Odds & Ends

Lot's of news swirling around this week and extended work hours left me with little time to update, so I thought I'd drop a bunch of small items at once:

TNT's first ever non-scripted series, Wedding Day, didn't fare so well. According to Nielsen the show pulled just 850,000 viewers for it's debut. Due to the low numbers the network has moved the show to Thursdays at 8pm, I guess hoping Bones reruns will act as a better lead-in for their new med drama HawthoRNe.

Brian Austin Green will be joinging CW's Smallville for a two episode arc. Just a few weeks ago word was leaked that the actor, fresh off Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles, would be joining the cast of CW's One Tree Hill as Nathan Scott's playboy sports agent. That lasted about a week before his "reps got cold feet". Seems odd that he'd turn down a longer lasting part on a higher rated series on the same network for two episodes on a series that's barely holding on for it's final season. Anyway, he's on for playing Metallo, a villian.

Ratings for USA's Royal Pains went up 17% in it's third week. At the same exact time, The Listener, on USA's mother network NBC, went down just as much for it's third week. Good news for Royal Pains, which I really enjoy. Bad news for The Listener, which I also enjoy. It gets alot of flack from TV critics, but it's not as bad as they make it out to be.

T.R. Knight won't be returning to Grey's Anatomy, while Katherine Heigl will be. I hate spoilers and think it's really freaking lame that every single TV news outlet reported this, but oh well.

The whole cast of Seinfield will appear in HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm's seventh season, which debuts this fall. No word about how or why, nor if they'll all be together or seperate. If I recall correctly, Julia Louis Dreyfus has already appeared in an earlier season, but this'll be a first for the others.

Seth MacFarlane is going to be a recurring guest star on ABC's Flash Forward. Don't ask me why. I really don't know much about MacFarlane as I'm not a fan of his work, but I don't the purpose in his casting.

Mad Men showrunner Matthew Weiner hinted in an interview with Rolling Stone that the show may be be shifting to Los Angeles.

Now that The CW has canceled Reaper, the duo behind the show are moving to the writing staff of Fox's Dollhouse.

Finally, Cupid, Pushing Daisies and The Unusuals all ended, while Eli Stone returned (if only for a few weeks). ABC is really cleaning house this summer.

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The CW Announces Premiere Dates

The CW announced it's Fall 2009 premiere dates, including a flip flop for teeny-soap hits Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill. Not sure what's behind the changed but I don't mind long as the two are still paired up.

Also check out the new poster for season 7 of One Tree Hill above. It's a bit sparse without Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton. If you look real closely at the credits, there's no mention of Antwon Tanner, though I'm not sure if he's ever been a starring cast member.


Below are the official premiere dates:

Tues. Sept. 8th
8PM - 90210
9PM - Melrose Place

Thurs. Sept. 10
8PM - Vampire Diaries
9PM - Supernatural

Mon. Sept. 14th
8PM - One Tree Hill
9PM - Gossip Girl

Wed. Sept. 16th
9PM - A Beautiful Life

Fri. Sept. 25th
9PM - Smallville

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CW 2009/2010 Schedule

Next year's CW schedule looks...almost completely like this years. The only surprise is the near-dumping of the network's long running superhero hit "Smallville". Here's the schedule:

Monday

8pm "Gossip Girl"

9pm "One Tree Hill"

Tuesday

8pm "90210"

9pm "Melrose Place"

Wednesday

8pm "America's Next Top Model"

9pm "The Beautiful Life"

Thursday

8pm "Vampire Diaries"

9pm "Supernatural"

Friday

8pm "Smallville"

9pm "America's Next Top Model" (repeats)

Word was out a while ago what pickups the network would be making and the only surprise left was the scheduling. Pairing the new "Melrose Place" with "90210" was a no brainer. The original Melrose premiered on the back of the original "Beverly Hills 90210" in Fox's 1992 fall season, so there was little doubt it wouldn't happen again. Let's just hope this new Melrose recreation is not as bad as CW's "90210".

Placing "Vampire Diaries" with "Supernatural" was a bit more of a surprise. While the premise and style of the two probably match much better than "Smallville" and "Supernatural", and the two will probably share more fans, I would not have expected the network the simply toss aside a long running series like "Smallville".

Sure, NBC is doing the same thing to 20 year vet "Law & Order" but that's due to declining ratings. Having just ended it's eighth season, which is near unheard of with teen oriented series, the shows ratings this last season remained near identical to the year before. At it's peak, season 2, the show earned ratings that were surprsingly high for it's network. The CW (and previously The WB) are kinda known for buzz worthy teen fare with low on air ratings but HUGE download numbers and the slow decline of "Smallville"'s ratings pretty much relate that.

