense attorney who takes on hopeless cases.

And an episode of New Girl will follow February’s Super Bowl on Fox, joined by another comedy to be picked later.

Fox’s fall/late fall schedule (all times ET/PT):

Monday: 8, Bones/Almost Human; 9, Sleepy Hollow.

Tuesday: 8, Dads; 8:30, Brooklyn Nine-Nine; 9, New Girl; 9:30, The Mindy Project

Wednesday: 8, The X Factor

Thursday: 8, The X Factor (results); 9, Glee

Friday: 8, Junior Masterchef/Bones; 9, Raising Hope; 9:30, Enlisted

Saturday: 8, Fox Sports

Sunday: 7, NFL overruns; 8, The SImpsons; 8:30, Bob’s Burgers; 9, Family Guy; 9:30, American Dad

New shows in bold; new time slots in italics.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

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NBC’s fall lineup: New times, new entries

Sunday, May 12th, 2013

Source: USA TODAY

NBC will retool its prime-time lineup, adding three comedies and a trio of dramas amid a spate of cancellations.

Among the new fall shows are remakes of Ironside, with Blair Underwood as the wheelchair-bound detective, and the return of two former network stars, Michael J. Fox and Sean Hayes, to headline comedies on Thursday nights, when NBC plans a near-complete makeover.

Returning Parenthood, which saw a ratings uptick this season, also will move to Thursdays, while freshman Chicago Fire shifts to Tuesdays. And J.J. Abrams’ drama Revolution will now open Wednesday nights, with a new James Spader drama due to take its Monday slot following The Voice.

The network has had a roller-coaster season, marked by the strong performance of The Voice, Sunday Night Football and some new series in the fall, followed by a collapse in January and signs of life when The Voice returned in late March. Still, that wasn’t enough to prevent a season of further ratings declines and a fourth-place finish.

Gone are comedies Animal Practice, Whitney, Go On, The New Normal, 30 Rock, The Office, Up All Night, Guys With Kids and 1600 Penn, along with dramas Deception and Smash and newsmagazine Rock Center With Brian Williams.

The fates of midseason drama Hannibal as well as Celebrity Apprentice will be determined in the next few weeks. Only two shows in this season’s freshman crop were renewed, Chicago Fire and Revolution. Cult comedy Community won another reprieve and will return in midseason for 13 episodes, as part of a combo deal with Sony Pictures Television, from whom the network bought three new series.

Also due following the Olympics in February are three new dramas, including another from Abrams, and a pair of Tuesday comedies, one a remake of 2002 Hugh Grant film About a Boy.

“The overriding strategy this year was to develop enough strong comedies and dramas to take advantage of the promotional heft of the Winter Olympics and devise two schedules for the upcoming season: one for fall and a slightly different one for midseason,” says NBC chairman Robert Greenblatt, in a statement. “And aside from our Olympics planning, we also wanted to create better flow and compatibility on each night, and deploy our strongest lead-in (The Voice) to maximum effect.”

The new fall shows:

-The Blacklist, starring James Spader (Boston Legal, The Office) as an FBI fugitive turned agent.

- Ironside, a remake of the NBC series that starred Raymond Burr.

- Welcome to the Family, a culture clash of mixed marriage involving white and Hispanic families. Mike O’Malley and Ricardo Chavira (Desperate Housewives) are among the stars.

- Sean Saves the World stars Hayes as a divorced gay dad and Linda Lavin as his meddlesome mom.

- The Michael J. Fox Show centers on a New York news anchor diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (as Fox was) who decides to return to work after a five-year sabbatical.

–Dracula is a new take on the age-old vampire story with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (The Tudors) in the title role.

Here’s NBC’s fall schedule (all times ET/PT, new shows in bold, new times in italics):

Monday: 8, The Voice; 10, The Blacklist.

