matt.mitovich

Pilot Talk: 24 Execs' Latest Gets the Call

 ABC ordered a quintet of pilots on Tuesday, including The Call, a single-camera comedy from 24 gurus Joel Surnow, Bob Cochran and Howard Gordon, and focusing on "two offbeat L.A. paramedics who save people's lives while messing up each other," says Variety. The series is likened to a mash-up of Emergency!, M*A*SH and Seinfeld  but not Saved. No, not a hint of Saved. Also greenlit by ABC: Sam I Am, in which a woman awakens from a coma with amnesia, yet determined to atone for her supposed bad-girl past, and The Middle, a dysfunctional-family sitcom fancied as "Roseanne meets Little Miss Sunshine." Fox has added SNL alum Cheri Oteri and That '70s Show's Kurtwood Smith to the voice cast of The Life and Times of Tim, and ordered the pilot Deeply Irresponsible, in which an uptight family is shaken up when their free-spirited grandpa moves in.

Wed, Jan 24, 2007

ABC's Elizabeth Vargas: I Wasn't Baby-Booted

Onetime World News Tonight coanchor Elizabeth "I'm Almost Too Hot for People to Focus On What I'm Saying" Vargas insists that she was not, as speculated/surmised/reported, "pushed out" of the plum gig when she announced her pregnancy a year ago. Rather, she told Oprah on Tuesday, it was her call to commit to monitoring more "domestic affairs." "I was finding it more and more difficult to do the [coanchor] job the way I wanted to do it, which is 100 percent, and still be a great mother," she shared. Noting that her firstborn, Zachary, now 3, "really paid a price for the hours I was gone," Vargas said. "For me, it just wasnt working."

Wed, Jan 24, 2007

Ratings: Battlestar, Steve Irwin and Dresden

Some Sunday-night snippets: A total of 3.2 million viewers tuned in for Steve Irwin's final documentary, which aired simultaneously on Animal Planet and Discovery Channel. The relocated Battlestar Galactica drew an audience of 1.8 million, up a thousand heads from its Dec. 15 mid-season finale and giving Sci Fi its best performance in the Sunday time slot since June 2003. The Dresden Files premiered to 1.7 mil, deemed a disappointment when compared to recent Sci Fi debuts such as Eureka (4.2 mil).

Wed, Jan 24, 2007

Love Notes: Pregnant Break for Prison Beauty

As first spilled by the Ausiello Report on Tuesday, Sarah Wayne Callies is expecting her first child in late summer, says her publicist. Check out AR for hints at how Prison Break might work around the actress' pregnancy.... This past Saturday, not long after the Derek Jeter's last-reported squeeze, Jessica Biel, was seen getting cozy with Justin Timberlake, the Yankee was spied dirty-dancing with Gabrielle Union. (Of course, were A-Rod single and had he taken a shot at Gabs, he'd have struck out.)

Wed, Jan 24, 2007

At the Movies: Volver Visits More Venues

Buoyed by the Oscar nod for Penélope Cruz  the first Spanish actress to glom a lead nom  Pedro Almodóvar's Volver will expand to 700 screens this weekend.... A May 4 release date has been set for September Dawn, based on the 1857 Mountain Meadows massacre and starring Terrence Stamp (as Brigham Young), Jon Voight and Dean Cain.

Wed, Jan 24, 2007

Short Cuts: A Chinese Millionaire, Obama and More!

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire will make its debut in China in May, says Reuters  but with only celebrities competing (to comply with local regulations), and perhaps a different title, as 1,000,000 yuan only add up to US $129,000.... Illinois senator/presidential hopeful Barack Obama hosts Crucible of Courage, a Biography Channel special commemorating Black History Month, on Feb. 22 at 9 pm/ET.... This sounds important to somebody: Famed tenor Placido Domingo will, for the first time ever, sing the baritone, title role in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra at Berlin's Staatsoper Unter den Linden in 2009, his rep tells the AP.

