For the first game of its new "flex schedule," NBC Sunday Night Football has scored no less than the Bears versus the Giants for Nov. 12, reports Variety.... Bones, Criminal Minds and My Name Is Earl are among the shows and stars to be honored at the 14th Annual Diversity Awards on Nov. 19.... Monk's Tony Shalhoub will join Patricia Heaton in The Scene at Second Stage, a black comedy opening off-Broadway on Jan. 11, 2007.
Just got back from Times Square, nifty new 24 baseball cap (and skittish free radio) in tow.... Lessee, we have a bedraggled and Unabombery-bearded Jack Bauer; President Wayne Palmer looking contemplative in the Oval Office; Peter MacNicol in the role of the White House toadie who will be wrong every step of the way; Mary Lynn Rajskub's Chloe nicely working a longer 'do. Then lotsa, lotsa explosions, and whammo, Jack's all clean-cut. (How many minutes do you think they will set aside for his apparent trip to the barber?)Good times ahead, and "just" 81 days away! The Season 6 preview can be found here, at 24trailer.com.
Suri's parents, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, will finally tie the knot in Italy on Nov. 18, Cruise's representative confirmed to the Associated Press on Tuesday. That's almost three full weeks after the street date for the Mission: Impossible III DVD, so be gone with your snarky suggestions of publicity stunt and whatnot.
Monday night's major movement:• With an audience of 9.77 million (up 500,000 week-to-week), How I Met Your Mother had its best outing since the season premiere. Lead-out The Class, however, slipped 580,000, to 8.12 mil.• Heroes surged 1.2 million to 14.27 mil, virtually matching its series high (set by the Sept. 25 premiere). Now go out and save the damn cheerleader!• An audience of 6.21 mil turned out for Justice's first fresh Monday episode, a shade less than what Vanished was drawing in its former time slot, and about 800,000 heads fewer than what Spy Daddy was getting on Wednesdays.• What About Brian, which gave Studio 60 a scare last week, dropped 2.3 million (to a hair over six mil), while Studio 60 stayed put with 7.69 mil.
Jack Coleman, aka indestructible Claire's super-creepy father, has been upped to series-regular status on NBC's Heroes, effective with the 11th episode, Variety reports.... ER has cast Sam's new love interest. Check out the Ausiello Report for the details.... Jason Priestley is Marisa Coughlan's fiancé in the Lifetime drama pilot Side Order of Life.... Fastlane's Peter Facinelli is Insatiable in Showtime's drama pilot about a small town where everyone has some sort of addiction. (And no, L.A. is not a small town).... Designer Todd Oldham will host Top Design, Bravo's new interior-design reality competition bowing in early 2007.
The last of CBS' four new series to hear its ultimate fate, The Class has received an order for four additional scripts. After struggling in its first three Monday-at-8 airings, the comedy's ratings picked up a bit when it was moved to the slot after How I Met Your Mother.
Know where I'm going to be later today? In Times Square watching the trailer for the new season of Fox's 24, on the mammoth Panasonic Astrovision screen. The rest of y'all can glimpse Jack Bauer's next very bad day by logging onto www.24trailer.com starting at 3 pm/ET. The O.C., meanwhile, will sneak preview its own season premiere a week ahead of broadcast, starting Thursday, Oct. 26, at MySpace.com. That same morning TVGuide.com's Features & Interviews column will tease what's ahead for the Newport kids.
... to see Slither, which arrives on DVD today. In fact, she was nice enough to e-mail me this list of reasons why you should sample the horror pic (costarring Jenna, and written and directed by her crazy-lucky husband, James Gunn):1. "It's a crowd-pleaser, fun to watch with a group of people." 2. "It is gross and gory, but not too scary. It kind of reminds me of The Fly in that way." 3. "It's funny! Funnier than most comedies. I would compare it to Pulp Fiction in the way that Pulp Fiction is hilarious but you still find it in the drama section at the video store. Slither will have you laughing out loud." 4. "The acting is better than in any horror movie I've seen this year. (And I'm not just saying that because I'm in it.)"5. "The DVD extras are awesome, especially 'Meet Bill Pardy,' where the entire cast and crew roast Nathan Fillion. So great!" 6. "It won Highest Body Count at the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards — 104 killings in 104 minutes."That last one alone sold me. (Need two...
Showtime will debut Season 2 of Sleeper Cell: American Terror, starring Oded Fehr and Michael Ealy, on Dec. 10. That same day, all eight episodes will be made available on Showtime On Demand.... Oxygen has ordered a second season of The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, which will be expanded to an hourlong series, premiering in January and preceded by the holiday special Christmas with the Dickinsons. (Sample dialogue: "Aunt Ruby, can you pass the Botox?")
Per Variety, Nickelodeon and DreamWorks Animation are teaming up on a pair of weekly series based on 2005's Madagascar and the forthcoming animated feature Kung Fu Panda.... The CW is looking to play Thirteen Songs, a drama now in development about an all-girl rock group.
Need you more proof that the Shape is unstoppable? John Carpenter's original Halloween haunts the big screen for the first time in 27 years on Oct. 30 and 31, when a digitally remastered, hi-definition cut of the 1978 horror classic hits 150 movie houses. This re-release will be preceded by a 20-minute featurette, including interviews with original cast members. A list of participating theaters can be found here.
The Oct. 31 outing of NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien will be a repeat of a May episode, but with a chilling twist: The entire show will be presented in "Skelevision," that is, re-enacted with all featured performers — Larry King and pole-dancing workout instructor Sheila Kelley included — appearing as skeleton puppets. Kate Bosworth will drop by as herself, however.