Tuesday: 8, The Biggest Loser; 9, The Voice; 10, Chicago Fire

Wednesday: 8, Revolution; 9, Law & Order: SVU; 10, Ironside

Thursday: 8, Parks and Recreation; 8:30, Welcome to the Family; 9, Sean Saves the World; 9:30, The Michael J. Fox Show; 10, Parenthood

Friday: 8, Dateline NBC; 9, Grimm; 10, Dracula.

Saturday: Drama repeats

Sunday: 7, Football Night in America; 8, Sunday Night Football

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Posted in USA TODAY News | No Comments »

NBC’s fall lineup: New times, new entries

Sunday, May 12th, 2013

Source: USA TODAY

NBC will retool its prime-time lineup, adding three comedies and a trio of dramas amid a spate of cancellations.

Among the new fall shows are remakes of Ironside, with Blair Underwood as the wheelchair-bound detective, and the return of two former network stars, Michael J. Fox and Sean Hayes, to headline comedies on Thursday nights, when NBC plans a near-complete makeover.

Returning Parenthood, which saw a ratings uptick this season, also will move to Thursdays, while freshman Chicago Fire shifts to Tuesdays. And J.J. Abrams’ drama Revolution will now open Wednesday nights, with a new James Spader drama due to take its Monday slot following The Voice.

The network has had a roller-coaster season, marked by the strong performance of The Voice, Sunday Night Football and some new series in the fall, followed by a collapse in January and signs of life when The Voice returned in late March. Still, that wasn’t enough to prevent a season of further ratings declines and a fourth-place finish.

Gone are comedies Animal Practice, Whitney, Go On, The New Normal, 30 Rock, The Office, Up All Night, Guys With Kids and 1600 Penn, along with dramas Deception and Smash and newsmagazine Rock Center With Brian Williams.

The fates of midseason drama Hannibal as well as Celebrity Apprentice will be determined in the next few weeks. Only two shows in this season’s freshman crop were renewed, Chicago Fire and Revolution. Cult comedy Community won another reprieve and will return in midseason for 13 episodes, as part of a combo deal with Sony Pictures Television, from whom the network bought three new series.

Also due following the Olympics in February are three new dramas, including another from Abrams, and a pair of Tuesday comedies, one a remake of 2002 Hugh Grant film About a Boy.

“The overriding strategy this year was to develop enough strong comedies and dramas to take advantage of the promotional heft of the Winter Olympics and devise two schedules for the upcoming season: one for fall and a slightly different one for midseason,” says NBC chairman Robert Greenblatt, in a statement. “And aside from our Olympics planning, we also wanted to create better flow and compatibility on each night, and deploy our strongest lead-in (The Voice) to maximum effect.”

The new fall shows:

-The Blacklist, starring James Spader (Boston Legal, The Office) as an FBI fugitive turned agent.

- Ironside, a remake of the NBC series that starred Raymond Burr.

- Welcome to the Family, a culture clash of mixed marriage involving white and Hispanic families. Mike O’Malley and Ricardo Chavira (Desperate Housewives) are among the stars.

- Sean Saves the World stars Hayes as a divorced gay dad and Linda Lavin as his meddlesome mom.

- The Michael J. Fox Show centers on a New York news anchor diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (as Fox was) who decides to return to work after a five-year sabbatical.

–Dracula is a new take on the age-old vampire story with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (The Tudors) in the title role.

Here’s NBC’s fall schedule (all times ET/PT, new shows in bold, new times in italics):

Monday: 8, The Voice; 10, The Blacklist.

Tuesday: 8, The Biggest Loser; 9, The Voice; 10, Chicago Fire

Wednesday: 8, Revolution; 9, Law & Order: SVU; 10, Ironside

Thursday: 8, Parks and Recreation; 8:30, Welcome to the Family; 9, Sean Saves the World; 9:30, The Michael J. Fox Show; 10, Parenthood

Friday: 8, Dateline NBC; 9, Grimm; 10, Dracula.