Wed, Jan 24, 2007

Breaking Nose: Aniston Goes Under the Knife

On Jan. 20, the day after she taped her guest-star appearance on Friend Courteney Cox's Dirt, Jennifer Aniston paid a visit to Dr. Raj Kanodia  the plastic surgeon rumored to be behind Ashlee Simpson and Cameron Diaz's new noses  emerging hours later with bruises along one eyebrow and across the tip of her honker and upper lip. "Jennifer had a procedure done to correct a deviated septum that was incorrectly done over 12 years ago," the actress' rep confirms for Us Weekly. The beak tweak was long overdue, as a source tells the glossy, "Jen has hated her nose.... She always said how lousy it was, and that her nose was still too wide." Hey, as long as she doesn't now look like Jennifer Grey. What does Jennifer Grey look like, anyway?

Wed, Jan 24, 2007

ABC Newsman Unhurt in Roadside Bombing

While four soldiers suffered minor injuries, ABC news anchor Chris Cuomo escaped unscathed on Tuesday after the convoy of military police he was riding with in Iraq was struck by a roadside bomb. "If these vehicles did not have the armor that they did, this situation could have turned out very differently," Cuomo reported to Good Morning America. According to the AP, the convoy of heavily armored Humvees was following up on a report of a burning vehicle in northwest Baghdad when booby-trapped bodies left by the side of the road exploded.

Wed, Jan 24, 2007

Festival Honors Idol, Heroes, Betty and Others

Sure, Golden Globes and Emmys are nice. But there's another big honor that TV shows covet  being a part of the Museum of Television & Radio's Paley Festival in L.A. The 24th-annual event, which this year takes place March 1-15, pays tribute to hot series by screening an episode followed by a question-and-answer session with the cast. This year's honorees include American Idol, The Office, Brothers & Sisters, The Closer, Nip/Tuck, Prison Break, Heroes, Ugly Betty, Jericho and The Simpsons. "To be part of such a tradition is something I'll remember forever," says Heroes star Greg Grunberg. "Something to tell the grandkids one day."  Reporting by Craig Tomashoff

Wed, Jan 24, 2007

T-Bag Ponders an Extended Prison Stay

Mrs. Hollander, consider yourself forewarned. Paying a visit to the TV Guide office on Monday, a smooth-shaven (hmmm... ) Robert Knepper echoed what Fox president Peter Liguori told the press last week  that Prison Break, despite taking two steps toward (and albeit a huge step away from) conspiracy resolution with Monday's episode, may have a third thrilling season already in its quill. "When you would call the writers' office, it'd be like, 'They can't be disturbed! They're trying to figure out Season 3!'" Knepper told me. "But the [writers' room] doors now are not as locked as they were," indicating that a new arc has been laid out. "The disappointment would be to just put a third season out there for the sake of a third season," Knepper notes. "But people don't want to let this show go. And I don't think Fox wants to let it go; they realize what they have."Look for my complete Q&A with Knepper in next Monday's Interviews & Features. There, he previews T-Bag's fate, ...

Tue, Jan 23, 2007

Ratings: Heroes Power Beats Hero Bauer

Wow, was anyone not watching TV last night? Here are Monday's ratings milestones: While (of course) trailing Deal or No Deal, Prison Break (9.89 million total viewers) nonetheless returned to a season-high audience that was 300,000 heads larger than the show's Nov. 27 "fall finale." Also during the 8 pm hour, How I Met Your Mother (9.55 million) and The Class (8.99 mil, its best tally since Oct. 9) put up big numbers.  In the popular serials' first-ever face-off, NBC's Heroes edged out Fox's 24, 14.84 million viewers to 14.44 mil.  At 10, CSI: Miami, with 18.66 million viewers, had its second-best delivery of the season. Studio 60 (7.41 mil) was on par with its last fresh outing, and What About Brian (5.4 mil) was up 660K week-to-week.

