Holt McCallany and Catherine McCormack
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Question: I was saddened to learn of the cancellation of Lights Out. It has been a great show with great performances. If I had any complaint about this outstanding series, it would be that there could have been more boxing, especially early on in the series. Do you think that was a contributing factor, or is it just another case of a good show not finding its audience in a competitive time slot? This has also made me concerned about my favorite prime-time sitcom, Archer. The writing and voice acting are insanely brilliant. (For me, I rate it a hair above Community.) Do you think it will come back for a third season? Will we need to let slip the ...
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Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife
Sometimes it's not just about the ratings. And sometimes it is. That's the takeaway from an eventful week in the win-some/lose-some sweepstakes we call TV programming.
On the plus side: TNT's renewal of Southland, the latest lifeline for the gritty police drama that NBC ditched during that misbegotten period when Jay Leno put the 10 pm drama on the endangered species list. It will never be as popular as the network's signature shows like The Closer and Rizzoli & Isles (which got a funny shout out from 30 Rock's Liz Lemon this week), but Southland's uncompromising integrity helps give credence to TNT's "We Know Drama" credo.
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Lights Out
Lights Out just wasn't able to get up off the canvas: FX announced Thursday that it was counting out the boxing drama.
The show debuted in January to a modest 1.5 million viewers and quickly fell below 1 million. Although the numbers eventually improved, its season average was 863,000 total viewers per episode, numbers akin to those of FX's recently canceled private detective drama, Terriers.
Will Lights Out be another Terriers for FX?
At the time of Lights Out's weak premiere, FX President John Landgraf noted the disconnect between critical acclaim and commercial appeal...
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David Morse
Cheers to Lights Out for putting David Morse back into the spotlight.
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The 57-year-old actor is no stranger to quality TV drama, from his 1982-88 stint as...
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Holt McCallany
"V" is for "vamping" — that's been the case for most of the life of ABC's re-imagined, if hardly re-energized, version of V. You know, the show where alien ships hover over Earth week after week, with nothing much happening as Evil Queen Anna coldly plots the destruction of humanity with all those pesky emotional souls while ...
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Pablo Schreiber
On Lights Out, Pablo Schreiber plays Johnny, a once promising boxer who now (mis)manages the career of his brother, former heavyweight champ "Lights" Leary (Holt McCallany). In real life, he can relate to living in the shadow of a more celebrated sibling as the half-brother of movie star Liev Schreiber (Salt). "I've always...
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Laurence Fishburne, Bill Irwin
Cheers to CSI and Lights Out for putting Bill Irwin in touch with his dark side.
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A graduate of Barnum & Bailey's Clown College, Irwin was best known for...
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Kyle Chandler
You mean there was a game on this week?
While TV history was made with the Super Bowl becoming once again the most-watched program ever — my thoughts on the game, the ads, the Glee episode can be found here — it was a pretty super week of February sweeps madness on all fronts. Some significant new shows arrived, including Fox's terrific The Chicago Code (read my review) and ABC's not-quite-there-yet Mr. Sunshine (my review also includes comments on the return of Justified and the farewell of Friday Night Lights).
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Ty Burell
Our top moments of the week:
12. Best Shout-Out: Tom Bergeron drops by Tosh.0 to call Tosh's "sexy" lambada with Judson Laipply (of the "Evolution of Dance" viral video) during a Dancing with the Internet Stars segment. But the talk turns personal when one of the online judges cracks, "Blow me, Bergeron. Your wife is hot." "Yeah, she is actually," the always quick-thinking host snaps back of Lois, his wife of 29 years. Nice to see the spark — and snark — is still alive!
11. Weirdest Flirting: It's hard to pin down all of Michelle's crazy antics on The Bachelor, but the sketchiest is when she...
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Holt McCallany
Lights Out star Holt McCallany takes playing a former heavyweight boxing champion seriously.
"I've been around the sport a lot and I've been around those guys, and it's a lot of responsibility to play the heavyweight champion of the world," McCallany tells TVGuide.com. "You have to walk out in front of the cameras, in front of basically millions of people, and they have to believe you."
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