
Dustin Milligan by Michael Caulfield/WireImage.com
The new Rob Thomas-penned Beverly Hills, 90210 redux is warming up, with casting news starting to trickle out.Former Runaway Dustin Milligan is the first actor to have been cast in the updated version of the show, says the Reporter. He's set to play Ethan, the big-man-on-campus star athlete at West Beverly High. Along with his TV work, Milligan also appeared in recent movies including creep-fest The Messengers and love-fest In the Land of Women. Without more cast announcements, it's tough to visualize his dynamic with the other as-yet-unnamed kids at West Beverly, but the floppy-haired Canadian's a good start for the spin-off. Are you ready for your new high-school heartthrob? Anna DimondRelated: Who Will Cross Over to 90210 Remake? The CW's 90210 Spin-off: New Details
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Question: I've never known a network to screw themselves just to spite the public, but I have to wonder if the CW is now on that path. 7th Heaven's numbers have been downright terrible. It's a surprise that the show wasn't canceled right along with Runaway. We all knew it. We all predicted it. And yet I read that it's been picked up for the whole season. Are they kidding us? The word Everwood will forever haunt these people, and rightfully so.
Answer: I can't even count all of the "I told you so" letters I'm getting about this. Given the evidence of the CW's soft launch, I'm not sure Everwood would have lived up to its WB ratings, either, but I'm sure the show would have pulled in more of an audience than Runaway did, and it would have been good PR to boot. As for 7th Heaven, it seems clear to me that the spike in numbers last season was because viewers thought they were saying goodbye to a long-running TV family, and they weren't too enthusiastic about welcoming them back past thei ...
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Question: How sweet for all the Everwood fans out there that the CW has canceled Runaway after only three episodes.
Answer: I don't like to take pleasure from other people's misfortunes, but I'll make an exception in this case. Par-tay!
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Sorry for the lateness, but I realized I should probably make a post concerning the recent news: if you havent heard yet, the CW cancelled Runaway last week. Even more disappointing, although theres a handful of episodes left that havent been aired, theyve chosen to just shelve them and air Americas Next Top Model in the timeslot instead.I was really starting to get hooked on this show and Ill miss Runaway: it was a surprisingly effective mix of serialized thriller and family drama, and pulling off just one of those on a regular basis is tough enough. I wont try to second-guess whether or not pulling the plug was justified (the ratings were pretty dismal), but I still think its a shame that it couldnt be afforded more time for an audience build. Maybe in todays overstuffed marketplace if you cant start strong right from the beginning its already too late.Its possible that the remaining episodes might be...
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Question: I just read that the CW has canceled Runaway because of low ratings. Now that there is another timeslot available, do you think that Aquaman will be considered for the CW lineup? I am sure that the fans of Smallville will enjoy it and that it will have better ratings than Runaway, because Aquaman already has a fanbase from the DC comic books. It was a top download on iTunes when the pilot was released. Do you think it has a chance of making it on TV?
Answer: To put it bluntly, no. The CW (I almost typed WB, and there's the real issue) has, from all I can tell, moved on. The download was a gift to comic-book fans, not a promise of things to come. That isn't to say, especially in the wake of Heroes' unexpected success on NBC, that the CW won't try to develop more fantasy franchises (at least one is underway already), or that Smallville won't be used again as a breeding ground for a spin-off of some sort. But for now, Aquaman appears dead ...
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The fledgling CW network has given the hook to its first show, Donnie Wahlberg and Leslie Hope's Runaway, which struggled out of the gate and only averaged 1.8 million total viewers, even in a new Sunday time slot. For the time being, says Reuters, CW will fill the Sunday 9 pm slot with repeats. Everwood died for this? No, really.
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FRIDAYRiding on the coattails and them some! of like-minded lead-in Deal or No Deal (which won the 8 o'clock hour with 11.4 million viewers to Ghost Whisperer's 9.95 mil), the 9 pm series debut of Bob Saget's 1 vs 100 was watched by a mob of 12.55 mil, followed not very closely by Close to Home (11.1 mil). (For more on 1 vs 100, read Angel's Surfer Girl blog.) Men in Trees, meanwhile, was down 350,000, to 7.15 mil.At 10, Numbers (with just shy of 11 million viewers) again topped Law & Order (a season low of 9.4 mil).SUNDAYThe only stories this week were NBC's football coverage (Broncos-Raiders) being down almost 4 million (to 9.4 mil); Housewives placing first at 9 but again with a new low (20.02 mil, down 750,000 week-to-week); and CW's transplanted Monday dramas 7th Heaven (3.15 mil) and Runaway (1.8 mil) bringing in, across the two hours, nearly the same viewership as the Chris-All of Us-Girlfriends-The Game sitcom quartet, though Heaven was down m...
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I realize its not the most important thing to mention at the beginning of my first blog for Runaway, but seriously, Donnie Wahlberg is playing the middle-aged dad whos described in the police bulletin as gray-haired? I wasnt exactly a New Kids on the Block fan back in the day, but I can clearly remember a time when he was a teen idol encouraging kids to Hang Tough and inspiring them that they had the Right Stuff. Jeez, I feel old.Although I know its a bit late, I really liked the premiere episode of Runaway, and Im most impressed by the fact that its got three or four compelling storylines already. Its really two genres merged into one: for the dad its a conspiracy thriller as he tries to unravel the mystery of who killed his former colleague and framed him and what secrets the murderers are protecting; for everyone else, its another moving to a small town and reconnecting with each ot...
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My thoughts on Runaway coming soon.
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