Tue, Jan 23, 2007

GLAAD Meets with Isaiah: "He Seemed Very Sincere"

"He seemed very sincere in his interest in working with us on an ongoing basis.... This is a very good first step toward him showing he really wants to do something." That's the takeaway from Kevin Jennings, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, who with GLAAD president Neil G. Giuliano met with disgraced Anatomy star Isaiah Washington on Monday  ironically, the start of GLSEN's "No Name-calling Week" campaign. Jennings tells the Associated Press that Washington would like to "use his various platforms to educate people about how painful and wrong" spewing such slurs as the one he lobbed at cast mate T.R. Knight can be. Anyone else sensing "a very special episode" of Grey's on the horizon? "Dr. Burke faces a crisis of conscience as he debates performing emergency roadside surgery on a man who just moments earlier called him a racial epithet."

Tue, Jan 23, 2007

Casting News: Aniston and Cox, Friends with Benefits?

 As exclusively spilled in a fresh Ausiello Report, Jennifer Aniston will be playing a lesbian when she guest-stars on gal pal Courteney Cox's Dirt. Mike has more on that, as well as some Heroes and 'Til Death (yes, 'Til Death) casting scoop. Brooke Shields draws the interest of Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer when she drops by Two and a Half Men on Feb. 5.

Tue, Jan 23, 2007

In the Works: Grammer and Heaton Take Action

 Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton are in talks to topline Action News, a comedy from Christopher Lloyd (Frasier) and Steve Levitan (Just Shoot Me), about the reteaming of two local news anchors. If the pair of heavy hitters can be landed, expect a bidding war among the networks, says Variety. Fox has greenlit K-Ville, a drama following the police officers who stayed put in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. K-Ville is the only one of four proposed N.O.-themed projects pitched this season to make it to the pilot stage. CBS has granted a pilot pickup to 22 Birthdays, a dramedy about a group of parents who gather virtually every week for one kid's birthday party or another. (Boy, do I hear that.) Other pilot orders, per Variety: Fox's The Cure, a medical drama, and NBC's The Mastersons of Manhattan, a sudser centered on two well-off sisters.

Tue, Jan 23, 2007

Keira Knightley Sues Tabloid: Here's the Skinny

Pirates of the Caribbean's Keira Knightley has filed suit against London's Daily Mail, taking issue with a Jan. 11 piece that used a picture of her to accompany a report about a teen girl who died of anorexia. According to her lawyer, Knightley, who in the past has "publicly denied suggestions that she might be anorexic or have a similar eating disorder," will claim that the article suggests she "misled the public" with her declaration.Sounds like she aims to make them [Snicker] eat their words.

Tue, Jan 23, 2007

Sold at Sundance: The Scariest Film Ever Conceived

Lions Gate and the Weinstein Co. have joined to pick up worldwide rights to Teeth, rookie screenwriter-director Mitchell Lichtenstein's Sundance Film Festival entry about a virgin possessing incisors on her hoo-ha. Yes, Mitchell Lichtenstein has issues dating back to prom night.Fox Searchlight, meanwhile, grabbed rights to Waitress, the final film helmed by the late Adrienne Shelly and starring Keri Russell. Waitress is slated for a 2007 release.

Tue, Jan 23, 2007

At the Movies: Jesus' Mom Gets Her Due

Per Reuters, MGM has acquired distribution rights for Myriam, Mother of the Christ, a dramatic rendering of the life of Jesus' mom, penned by The Passion of the Christ's Benedict Fitzgerald and slated for an Easter 2008 release.... Per Variety, Clive Owen will exec-produce and narrate a feature based on one of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe mysteries.... Salma Hayek will star in and produce the Spanish-language comedy La Banda, in which a wealthy housewife secretly takes a job as a wedding singer.

Tue, Jan 23, 2007

Short Cuts: Monk, Paris and Nicole, and More!

