Oops - Variety Says Leno Beat Letterman Last Night

Variety posted it's morning ratings today with what seems to be a typo. According to Variety:

"NBC's "Tonight Show With Jay Leno" edged out CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman" (3.1/8 to 3.0/8) in Nielsen's metered-market overnight household averages. Letterman closed the gap thanks to an appearance by reliable ratings-getter Howard Stern."

I did not watch either show, but I checked on NBC.com and CBS.com to confirm that it was Conan O'Brien on the Tonight Show and Letterman did have Howard Stern on as a guest.

So yeah, it's just a typo, I'm sure, but a funny one. Don't they have proof readers or fact checkers to catch this kinda thing?

Here's the Variety article.

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Preview: The Good Wife

Ever since pilot screeners hit the legit TV media world (which I am not, of course), the show most have been mentioning isThe Good Wife. Maybe because that pilot arrived first or maybe just because it's good. I posted last night about Chris Noth playing the the disgraced politician husband upon reading Variety's good first thoughts on the show. Then Futon Critic said almost the same as Variety and finally, today, EW's Michael Ausiello said, while talking about co-star Matt Czuchry, "The pilot for his new CBS legal drama, The Good Wife, doesn't suck. Like, at all."

And so we now have a preview, a mix of actor interviews and scene footage. I have to say, it's looking really good to me. And, as I was wondering, it looks possible that Chris Noth may be sticking around for than just the pilot, even from behind bars.

The Good Wife Promo - Behind The Scenes
by SeriesNet

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Mr. Big Plays The Bad Husband

Variety posted first look thoughts on CBS' new drama The Good Wife. The column was pretty positive and provided some good news: Chris Noth, better known as Sex and The City's Mr. Big or Law & Order's Mike Logan, will be starring as the bad guy.

As previously posted, the series stars Juliana Margulies as the wife of a disgraced politico who gets locked up after a scandal ends his career. Margulies is then transformed from political spouse to breadwinner and must return to work as a lawyer. I was previously delighted by the casting of former Gilmore Girls and Friday Night Lights hunk Matt Czuchry for the series and the addition of Noth makes it even better.

No word, though, on how long Chris Noth's character will remain in the storylines, if he even makes it past episode one. Remember, the series' whole reason for being is him going to jail. Here's hoping they keep him around as a recurring character, atleast. I'm not really pulling for flash backs as those tend to get tiresome, but even disgraced husbands deserve jailhouse visits, right?

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Interesting Article In The NY Times

The New York Times has an interesting article about the battle for "Medium" waged between CBS and NBC.  Who knew NBC wanted "Ghost Whisperer"?  I don't see that show fitting quite as well as it does at CBS.  "Medium", though will probably prosper at it's new home on CBS. 

 

I'm usually concerned with moving a good show to any Friday night slot but if you're going to do it, CBS is the network for it.  Some how, and I'm sure Fox, NBC and ABC executives all wish they knew, CBS has managed to pull in mid-week style ratings on a weekend night - not heard of very often.

 

The quotes from NBC executives are near laughable, much like ones reported in an LA Times blog a few days ago.

 

You can read the article here.

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Medium Producers Fire Back At NBC

Don't get your hopes up just yet, kids. "Medium" is still technically canceled. NBC surprisingly axed the relatively high performing, good quality drama and right away rumors started circulating that the show could gain a new home at CBS.

It wasn't long before an LA Times blog had posted that such a deal had been struck, and various blogs and other news sources followed their lead before LA Times had to admit no deal had been reached yet. What they did have, though, was a great quote from the show's studio, CBS Studios, which actually says pretty much what my previous post did only more eloquently.

The quote: "NBC's cancellation of 'Medium' is inexplicable to us. The ratings don't lie. 'Medium' outperforms many of NBC's renewed shows. Despite inconsistent scheduling, 'Medium,' under the creative vision of Glenn Gordon Caron, one of the most preeminent producers in television, has always performed with distinction both creatively and commercially. Multiple-award-winning actress Patricia Arquette and the cast have delivered a stellar series for five consistent seasons. The awards and ratings speak for themselves. We believe the show has a significant future and await developments."

TV Squad made it sound like the CBS network released that quote, which would amount to a war of words between the two networks, but that quote is actually from a CBS Studios spokesperson. While the two companies are corporate siblings, I think it's rather important to point out that they are separate entities.

Is it war between Medium producers and NBC? Nah, they've been canceled, the producers spoke up saying what was on most people's mind, the network will probably release a short statement that praises the show but says something about moving on or going in a new direction.

Let's just hope the producers and the CBS network can work something out.

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Bubble Shows Cut

NBC has canceled both "My Name Is Earl" and "Medium" and CBS cut "The Unit". Bad news all around. I'm really surprised by the news about "Medium" as the show is a consistant performer and when it comes to ratings, well...They're higher than most other NBC shows.

According to Variety, though, all is not lost. CBS Studios produces "Medium", so there's talk of possibly moving the show to the studio sister network, CBS, for a possible pairing with Friday nights' "Ghost Whisperer". I'd be down.

