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.

Read more...

Showrunner Musical Chairs

Fox announced yesterday that Lie To Me will be returning for a second season and it has a new showrunner: Shawn Ryan. Ryan's resume is short but sweet: FX's former gritty and ultra violent cop drama The Shield and CBS' slick and more mainstream The Unit.

The two shows are polar opposites, which is not something you see much of - usually a writer/producer has a certain set style that they stick with but Ryan's two shows don't have much in common. Obviously The Unit leans more towards the usual CBS fare, which tends to be geared towards middle-agers while The Shield was more in your face, fast paced ala 18-39 crowd. David Mamet was The Unit's other showrunner, but the show doesn't really match his super talk-laden playwrite style either, so who know's where The Unit gets it's style from.

I'm interested in seeing if Ryan pushes Lie To Me into dirtier territory or not. Keeping in mind that it's on Fox, which means either an 8pm or 9pm slot, he can't start cursing and slaughtering like in The Shield. Remember, though, that FX and Fox is the same parent company so they may permit him some leeway that CBS may not.

Ryan has another project with CBS for the 2009 season called Confessions Of A Contractor based on a book about an LA contractor working with wealthy clients and falling in love. The deal is for a put pilot (that means the network will have to pay heavy penalties if the pilot is not picked up) but is cast-contingent (meaning the network has a say in casting). In January the network announced that, because they couldn't find a lead actor for the series, it was being pushed to mid-season.

Another showrunner shuffle occurred last week at CBS: Executive producers Ed Yeager and Ric Swartzlander will be leaving CBS family laugher Gary Unmarried. The show is about to wrap up it's first season with consistantly so-so ratings and there's no word if there'll even be a second season yet. "Creative differences" was the reason given.

Read more...

2009 Fall Season Preview?

USA Today featured a rundown of what shows have been renewed, what's cancelled and what's still on the bubble.

Here's the link.

I have to say, I am absolutely shocked to see Medium and My Name Is Earl on NBC's bubble list. I can only assume they're not really on the bubble but have just not been announced for renewal yet. If not, I'm gonna be rather angry. This better not be a side effect of that ludicrous Jay Leno 10pm debacle.

I was also surprised to see other network shows that are on the bubble, such as and Samantha Who?The Unit. With all the praise Samantha Who? recieved last year I would have expected it to make it past season 2. As for The Unit, if it's ratings are lagging only one thing can be blamed: sports. It's constantly pre-empted so fans probably miss it quite often.

As for cancellations, the only one that really surprised me was Eleventh Hour. I've enjoyed that show since the beginning. The characters are great and I found the premise and story lines to rather interesting. It's somewhat shocking to see a procedural cop shows taken off like that.

I was also sort of surprised by NBC's cancellation of Life. It hasn't really been all that great this season but the great camera work, action sequences and soundtrack are still A+.

Download them at iTunes: Medium, Life, The Unit, Samantha Who?, My Name Is Earl.

Read more...

Incoming!

Slim pickings tonight (Sunday), people. As usual, CBS is running behind due to sports (golf, I believe), so adjust your DVR's as necessary The Unit and Cold Case fans.

I've actually given up watching Cold Case due to so many episodes being cutoff because of sports. I try to DVR The Unit and sometimes I remember to fix the end time but usually it's torrent time! Hopefully now that I no longer work Sunday nights my average will get better.

And don't forget Breaking Bad. While I love this show, it's one of the few that I prefer to backup a bit on my DVR and watch a few episodes back to back.

Monday:
House. I'm hoping they don't waste too much time on House's murder theory. While last week's episode was quite fantastic, I thought that was the one weak part.

24. It's getting really late! Jon Voight was scarily awesome last week as Jonas Hodges and I'm hoping he keeps it up for this episode. I'm also hoping someone finally sees Olivia Taylor as the snake she seems to be. I'm wondering if this week may finally see the return of Kim Bauer, too. Hopefully so.

Medium. Ah, Allison, the love of my life. A little back and forth this week as Allison gets to relive her pregnancy. It was rather disturbing when Marie crept into Allison and Joe's bedroom with that gun. Now we get to see pre-Marie.

Castle. Last week we were treated an ice pop druggie that no one bothered looking for and this week we are given a ritualistic killing. Behold the ups and downs of the modern cop drama.

Saving Grace. We're creeping up on Leon's final hours - will Grace have a revelation and step in? I'm wondering how rough the back and forth between Leon and Earl as time reaches the midnight hour.

Tuesday:
Fringe. I still haven't watched last week's episode. I had to download the torrent after returning home from work to realize the last 7 or so minutes were cut off by the ultimate in "illiterate programming". Way to force me into being illegal, Fox.

Rescue Me. Ah, finally. After a really lengthy hiatus, last week's episode was chock full of back story and a few new surprises. I don't about anyone else but Chief Feinberg has been creeping me out. Obviously, Tommy's gonna keep his job or there wouldn't be a show but I suspect the upcoming Section 8 hearing will be a laugher. I'm really looking forward to Tommy learning of Black Shawn and his daughters relationship, as well.

Cupid. We're up to the third episode and I'm digging it. Sarah Paulson is not quite as cute as she was in Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip due to her characters jaded attitude but Bobby Cannavale's sweetly determined Eros/Trevor balances her out quite well.

Get them at iTunes.

Read more...