With an audience of 5.2 million total viewers, the Friday return of USA Network's Monk was the night's most-watched basic-cable program in prime time. Lead-out Psych, alas, drew just 3.8 million, a steep drop from the series' July debut (6.1 mil).... The new season of The Simple Life, fancying Paris and Nicole as camp counselors, may start production as soon as March, says the New York Daily News.... Disney Channel presents a weekend marathon of every episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, starting Saturday, Jan. 27, at noon/ET.

Tue, Jan 23, 2007

Dreamgirls Leads Oscar Nods, Yet Snubbed for Best Pic

Nominations for the 79th Annual Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday morning by Salma Hayek  presumably because of the abundance of Latino names that she so deliciously enunciated  and Dreamgirls bested the rest with eight total nods, yet was conspicuously left out of the best-picture race. Babel followed with seven noms. Here's a look at the major contests:Best PictureBabel, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, The QueenLead ActressPenélope Cruz (Volver), Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal), Helen Mirren (The Queen), Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada), Kate Winslet (Little Children)Lead ActorLeonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond), Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson), Peter O'Toole (Venus), Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)Supporting ActressAdriana Barraza (Babel), Cate Blanchett (Notes on a Scandal), Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine), Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls), Rinko Kikuchi (Babel)Supporting ActorA...

Tue, Jan 23, 2007

TV's Original Invisible Man Takes On Heroes' Newcomer

Heroes' big invisible twist? I'm just not seeing it. Call me literal, anal or simply intolerant of bad science, but I have a "super"-sized problem with the NBC show's brand-new addition. Introduced last night, Claude (as in Rains, get it?) was spied by Peter liberating unsuspecting diners of their wallets and whatnot. Being an invisible man, as we later would learn, Claude's crimes went unseen.As did  inexplicably  the clothes on his back. That's some aggressive DNA, huh?Heroes' "list" is of people blessed (cursed?) with a genetic anomaly, one that manifests itself in assorted abilities that, by stretches great and small, could be born from "super" DNA. But someone explain to me how something inside me can change the transparency of my jeans, of my Lacoste sweater?Having screened last night's episode some weeks ago, I had to share my frustration with somebody who might care. So I tracked down TV's original Invisible Man, David McCallum, now known as NCIS' Dr. Donald "Duc...

Tue, Jan 23, 2007

TV Guide Exclusive: Simon Ridicules Rosie's Idol Rant

Simon Cowell thinks Rosie O'Donnell is bashing American Idol purely to boost her ratings on The View. The daytime talker's cohost teed off on the Fox show Jan. 18, deeming it too mean and describing the Idol judges as "three millionaires, one probably intoxicated"  referring to Paula Abdul's occasionally loopy behavior on the show. Cowell tells TV Guide that the remarks "smacked of, 'I'll have a go at Donald Trump  good for ratings. That died down, so now I'll do American Idol.' Next week it will be, 'I don't like the dresses on Dancing with the Stars.'"For more on this latest celeb-versus-celeb war of words, pick up the Jan. 29 issue of TV Guide.  Reporting by Stephen Battaglio

Mon, Jan 22, 2007

Battlestar's Big Exit: "They Wanted Her Out of the Way"

SPOILER ALERT for those Rob Lowe-aholics who have not yet watched Sunday night's episode of BSG....She had it coming. Battlestar Galactica's D'Anna Biers, the bossy, rule-busting Cylon played by Lucy Lawless, has been terminated. But the deed wasn't done by her human enemies  it was by her fellow Cylons, who "boxed" hundreds of D'Annas into a container the size of an iPod Nano and put it into permanent cold storage. "D'Anna shattered their peaceful little lives," Lawless says. "By discovering that knowledge is power, she had become their Saddam Hussein, and they wanted her out of the way." D'Anna, who had defied the Cylon collective with her messianic convictions, believed that she could make a personal connection with God by repeatedly allowing herself to be killed and resurrected. Her quest took her far: She was ultimately able to look into the faces of the final five Cylon models, whom no one else on the show  or in the audience  has seen.What's next for Lawless...

Mon, Jan 22, 2007