The Friday 8pm slot is an absolute dead zone. Let's make no bones about it - Smallville's audience consists mainly of high school kids with a love of comic books, sci fi and terrible music and TV addicts, such as myself, that watch damn near everything. The TV addicts, of course, have DVR's and they'll be reprogrammed, but here's hoping the high school kids can talk their parents into getting DVR's if they don't already have them.

Truthfully, it seems as if it's been a struggle to get the show on the air the last few seasons with cast members wanting to leave leading to tougher contract negotiations and what not. This year, the show's ninth, will most likely be it's last and maybe the network figures to hell with the on air ratings, shove it to Friday and let everyone DVR or download it.

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Incoming!

Tonight (Tuesday)
Fringe. Finally got caught up from that American Moron debacle and must say the show has come back from hiatus with a vengeance.

The Unusuals. As posted earlier, ABC is running two new episodes of The Unusuals this week, hoping to see if a new time slot and lead-in will bump ratings up. That means there's some high hopes for this show in the upper echelons of the network.

Rescue Me. The season is off to a funny start, as per usual. With all the build up towards the section 8 hearing, the outcome was a bit flat but...probably more true to life than if anything crazy would have happened.

Wednesday
Lie To Me. Each week brings up another intriguing story. I wonder how long they can keep it up, though. Seems like the stories could get stale after a bit but Tim Roth's facial expressions and dead pan, though sometimes squeaky, acting will probably make up for that.

Better Off Ted. I'm not a fan of multicamera sitcoms but I have to admit to much chuckling during this show. Perhaps it's making fun of corporations that I love so much, but the off and on again romantic story line between Ted and Linda is rather cute and the bickering between Lem and Phil is quite comical. Veronica, though, is just creepy. Those Veridian Dynamics mock commercials are hilarious. ABC should have broadcast those as a mystery campaign before the show aired.

Lost. Very excited to see what Faraday has to say about what's going on. And where the hell is Sayid?

The Unusuals. It's a double shot this week.

Thursday.
My Name Is Earl. So sad the ratings for this show have been in declined because it probably creates the most laugh out loud moments of any show on my DVR.

Smallville. Who would have thought this show could last so many years and not get tiresome? Chloe is now in charge of keeping Davis from becoming Dr. Doom. That's a pretty big job. When she closed the basement door at the end of the last episode...Well let;s just say it was creepy.

Supernatural. This season has been ruling. The addition of the angels has made for some great moments (and great visuals). While I route for Sam and Dean to defeat evil, I take great pleasure in watch Dean wield his power...even if it is evil.

Parks and Recreation. The show has been getting a lot of hype and decent ratings...But I'm not really feeling it. Maybe because it's just storylines from The Office being reused.

Grey's Anatomy. When we last left them, Izzie had surgery, Meredeth and Derek were engaged, George was pouting, Alex was hiding his feelings (surprise!) and Owen and Cristina broke up. I'm hoping we start seeing more George lately. I miss him.

The Office. The new story line with the Michael Scott Paper Company has been pretty fantastic. Good job to the writers for freshening things up a bit. This is probably the best season since the second.

30 Rock. They've thankfully gotten out of the guest star slump the season started off with and the wit and charm has returned. When watching this show always listen carefully to catch all the great one-liners.

Southland. Episode three airs this week so the blog reviews should start flooding in. I'll just go ahead and say 'stunning'. Great new show that I look forward to weekly. Benjamin McKenzie portrayal of rookie officer Ben Sherman has been flawless and, much like Tim Roth but in a very different manner, he makes his facial expressions do most of the work. At times I have trouble watching an actor from a beloved show (The O.C.) take on a new part with out my mind unconciously melding the two characters together, but McKenzie, through sheer talent alone, managed to break that habit this time. I thought last week's episode was lacking in screen time for him, though.

Friday.
Flashpoint. Those Canadians know how to pack an emotional wallop, don't they. An upper-middle female aged coworker of mine had this to say about the series: "I love how these big burly men do manly things but are also so sensitive...but manly."

Dollhouse. The new blogger darling. Too bad 90% of the shows audience is watching it via illegal torrent downloads. Some may say that's what the network gets for scheduling the show on Friday nights but atleast you can get it at Hulu, people.

Numb3rs. For someone that failed pretty much every math related course offered at my high school, I still find this show pretty intriguing. Without continuing storylines, though, there's not much to write about.

Saturday.
Kings. Perhaps the move to Saturdays was warrented...I can see where the storylines are getting a bit tedious.

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