With the Fox network, it's often all about the mid-season, the time when shows like American Idol and 24 come along to rescue the network from its fall doldrums. Not that it's impossible for any of Fox's September newcomers to catch on. The Kelsey Grammer/Patricia Heaton sitcom Back to You looks very commercial. The situation is admittedly tougher for the downbeat New Orleans crime drama K-Ville or the murky supernatural crime drama New Amsterdam (about an immortal detective) to buck the odds and be a factor come January. While it's possible one or both may hit its mark, you can't help but feel that they might as well be titled "Placeholder 1" and "Placeholder 2" (shades of last fall's Vanished, Justice and Standoff).Once again, Fox is holding back one of its biggest guns (literally) for January. Easily the most anticipated show on the network's lineup is The Sarah Connor Chronicles (look for the word Terminator to be added to the title before it premieres): a high-octane, big-budge...
read more
Question: Are we ever going to find out what would've happened on Vanished?
Answer: John Allen Nelson told one of our reporters at Monday's 24 party that his character would have been president of the United States at the end of the season. "I won’t tell you how I was going to get there," he hedged, "but [becoming president] would have been an amazing thing." This just in: Intern Scott says the reason he didn't tell me about Michael getting dumped in next week's Office was because "NBC already spoiled that twist in the press release that accompanied the screener." Way to cover your ass, Intern Scott! I have taught you well.
read more
Gale Harold's Eddie Cibrian's ratings-anemic Vanished has been pulled from Fox's prime-time lineup effective immediately, though the final four episodes wrapping up Sara Collin's mysterious disappearance will air online at Fox On Demand, starting today, with Episode 10. The recently vanished Justice will resurface Dec. 1 to claim the Fridays-at-8 pm time slot.
read more
At last, the horrific truth can be told: the Vanished Sara Collins has been deprived of adequate food, water and foundation garments. What's more, her abductors are shooting her up, Dr. Bones McCoy-style, with drugs that disorient her, make her susceptible to inane Brainwashing 101 suggestions, and have her talking as if she is wearing orthodontic headgear. Speaking of Sara's captors, this week's episode put a new face on the mysterious-in-a-TV-serial-kind-of-way group, in the form of a rather Anglo preppie. What is their next tactic, to threaten to make Sara shop last season's Lacoste styles? The inhumanity.Speaking of Chad/Biff-the-Masonic-kidnapper, the casting is so obvious in its "Let's go against the grain" thinking that it's distracting and thus rendered ineffective. Hmm, do we go with an older, perhaps scarred, furled-brow gent of non-descript foreign origins? Nah, let's shake things up with a J. Crew model! If I was Sara, I'd be all, "Listen, your threats didn't work with D...
read more
A few Sunday-ratings headlines:— 7th Heaven, up 700,000 total viewers week-to-week, had its biggest audience (3.83 million) since being moved from Monday.— Desperate Housewives' gunplay was witnessed by 22.5 million, the series' best draw since the season opener. Brothers & Sisters, in turn, was up more than a mil, and had its own best audience since Oct. 1.And some Friday footnotes:— In its new home, Vanished (3.35 mil) was on par with, say, time-slot predecessor Nanny 911, but lost nearly half its average Monday audience.— This is unsettling: A special 9 pm edition of 20/20 (7.86 mil) outperformed the previous week's Men in Trees by a million heads.— Despite a 300K dip for lead-in Las Vegas (8.95 mil), Law & Order and its Mel Gibson riff surged 1.9 million, to 10.7 mil.
read more