Same goes for "My Name Is Earl", which is good news for those intrigued by the unfinished ending of the season finale. Show is produced by 20th Century Fox TV, sister to the Fox network, so there's plans to shop the series to both Fox and even ABC. With ABC's big push towards comedy next year that could be decent idea and Fox can use all the help it can get with comedy. Plus I could see Fox being a pretty decent home for the show's redneck and off the wall humor.

I do have admit I'm pretty down about this news. "Earl" and "Medium" are two of my favorite shows and I'm a watcher of "The Unit", as well.

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CBS Renews Cold Case

CBS squared up the rest of it's 2009 season today. They officially renewed long-runner "Cold Case". Though the series has been a hard worker for the network since 2003, there was some question as to whether it would return for a seventh year. The series has been paired up with "Without A Trace" in the past and, lately, with "The Unit", both of which will not be returning next season.

The show premiered in the Sunday 8pm timeslot way back in ought three before moving to it's current Sunday 9pm slot in the 2006 season, so I assume it'll probably stay in place next season. It's a shame, though, as I pointed out with The Unit, shows airing on Sunday evenings are given a hard time when afternoon sports broadcasts run late. It's the reason a good show like "Cold Case" is no longer set to record on my DVR.

There's only so many times I'm willing to press play and find annoying reality TV competitions in Detective Lilly's place before removing a series from my record list.

The network also picked up another drama, a fast paced medical drama called "Miami Trauma". It may just be me, but I tend to find series with a city name in the title to be pretty lame and to be an absolutely terrible representation of what a city is actually like. Hopefully they won't take the cheap-skate, lame production way out and film it in L.A. with canned location shots. Knowing CBS and it's geriatric audience, I'm assuming this show will be less entertaining than NBC's planned "Trauma" but will slaughter it in the ratings anyway.

There is one light in the tunnel, though: word is the network is looking at drama titled "House Rules" about freshman politicians in the U.S. Congress. I'm a sucker for political shows.

CBS will have it's upfront this Wednesday. I'm looking forward to final word on "The Unit" as well as the just mentioned "House Rules".

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CBS Pickups Three Pilots (Updated: Four)

With so many posts about the other big networks, one may wonder where the heck is CBS in all of this. Well, today Variety reported the eye network picked up three new dramas for next season, "Three Rivers", "The Good Wife" and an NCIS spin-off starring LL Cool J and Chris O'Donnell.

"The Good Wife" stars Juliana Margulies as a lawyer (and I'm assuming, mother) who has to go back to the office when her husband, a politician, goes to jail. I've been a fan of Juliana Margulies since her short stint as a nutso mistress on The Sopranos, so I'm glad to see her returning to weekly TV. The Scott Brothers, Tony and Ridley, are producing, so here's hoping. Come to think of it, The Scott Bros tend to like non-traditional families in their series, so perhaps she's not a mom? (On a side note, anyone catch the season finale of "Numb3rs" on Friday - great episode. I'd like to pat the Scott Bros on the back for that one.)

The show also stars Matt Czuchry as a Harvard graduate junior associate at Margulies' law firm named Cary. I know many will be elated to find the young heart throb back on TV. While his unfortunately short stint as religion-boy and crush object for Lila on "Friday Night Lights" was memorable, especially for the scenes starring both he and Tim Riggins with poor little Lila stuck in between, his three season run as Rory Gilmore's well-to-do but not such a big jerk as she originally thought boyfriend Logan Huntzberger on "The Gilmore Girls" really cemented him as not only a heart throb, but a pretty decent actor, too.

"Three Rivers" is about organ donors, according to Variety. With only that bit of info I'm reminded of TNT's failed Treat Williams starred organ donor drama "Heartland" due to the related premise and the folksy, midwest-y name.

The NCIS spin-off...well, I couldn't really care less about that. LL Cool J has decided to walk in Ice T's path and maybe it'll work out just as well for him. I do remember snickering upon first hearing of T's casting on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" but I whole heartedly take that back now as he's a good addition to the show. As for Chris O'Donnell, I've never really been a fan of his, though I have nothing against him. The last part I can even recall him in is Robin from one of the Batman movies. Besides not being a fan of his, I don't particularly care for NCIS, either.

As I said in an earlier post, I think the show is popular for three reasons: It's timeslot, the fact that it's so...unspecial, non-stylized, etc. and that it's on CBS, meaning the network's older skewing audience likes early time slots and unspecial programming.

Still no word on "The Unit", "Cold Case" or "Without A Trace". I'm guessing "Cold Case" in, "Without A Trace" out and no idea on where "The Unit" lies...I'm hoping they keep it with a better timeslot.

As for CBS sister network, The CW, they have picked up "Vampire Diaries" and the Melrose Place spin-off.

According to Futoncritic, Vampire Diaries is "drama about a tragic young heroine who is the object of passion for two vampire brothers - one good, one evil - who are at war for her soul and for the souls of her friends and family."

Updated 5/17/09 8:38pm
CBS also picked up another comedy. "Accidentally On Purpose" stars Jenna Elfman, the description says "comedy about a san francisco movie critic who finds herself accidentally pregnant after a fling with a much younger man, and the unconventional family that ultimately results".

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