Chuck: The Complete 1st Season courtesy Warner Home Video
New releases announced today, May 12:Cheers - Season 10 will be coming out September 2 Chuck - The Complete 1st Season will be coming out September 16 College Hill - Season 5: Atlanta will be coming out August 19 Everybody Hates Chris - The 3rd Season will be coming out August 26 Ghost Whisperer - The 3rd Season will be coming out September 2 Las Vegas - Season 5 will be coming out July 22 NCIS - The Complete 5th Season will be coming out August 26 Visit TVShowsOnDVD.com for the complete stories on these and other news items.
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The CW has signed a deal with the production finance company Media Rights Capital to take over its Sunday-night programming block, where Everybody Hates Chris, Aliens in America and The Game currently reside. As part of the pact, MRC is contracted to develop two dramas and two comedies, and sell ad time for them.The CW (and the WB before it) traditionally has had a very rough go of it trying to gain traction with Sunday programming/ratings. It is believed that by pawning off the quagmire to a media conglomerate, the netlet can focus its attention on Monday through Friday — where, ostensibly, EHC and/or The Game could find new homes. (Per Ausiello, Aliens is a goner.) — MWMRelated:• The CW Axes Aliens in America• No Laughing Matter: CW Closes Comedy Division
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Tichina Arnold and Tyler James Williams in Everybody Hates Chris by Isabella Vosmikova/The CW
Nick at Nite has purchased the basic-cable-TV rights to the CW's Everybody Hates Chris.The family sitcom, which is based on comedian Chris Rock's Brooklyn upbringing, will start airing on Nickelodeon's prime-time programming block in the fall of 2009, joining other such sitcoms as Home Improvement, George Lopez and Roseanne. I have to be honest: I've never seen Rock's sitcom, though I've heard great things from my TV-critic friends. Plus, I have faith in the taste of the folks over at Nickelodeon, who, over the years, have brought us reruns of The Facts of Life, Diff'rent Strokes, Mad About You, The Cosby Show, Murphy Brown, Family Ties, Growing Pains and Designing Women.Which begs the question: Which current sitcom would you like to see on Nick at Nite? My vote: While it's technically not a sitcom, Brothers & Sisters packs more laughs into each one-hour episode than the average season of According to Jim. Your turn.... — Mickey O'Connor
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Question: Black TV. It exists. Can we please get Everybody Hates Chris, Girlfriends and The Game listed on the Strike Countdown Chart?
Answer: I'll see your race card and raise you one ambiguously gay alien. In addition to EHC, Girlfriends and The Game, I've added Kyle XY.
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Question: I never watched the CW before this year, but suddenly I'm finding myself watching shows that have been running for a while. Some of them I didn't know I was missing (Everybody Hates Chris, Beauty and the Geek and Supernatural), while others have only just started (Reaper, Gossip Girl and Aliens in America, definitely the funniest new show of the year). Am I a statistically insignificant anomaly, or do the ratings indicate that this will be the breakout year for the CW (or would have been if not for the strike)? On another note, I'm curious how the strike will affect certain cable shows. I don't know how much truth there is to this, but I've heard that some cable series typically have their entire season's worth of episodes produced far in advance of when the season starts. I'm particularly interested in learning the status of the final seasons of The Shield, The Wire and Battlestar Galactica. Do we know when they'll be airing and how much of their final seasons are in the can? ...
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Question: I'm really enjoying Aliens in America, and I worry that people are missing the boat on this surprisingly funny half-hour of television. The second episode was one of the highlights of the week! The ratings are abysmal, and so few people are talking about this show that I'm worried it'll be pulled before others have the opportunity to give it a chance. What do you think about Aliens in America — does it have a fighting chance? Does the fact that it's on the CW work against it? Would its ratings be higher if it had been picked up by NBC or CBS?
Answer: If Aliens were airing anywhere but the CW (except perhaps on cable), its ratings probably would be higher, but given the sorry state of the CW's overall ratings this season, it's probably just as well that a show this offbeat is airing on a network that's likely to let it ride. Despite the low ratings, Aliens in America has had generally good media buzz, which should help keep it around. I like the show, and I especially like the
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Drew Carey host of The Price Is Right by Monty Brinton/CBS
Giggling at the antics of the slap-happy contestants who “come on down” at what he calls “the happiest place on Earth,” Drew Carey looks like he’s having a blast, and looks right at home, on the spiffed-up set of The Price Is Right as he takes over as host today. There’s no fuss and no ceremony, and outside of the introduction telling us we’re at the Bob Barker Studio in Television City, and that one of the games is still called “Barker’s Bargain Bar,” and that Carey chooses to sign off with the traditional plea to have your pets spayed, there’s no actual homage to the former host as the new Price era begins.And yet, probably the greatest tribute to Bob Barker is that the show goes on, and goes on effortlessly with its funny-looking new ringleader, who appears to be genuinely tickled at the breathless excitement of the frantic folks who come to play the game. When one of the contestants does a cartwheel after taking the stage, C...
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This Monday, as a two-hour (!) Dancing with the Stars averaged 20.34 million total viewers:8 pm/ETPlacing second was Chuck (8.22 million), albeit down a mil from its debut. CBS' Mother (7.88 mil, -400K) and Big Bang (8.58 mil, down a mil) each slipped. Prison Break held steady with 7.22 mil. The CW's Everybody Hates Chris (2.58 mil) was up 140 thou from last fall's premiere, while lead-out Aliens in America (with 2.33 mil) did not at all "terror"-bly, matching All of Us' 2006 opener.9 pmCBS' Men (13.4 mil) was on par with last week, but Rules (10.5 million) disengaged some 1.5 mil viewers. Drawing 11.94 mil, Heroes saw 15 percent of its premiere audience fly away. (Is Peter's new storyline using leftover Black Donnellys scripts and sets? I digress.) K-Ville (5.48 mil) KO'd another 680 thou. Girlfriends (2.6 mil) was down 150K from its previous premiere, but The Game (2.99 mil) was up 400,000.10 pmCSI: Miami dominated with 14.87 million, followed by The Bachelor (9.57 mil, down 10 pe...
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Chris Rock, Everybody Hates Chris
On tonight's Everybody Hates Chris (8 pm/ET, CW), Chris Rock, playing a guidance counselor, asks his student, "What do you want to do when you get out of school?" Not an unfair question, right? But if you can't hear the vague menace behind the concern, then you've never been an unfocused, troubled kid. And you've definitely never been Chris Rock.
The comic turned sitcom producer, whose rocky school days inspired the semiautobiographical Everybody Hates Chris, makes his first-ever guest appearance on the CW series. Rock is Mr. Abbott, the counselor assigned to Chris (Tyler James Williams) after the kid all but blows his eighth-grade exams. Actually, Mr. Abbott is more of a misguidance counselor. Jaded, disinterested and a bit prejudice
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Question: I just read your response to L.C.'s question and would like to say thank you. I am an African-American woman and have never found humor in any of Tyler Perry's buffoonish material. You will probably get slammed for your response, but I want you to know I really appreciate what you said about overembracing this show just because it has a black cast. I remember great shows like Frank's Place and A Different World, which had great writing and realistic characters. And while Seinfeld and Friends did not have a black cast, my experience is more in line with those shows than with House of Payne. I just wanted to say thank you for responding to that reader the same way I would have.
Answer: Fair enough, and thanks for bringing up the remarkable Frank's Place, which deserved so much better than it got on CBS way back when. The truth is that there probably should be room on TV for sitcoms that aim both high and low, and this takes me back to the earlier High School Musical 2 question.
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