Rules of Engagement
It's on, it's off, it's on again. Rules of Engagement has served as a true utility player for CBS, but that means it never has a permanent place on the schedule — and is forever teetering on the bubble.
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David Spade, Wendi McLendon-Covey
Tom Hertz was waiting for the call, like he usually does.
After CBS pushed his Rules of Engagement's dreaded Saturday premiere one week to Oct. 15 (which was already punted from Sept. 24), he knew it would get called up to the plate for a prime weekday slot soon. How to Be a Gentleman had premiered in the coveted post-Big Bang Theory Thursday berth to weak numbers and didn't seem long for this world (measured against CBS' high standards). "They told us we would not be premiering on the 8th, but instead the 15th, and I figured that meant they were going to give How to Be a Gentleman one more shot airing to see if it went up, and if not, then we would jump in at some point," Hertz tells TVGuide.com. "But yeah, I didn't believe we would air on the 15th."
CBS moves How to Be a Gentleman to Saturdays; Rules takes Thursdays slot
The call came Friday, Oct. 7 after Gentleman posted an even worse ratings erosion. The shows will swap time slots, though CBS has since pulled Gentleman from Saturdays as well.
"For all the buzz about 'the first scripted show on Saturdays in 10 years' and 'could they take Saturday nights?' it just didn't happen. And it's better that ...
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Curtis Armstrong
Revenge of the Nerds star Curtis Armstrong will guest-star on Rules of Engagement this season, TVGuide.com has learned exclusively.
The part won't be too big of a stretch for Armstrong: He will ...
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Jason Hoppy
For a guy who married and made a baby with one of TV's most outgoing reality stars, Bethenny Frankel's hubby, Jason Hoppy, sure stays under the radar. Still, there are a few things we've found out about the businessman that make us happy for the Hoppy couple...
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In this new Up Close video Q&A, Oliver Hudson talks about the Rules of Engagement-versus-Old Christine slugfest, the careful choreography of a sitcom nude scene, how his sister Kate deals with those pesky paparazzi, and more.
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Christina Aguilera by Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com
Tony Bennett and Christina Aguilera will reprise their duet performance of "Steppin' Out (With My Baby)" at the Sept. 16 Primetime Emmy Awards. But will Xtina step out with a baby belly?.... Carlos Mencia will host the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Sept. 8.... ESPN2's telecast of the "Super Classico" contest between David Beckham's L.A. Galaxy and Chivas USA set a new record as the cabler's most-watched MLS game ever.... Oliver Hudson (Rules of Engagement) and wife Erinn Bartlett (How I Met Your Mother) welcomed their first child, a son named Wilder Brooks, on Aug. 23, says People.
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Sunday's first three installments of Discovery Channel's Planet Earth, averaging 5.7 million viewers, were the the No. 1-, 2- and 4-ranked basic-cable programs of the week.... Serve the cheerleader, reap the ratings: ABC Family's Sunday airing of Hayden Panettiere's Bring It On: All or Nothing was the cabler's most-watched movie premiere of all time, with 4.8 million viewers.... Jimmy Kimmel and NBA star LeBron James will cohost ESPN's ESPY Awards, to be broadcast July 15.... Bobby arrives on DVD April 10.... The wife of Oliver Hudson (Rules of Engagement) will give Goldie Hawn her second grandchild in August, reports E!.
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I miss Christine already — as in The New Adventures of Old Christine, the sparkling Julia Louis-Dreyfus comedy that's temporarily being benched for a tryout of Rules of Engagement (premieres Feb. 5, 9 pm/ET on CBS), a new romantic sitcom that delivers few sparks in either the comic or amorous arenas.
Like a less-cartoonish version of Fox's 'Til Death, CBS' Rules contrasts two couples: longtime marrieds Jeff and Audrey, who've settled into a routine of mutual but affectionate irritation; and young neighbors Adam and Jennifer, engaged after only seven months together and facing hurdles of insecurity as they get to know each other.
Adding some snark whenever the laugh track dies down is Adam's womanizing pal Russell, a bimbo magnet lazily
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Get on a plane to start the holiday early (in the weirdly warm Ohio River valley) and look what happens. CBS pulls a switcheroo with its Monday comedies.On paper, it looks like more canny scheduling for a network that is solid (if uninspired) nearly every night of the week. CBS’s current two-hour comedy block of traditional-looking (though often edgier than you’d expect for mainstream) sitcoms may lack the distinctive brilliance you can find in the best of NBC’s Thursday comedies, but they’re all watchable and at times very enjoyable. How I Met Your Mother has sharpened its game in its second season, the new The Class is working through its growing pains (perhaps not quickly enough to ensure renewal), Two and a Half Men is as bawdy as ever (and is at its best whenever Conchata Farrell and Holland Taylor are around), and The New Adventures of Old Christine has become one of the season’s more delightful surprises, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus a hoot as she bumbles...
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On the big screen, John Malkovich has been tapped to play a 23rd-century Trump in the upcoming sci-fi thriller The Mutant Chronicles, the Hollywood Reporter informs us.... On the small screen, American Dreams' cutie-pie Sarah Ramos (she was prickly sis Patty) has been added to the cast of Runaway, CW's proposed drama about a family of fugitives.... Charmed head-turner Kaley Cuoco has been adopted as Marisa Coughlan's sib in ABC's untitled sisters pilot.... The Mountain man Oliver Hudson will yuk it up in The Weekend, a potential CBS laffer.... Marion Ross — that's Mrs. C to you — is doing Community Service for NBC.
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