Having delivered its smallest audience to date this past Monday night, NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip will cede its 10 pm time slot to The Black Donnellys a week sooner than planned, starting Feb. 26, reports Variety. The Donnellys' fast-tracked premiere gives it an extra week on the air with a first-run lead-in from Heroes (which lapses into repeats Mar. 12).
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Question: The typical network M.O.: 12 people are watching a show, we've pretty much given up on it, we pull it for sweeps to try out a mid-season replacement. Now, I don't hate Studio 60 as much as you do, but I've got to be honest: 12 people are watching. So why would NBC keep it around for February sweeps and try out The Black Donnellys in the relative doldrums of March? Is it possible that NBC hasn't given up on Studio 60? I want some of what they're smokin' (a little Sorkin humor for ya). Sorry, Aaron (still love ya, buddy), but Donnellys is probably more deserving of the sweeps attention this time around.
Answer: A more likely business-as-usual scenario would have been for NBC to pull Studio 60 for sweeps and replace it with repeats of the various Law & Order shows, or something else with juice. That NBC gave Studio 60 this last month to prove itself was an act of charity, one that most shows on the bubble don't get. But launching new shows during sweeps rarely happens. Last week's
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Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey and Tracy Morgan, 30 Rock
Question: I understand that 30 Rock is going on a break for several weeks. Should I be worried? I love the show and thought it was doing at least decently, if not fantastically.
Answer: Don't sweat this one needlessly. It's standard operating procedure in the spring, when a number of shows temporarily take a rest to give mid-season shows a tryout — in this case, Andy Richter's Andy Barker, P.I., which takes over 30 Rock's time period starting March 15. At least 30 Rock's return date has already been set: April 19, just in time for May sweeps. (Not so lucky: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which is taking an early hiatus starting March 5 to make room for The Black Donnellys. NBC says the rest of Studio 60's season will air, but has not disclosed when or where.) Of all of NBC's Thursday comedies, 30 Rock is probably the most vulnerable, and it was the expected choice to make way for a mid-season hopeful. So while you shouldn't be worried, you also shouldn't be 100 percent confident that
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Question: Why is everyone so hard on Studio 60? After seeing a few episodes, I went and watched the entire series of The West Wing. A lot of the jokes and even some of the lines and conversations are the same. So why was one worshiped and the other so disrespected? Why do people expect one to be the same as the other? Why does everyone keep saying the characters are poorly developed, blah, blah, blah? It's television! It's not supposed to be real. It's supposed to be funny, dramatic and entertaining. You want "real," then watch the news!
Answer: The problem isn't that West Wing fans wanted Studio 60 to be the same — I think we were all hoping for something new and fresh. The problem is that too few people seem to find the show to be "funny, dramatic and entertaining," although clearly there are a number of loyalists who are still charmed by what they see. I seem to hear from them every week. (Jessica's certainly wasn't the only e-mail I got in the wake of Monday's attacks.) I'm sorry to
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Question: I share some of the discomfort about Danny's recent stalking on Studio 60. It was particularly creepy when Jordan asked him to back off and he said "no." What I'm surprised by is that people are acting like this is something strange for Aaron Sorkin. It may be written a bit less artfully, but this story line is vintage Sorkin. We've got the one romantic subplot of the "will they or won't they" tension between Matt and Harriet, and then we've got the "If she doesn't give in at first, stalk her till she admits her love" story line of Danny and Jordan. These same themes were present in Sorkin's previous shows. We had Josh and Donna on The West Wing and Casey and Dana on Sports Night doing the "will they or won't they" dance. With the "stalking" subplot, we've had Charlie and Zoey on West Wing and Dan and Rebecca on Sports Night. Sorkin's shows have contained other expressions of stalkerish love, such as when Natalie on Sports Night refused to acknowledge that Jeremy had broken ...
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You know by now how little use I have for people who watch TV only to nitpick it to death, but c'mon, 24, you're just asking for it these days. (For the record, I still love 24, although it's looking like this season I'm going to have to settle for it being a good time rather than a great show.)As over-the-top as it is, I'm OK with most of the twists involving Jack Bauer's cracked family. I get it that his creepy brother Graem was behind all of last year's deadly shenanigans. (Why? "Because I love my country!") I get that his dad Philip is also now a bad guy, sacrificing his mewling son Graem for the greater cause of "The Company." But even by 24's shifting standards of credibility, it's hard to swallow that Dad was allowed enough time alone with Graem to inject him full of torture-poison, and that the torture expert couldn't see right through it (especially given that there was an empty syringe on the coffee table). And thus does a supposedly shocking twist turn laughable.And as a ...
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Question: If you had to make a prediction right now, what do you think are the five freshman series that have the greatest likelihood of making it to a second season?
Answer: The one no-brainer is Heroes, which has already been picked up for next season. Five other sure bets: Ugly Betty and Brothers & Sisters on ABC, Shark and Jericho on CBS and probably 30 Rock on NBC (preserving the "comedy night done right" lineup). I'm hopeful for Men in Trees and praying for Friday Night Lights (hands-down this season's "Best Show You're Not Watching"). Anything currently on indefinite hiatus is toast. Which leaves Studio 60, The Class, Knights of Prosperity, The Game, 'Til Death and Standoff (which is expected to return on Fridays in the spring) as the iffiest of the ifs. I would frankly be surprised to see any of those return next fall, although anything's possible ...
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Question: Well, Aaron Sorkin has taken another potshot at reality TV on Studio 60 (calling it "illiterate programming"), and once again the online forums and blogosphere are spewing venom that he would dare to do such a thing. True, some of this reaction probably has to do with the fact that Studio 60 isn't living up to its potential — if it were a better show, people would probably give him more slack. Still, I don't understand why people get so worked up about the fact that Sorkin doesn't like reality TV. Why should he? He's a writer of scripted shows, some of them very good. It's no surprise if he thinks scripted TV is better than reality TV. The real question, to me, is why the online community is so easily offended. Sorkin doesn't have the exact same TV tastes as they do — so what? The irony is that you would think taking part in online discussions would make people more accepting of differing opinions. Instead, the opposite seems to be true. Your thoughts?
Answer: You're just now
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Question: I'm glad you mentioned Danny's off-putting stalker tactics on Studio 60. Everyone I know who saw it had the same puzzled reaction. I get that Sorkin was probably thinking, "It's not stalking if she really does love him back, deep down," but then that totally sounds like the justification of a stalker. And between Jordan changing her phone number and Danny's "no" when she told him to stop, it was more than a little creepy. That same week on TV also provided Allison sympathizing a bit too much with the ghost of a stalker on Medium, and Taylor following Ryan around with binoculars and a logbook on The O.C. I don't take television seriously enough to actually get offended by it — I just thought it was a weird mini-trend in the depiction of TV romance, and I felt a little sorry for any previously stalked viewers who caught these shows. At least ER is still representing this particular mental illness in a realistic (totally scary) way.
Answer: You win this week's I Watch More TV
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Question: Here's my opinion of why Studio 60 is not doing well and why I gave up on it last week (and I was a huge West Wing/Aaron Sorkin fan!): There are no characters who evoke any sympathy from viewers, at least not this one. The shows I love have characters whom viewers can relate to and have empathy for. What are your thoughts on this?
Answer: Again referring to my Dispatch, I'll stand by my opinion that I'm with Jack Rudolph (Steven Weber) in his disdain for and disinterest in everything happening on the "Studio 60" set these days. Who knew he'd be my hero? Abhorring all the characters, who have for the most part been singularly ill-developed on this series, is certainly a major obstacle ...
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