Saturday: Drama repeats

Sunday: 7, Football Night in America; 8, Sunday Night Football

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

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ABC adds live-streaming app

Sunday, May 12th, 2013

Source: USA TODAY

Just in time for Tuesday’s fall-schedule announcement, ABC is introducing its long-rumored Watch ABC app for live-streaming TV shows.

Viewers in New York and Philadelphia will be the first to have access to the service, via WABC and WPVI in those cities, and can watch live network and local TV shows and a variety of on-demand content starting that day. The “open-access” preview will be available until June 30. After that, users must be “authenticated” customers of several cable and satellite operators, including Comcast, Cablevision, Cox, Charter and AT&T U-verse, to view content.

The system will work with Apple iOS and Kindle Fire platforms, with Samsung Galaxy added over the summer. Also this summer, the service will expand to ABC’s other owned stations in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Raleigh-Durham and Fresno. And a separate agreement with Hearst Television will make it available in Boston, Pittsburgh, Kansas City and Milwaukee over the next several months.

The app joins similar services for Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney Junior cable networks.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

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Seth Meyers named NBC’s ‘Late Night’ talk host

Sunday, May 12th, 2013

Source: USA TODAY

After weeks of speculation, NBC officially anointed Seth Meyers to replace Jimmy Fallon as host of Late Night, the talk show that follows the Tonight Show at 12:35 a.m. ET/PT.

Saturday Night Live‘s head writer and Weekend Update anchor will transition to the talk show when Fallon takes over Tonight from Jay Leno in late February, after NBC’s Winter Olympics from Sochi, Russia. Late Night will remain based in New York, with Lorne Michaels as executive producer and Mike Shoemaker continuing as day-to-day producer.

“We think Seth is one of the brightest, most insightful comedy writers and performers of his generation,” says NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenbatt in a statement, adding Meyers’ 12 seasons on SNL “helped him hone a topical brand of comedy that is perfect for the Late Night franchise.”

NBC’s latest round of late-night musical chairs began in early April, when the network announced it would again usher Leno — still the most-watched wee-hours host — out the door at Tonight, and move Fallon in early next year.

When executives discussed replacing Fallon (also an SNL veteran), Meyers was the only obvious candidate for the job. He’s been SNL‘s head writer for the past eight years, anchored Update for seven, and is known to have been seeking another challenge.

He was a finalist to succeed Regis Philbin on syndicated talk show Live With Regis and Kelly, a job that ultimately went to Michael Strahan. Meyers will remain on SNL for the first half of next season, until he begins preparing for his new job in January.

“He’s well-known, he’s funny, and I think that will help him,” says analyst Brad Adgate at ad firm Horizon Media, adding he’s a natural choice who’s “very compatible with Fallon, and certainly the ratings expectations aren’t as great.” Given Meyers’ background as a writer who doesn’t appear in SNL sketches, Adgate expects him to do more interviews and less physical comedy than Fallon.

As of next year, all three of NBC’s top late-night franchises — Tonight, Late Night and SNL — will air from NBC’s Rockefeller Plaza in New York, with only Last Call With Carson Daly, which airs at 1:37 a.m.,originating in Los Angeles.

Late Night premiered in 1982, and Michaels says Meyers is in “good company” with the show’s three previous hosts, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien and Fallon.

“I only have to work for Lorne for five more years before I pay him back for the time I totaled his car,” Meyers joked. “12:30 on NBC has long been incredible real estate. I hope I can do it justice.”

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

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Nielsens: Finales fare well

Tuesday, May 7th, 2013

Source: USA TODAY

Finale fever. Fox’s The Following finished its deadly first season with 7.8 million viewers Monday, an uptick from recent weeks, following Bones‘ season ender (7.4 million). Other finishes: CBS’ The Amazing Race (9.1 million) and The Mentalist (9.2 million, both Sunday); NBC’s Parks and Recreation (3 million Thursday); and ABC’s Happy Endings (2.5 million for two Friday episodes). Fox dispatched Cops after 25 seasons with 3 million for two Saturday episodes, but the show will move this fall to Spike TV. And ABC’s Red Widow faded out with 3.4 million Sunday.

