Ryan Hayes, Jon Peter Lewis
NBC enjoyed its best Tuesday in months thanks to The Voice.
The singing competition series drew 12 million viewers and a 3.9 in the adults 18-to-49 demographic, making it the top-rated show of the night. That's down 19 percent from Monday's premiere, but up 22 percent from last spring's ...
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Margo Martindale and Jake Johnson
What kind of family must it be where slacker bartender Nick Miller (Jake Johnson) is seen as the responsible one? That answer becomes clear in a sporadically amusing road-trip episode of Fox's New Girl (9/8c) that takes the roomies to Chicago to lay Nick's scoundrel of a dad (former guest star Dennis Farina) to rest. The formidable Margo Martindale (Justified, The Americans) presides over the ridiculous antics as Nick's gruff but needy mom, and cable clown Nick Kroll hams it up as his emotionally volatile brother. As usual, Schmidt (Max Greenberg) hijacks the proceedings with his death neuroses, and while he wonders "What's with this open casket thing?" it's his encounter with said coffin and its contents that provides the episode's biggest laughs.
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Ben McKenzie
Send questions and comments to askmatt@tvguidemagazine.com and follow me on Twitter!
Question: This is more a commentary than a question, but what are your thoughts on Southland? Ben McKenzie and Shawn Hatosy have recently landed new pilots, so it would appear that this will be the last season of the very fine cop show Southland. Yes, the show is an ensemble and could certainly go on without the two characters they portray, but it would be a different Southland without them, even with a cast as strong as one that includes Regina King and C. Thomas Howell.
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Splash
Splash made a huge, uh, splash Tuesday.
ABC's diving competition series premiered to 8.8 million viewers and a 2.6 in the adults 18-to-49 demographic, making it the network's biggest unscripted series debut in more than two years and the highest-rated reality premiere since The X Factor in 2011. Splash was also up 13 percent from Celebrity Wife Swap's premiere in the timeslot. Lead-outs Dancing with the Stars recap show (9.6 million, 2.1) was up from last spring's ...
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Howard Stern, Mariska Hargitay
NBC giveth — and NBC taketh away. On Tuesday, the network announced season finale dates for scripted shows including Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Parks and Recreation, and also announced the premiere date for the new season of America's Got Talent. The reality series will welcome new judges Heidi Klum and "Scary Spice" Mel B when it returns for Season 8 on Tuesday, June 4 at 8/7c.
Returning spring shows: Where we left off
Law & Order: SVU will wrap its 14th season with a special two-hour episode on Wednesday, May 22 at 9/8c. Parks and Recreation will close its fifth season on Thursday, May 2 at 9:30/8:30c. As previously announced, both comedies Whitney and The New Normal will...
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The New Normal
Here's one wedding that doesn't go off without a hitch. As The New Normal's Bryan and David (Andrew Rannells and Justin Bartha) are about to say "I do" on the NBC comedy's April 2 finale, Goldie goes into labor. "It was very important to...
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John Stamos
Necessary Roughness has recruited a true TV MVP for its upcoming third season.
John Stamos is joining the USA drama for a season-long arc, the network announced Wednesday. Stamos 49, will play...
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Sean Hayes, Megan Hilty
And so the death march begins. NBC is moving the ratings-challenged Smash to Saturdays beginning April 6, the network announced Wednesday.
NBC, however, emphasized that it will air...
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Tenna Torres
Fox topped Tuesday with a special American Idol, while Smash continued its precipitous slide.
Idol's two-hour episode averaged 11.5 million viewers and a 3.4 in the adults 18-to-49 demographic. NCIS did, however, edge it out by a tenth in the 8 o'clock hour (20.3 million, 3.3 vs. 10.9 million, 3.2).
The best "very special" episodes
NCIS: Los Angeles (15.9 million, 2.8) and Golden Boy (9.3 million, 1.6), in its last Tuesday ...
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Jennifer Lawrence, Jack Nicholson
Our top moments of the week:
13. Best Second-Place Finish: While donating baby goods to the local children's orphanage, Bryan and David quickly fall in love with a baby girl named Nikki on The New Normal. Although their own baby is less than two months from being born, the couple decides they want to foster Nikki anyway. But when they go back to get the paperwork started, they are...
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