Here's my quick take on the Fall 2007 primetime schedule that NBC announced earlier today....MONDAY8 pm Deal or No Deal9 pm Heroes10 pm JourneymanMonday has the potential to be NBC's biggest night. DOND is a game show juggernaut. Heroes will have a make or break sophomore season and Heroes: Origins better not be too gimmicky. Journeyman will try to carry the futuristic vibe of Heroes, but will fare about as well as Studio 60 did.TUESDAY8 pm The Biggest Loser9 pm Chuck10 pm Law & Order: SVUHistorically, this is the night where NBC shows go to die. The Biggest Loser has a small but loyal following. Chuck will be this season's failed attempt at government geek gone good. SVU just rolls on.WEDNESDAY8 pm Deal or No Deal9 pm The Bionic Woman10 pm LifeHey, it's another non-scripted show at 8 o'clock for NBC! DOND on Mondays and Wednesdays will wear thin. The Battlestar Galactica team is involved with The Bionic Woman, so I'll give Jamie Sommers the benefit of the doubt. Life is this ...
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Kyle Chandler in Friday Night Lights by Paul Drinkwater/NBC Photo
First, the good news (that we've been cheering since late last week): NBC's Hail Mary reprieve to the low-rated but critically worshipped Friday Night Lights is something to celebrate. True, the move to Fridays is a bit worrisome. Those with long memories will recall the fast fade of a similarly themed high-school football drama, Against the Grain (starring a then-unknown Ben Affleck), which aired on Fridays in 1993. Its failure was largely attributed to being scheduled on a night when much of the target audience was actually attending high-school football games. (But that was before the age of DVRs, downloads, online streaming, etc.) One upside: expectations on Fridays are significantly lower. And with a summer in which (let's hope) Emmy nominations and a presumed DVD release can help promote the show and stimulate more buzz, maybe this underdog will do OK in the long run.Next, the strangest news in all of NBC's fall announcements, the first in a week-long wave of network upfront p...
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As buzzed about a month ago, NBC has signed Emmy winner Tom Selleck (Magnum, P.I.) to join the cast of NBC's Las Vegas this fall, playing "a charismatic, self-made billionaire who is surrounded by an air of mystery when he becomes the new owner of the Montecito Resort & Casino."In making the announcement, NBC also revealed that — as some form of baton-passing, I presume — James Caan will reprise his role of Ed Deline in the Season 5 premiere. It was announced earlier this year that Caan would be leaving Las Vegas after its fourth-season finale, but just when he thought he was out, they pulled him back in. (Little Pacino/Godfather/Sonny Corleone reference for ya there.)
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Flying in the face of conventional wisdom that his and Jason Lee's mustaches may not coexist on the same network, Tom Selleck is in talks to fill the void left by the exit of James Caan and join NBC's Las Vegas as the smart, powerful and fun-loving new owner of the Montecito, says the Hollywood Reporter. For Season 5, the show is also looking to find an actress to fill Nikki Cox's... shoes. Yes, her shoes. (Paging Haley Scarnato!)
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James Lesure, Las Vegas
It sure was a treat to speak to the delightfully charming James Lesure, one of the hot stars of NBC's action-packed Las Vegas. Unfortunately, we spoke to him before all the big news broke about the show returning for another season, and without original cast members James Caan and Nikki Cox. However, Lesure, who plays smooth-talking surveillance team member Mike Cannon, still managed to spill a few details about his working relationships on the show and to hype tonight's huge season finale.
TVGuide.com: Got any fun plans for your hiatus? James Lesure: I hope to clean up the place where I st
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Las Vegas creator Gary Scott Thompson says the decision to bid adieu to both James Caan and Nikki Cox came so last-minute that Friday's season-ender — which boasts an explosion and a shooting, to name but two big events, and was purposely designed to coerce NBC into greenlighting a fifth season — not only might not pave the way for Ed's and Mary's exits, but actually has the writers in a bit of a pickle. "The season finale had already been written," Thompson tells TVGuide.com, "so it's going to be challenging to get us out of the situation I put us in." For Thompson's latest take on why Caan is leaving Las Vegas, see the fresh Ask Ausiello.
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Question: I heard that Las Vegas canned Nikki Cox and that James Caan is leaving of his own free will.
Answer: That's NBC's story and they're sticking to it. My Vegas mole, however, says Caan's exit was more of a mutual decision. It's true that he was itching to get back into the features world, but it's also true that Vegas producers, in exchange for a fifth season, had to cut the show's budget drastically — and eliminating Caan's seven-figure salary was like killing 16 PETA-approved animatronic birds with one stone. Not surprisingly, exec producer Gary Scott Thompson denied all of this in an interview yesterday with TVGuide.com's very own Matt Mitovich. "It's more on Jimmy's part," he maintained. "He wanted to do features again. TV's really tough. Eighty-seven episodes is a long time to be away from a feature career. He was itching to
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NBC announced on Tuesday that it has renewed Las Vegas (Fridays, 9 pm/ET) for a fifth season. But as scooped by Ausiello and detailed in Wednesday's Hollywood Reporter, the series is moving forward minus two original cast members.Having launched with the likes of James Caan, Nikki Cox, Josh Duhamel, James Lesure, Molly Simms and Vanessa Marcil, (SPOILER ALERT) it is the first two listed there who are not returning for Season 5. "I've had a wonderful four years, worked with great people and made friends for life working on Las Vegas. But I'm eager to return to where my heart is, which is film, and due to the show's schedule, I missed some great opportunities to do that," Caan says. "I wish the show and everyone involved with it continued success." Cox, meanwhile, says she is "very sad and shocked" to leave, but wishes her cast mates all the best. "I had a great time."
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Question: What are the chances of Las Vegas, Numbers, Bones and Smallville getting renewed?
Answer: Good, great, already confirmed and excellent.
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Question: Do you think Las Vegas will be renewed for a fifth season?
Answer: Producers seem to think it will, since they're ending the season with a ginormous cliff-hanger. Actually, make that four ginormous cliff-hangers. In addition to a wild shootout, the action-packed hour — which will air March 16 (remember, only 17 episodes this season) — will feature a bombing, a surprise pregnancy, a kidnapping and at least one death.
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