Derby time. NBC’s Kentucky Derby drew 16.2 million viewers Saturday afternoon, up from 14.8 million last year for its second biggest total since 1989. ABC’s 20/20 special on Amanda Knox claimed 8.5 million Tuesday, when NBC’s Grimm improved, but not sharply, to 5.8 million in its new midweek slot. And Telemundo’s pint-sized Spanish version of The Voice, La Voz Kids, opened Sunday with 1.7 million, marking the network’s best reality start.

This and that. FX’s The Americans signed off its first season with a typically modest 1.7 million viewers Wednesday. Showtime’s The Big C opened its final four-episode run with 238,000 and Syfy’s Warehouse 13 drew 1.5 million for its return, both Monday And ABC’s Family Tools, the final new series of the TV season, premiered Wednesday to 5.8 million behind The Middle (7.4 million).

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

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Bob Newhart gets a big bang out of ‘Theory’

Wednesday, May 1st, 2013

Source: USA TODAY

Producer Chuck Lorre says he’s been after Bob Newhart for 18 years to guest-star on one of his hit sitcoms, and Thursday (8 ET/PT) he finally gets his wish: On CBS’ The Big Bang Theory, the legendary comedian plays Professor Proton, a down-on-his-luck former children’s show host who’s hired by Sheldon and Leonard to entertain them.

The series, TV’s top comedy with ratings up 17% in its sixth season, is a particular favorite of Newhart’s. “I love the writing on it; it’s intelligent and you can’t see the jokes coming,” he says.

Lorre returns the love: “He’s been a hero of mine since I was a kid, going back to his standup days in the ’60s.” Two decades later, as a young writer, he remembers sneaking onto the Newhart set between tapings. “I would sit there and take it in.”

On Big Bang, “it was such an extraordinary experience to spend a week working with a man who has such instincts,” he says, marveling at “how he could make a line come alive that on paper wasn’t necessarily funny. It’s some kind of alchemy.”

Newhart says he insisted on performing in front of a live audience (sitcoms sometimes pre-tape scenes), and Lorre wanted to surprise the crowd by not introducing the comedian ahead of time. “What if they don’t remember me?” Newhart says he asked.

But “the audience exploded,” Lorre says. “It was visiting royalty.”

Says star Jim Parsons, “We’ve had so many people on our show who are such fine actors, but until he came on I had yet to meet somebody on our set where I felt, ‘Oh my god, you exist!’ As soon as he opens his mouth you found yourself familiar with his entire essence, and it takes real talent to get that across to viewers.”

With Professor Proton (think Bill Nye, the Science Guy or Mr. Wizard, depending on your age), “they wrote to my strengths,” Newhart says of his deadpan delivery. And reacting to Sheldon was “almost like dealing with Larry, Darryl and Darryl again,” he says of the backwoods brothers who were a fixture of Newhart.

In the episode, Newhart’s character thinks he’s been hired to do another kids party, but when he clambers up the steps to the Pasadena pals’ apartments, it turns out that they are his only audience. So he gamely demonstrates his grade-school tricks, such as using a potato to power a clock.

Sheldon “came from a family that didn’t embrace his science at all,” Parsons says (putting it mildly), and the professor is “a kind man who could probably be seen as a father figure.”

And that is expected to lead to another visit or two next season. “He’s very near and dear to the hearts of Sheldon and Leonard, so we can return him next year,” Lorre says.

Newhart has a long association with CBS. After playing psychologist Bob Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show in the ’70s and Vermont innkeeper Dick Loudon on Newhart through the ’80s, he starred in two short-lived series, Bob and George & Leo in the ’90s. Even now, at 83, he still gets scripts for pilots, but isn’t interested. “It’s a very painful process when it doesn’t work,” he says. “I miss it, but I’m realistic about it. The kind of shows we used to do, they wouldn’t work anymore.”

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

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