Four-time Tony winner Angela Lansbury will make her first return to Broadway in more than 20 years when she stars with Marian Seldes in Deuce, Terrence McNally's new play about retired tennis players, opening in April 2007.... A High School Musical concert tour featuring stars from the Disney movie kicks off Nov. 30 in San Diego. Go to HighSchoolMusical.aeglive.com for the complete schedule.... NBC is holding an open casting call for You're the One That I Want, a forthcoming reality series seeking the two leads for a new Broadway staging of Grease, this Friday at 8 am/ET, at the Palace Theater in NYC.
Per Variety, Tom Cruise's first film since acrimoniously splitting from Paramount could be one of the following: Lions for Lambs, an indie political drama about a platoon of U.S soldiers in Afghanistan, possibly directed by Robert Redford; The Ha-Ha, in which Cruise would play a mute Gulf War vet charged with caring for an abandoned 9-year-old (Oscar-bait much?); and Spike Lee's Selling Time, about a man trying to relive and change the worst day of his life.
Want to add some wow (or at least some car-crash watchability) to your next New Year's Eve party? Sources tell the New York Post's Page Six that both Paris Hilton and Carmen Electra are anxious to score soiree-hosting gigs for this Dec. 31. These ladies don't come cheap, however: Paris' ask (I said ask, you gutter-brain) will set you back $100,000 plus expenses and private-jet transportation, while Carmen is a relative bargain at $50,000 — to be paid in singles, no touching please.
George Clooney has been named the No. 1 man's man, the premier "ambassador of all male-kind," by a poll at AskMen.com.... Disney Channel's Return to Halloweentown drew an audience of 7.53 million, besting Friday competition on ABC, Fox and the CW, and surpassing the series' three previous entries.... NBC.com posts new webisodes of "Jay's Garage," a look at Tonight Show host Jay Leno's classic-auto collection, every Tuesday.... Robert Smigel will tout the new SNL: The Best of TV Funhouse DVD at the Times Square Virgin Megastore on Thursday at 6 pm/ET.... Also out today: Sesame Street: Old School, Volume 1: 1969-1974, a three-DVD set full of vintage content, including footage from the first five "experimental" seasons (back when Oscar promoted himself as "a real &%$#@-&@*er"). Go to our TV on DVD column for more new releases.
Sunday's ratings highlights:• Fox's World Series coverage, though down 600,000 viewers from a year ago (averaging 16.47 million for the night), bested all comers save for Desperate Housewives (19.5 mil) at 9 pm.• The CW's just-renewed 7th Heaven held steady with 3.25 million, while a repeat of America's Next Top Model (1.97 mil) improved on the last episode of axed Runaway by 200,000 heads.• NBC's three-hour Heroes-thon averaged 5.7 million viewers for the night.
In her first television interview since adopting a Malawian toddler amid some international controversy, Madonna will talk to Oprah on Tuesday for an episode to air Wednesday, a spokeswoman for Harpo Productions tells the Associated Press. On Sunday, after Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie were granted an interim adoption order, 13-month-old David Banda's father said he did not realize he was signing away custody "for good," let alone to the star and director of Swept Away.
The highlights of a November-sweeps press release from Fox:• In all-new episodes of Prison Break, Michael is determined to reunite with Sarah, while Mahone and Kellerman are dead-set on keeping them apart, permanently (on Nov. 6); T-Bag makes the ultimate sacrifice to get his hand on Westmoreland's millions, while Lincoln says goodbye to another loved one (Nov. 13); Bellick makes a stunning confession, as Michael and Lincoln make their run for the border (Nov. 20); and alliances are turned upside-down once again (in the series' Nov. 27 fall finale).• On Nov. 15, in one of three new Bones episodes, Brennan and Hodgins, the Grave Digger's latest victims, are forced to try to solve their own kidnapping from an underground grave.• Sweeps guest stars include Everwood's Chris Pratt (in a multi-episode arc on The O.C., starting Nov. 2); film vet David Morse (in four episodes of House, starting Nov. 7); Arrested Development's Jessica Walter (Happy Hour, Nov. 16); and Jane Sey...
A fresh press release ("fresh release"?) from the CW network:"The CW network has picked up the back nine episodes of freshman comedy The Game and returning drama 7th Heaven, giving each series a full-season order, it was announced today by Dawn Ostroff, President of Entertainment."Since many of you are about to ask: No, no word yet on Veronica Mars, which this week drew about 200,000 more viewers than the Camdens, against what I would say is more formidable competition (The Unit, Law & Order: CI, Dancing with the Stars). However, I did just get off the horn with Tina Majorino (Mac), who is filming Episode 9 right now and said the ratings thus far are encouraging: "We're thinking we're going to be OK, but we're crossing our fingers."
Cristina is my new hero, based on the preview for the Oct. 26 episode of ABC's Grey's Anatomy. Let's relish that choice sound bite of hers again:"It's not always about you, Meredith!"Accepting for a moment that the fictional Dr. Yang doesn’t actually know of and thus watch a TV show called Grey's Anatomy, she can be forgiven for being so off-base in her observation. Because as we the viewers are reminded again and again, it is always about Meredith. This is, after all, Grey's Anatomy, and every week updates us on Ms. Grey's anatomy, if not her heart then her nether regions' needs. And from where I've been sitting this season — that is, alongside my wife, who similarly groans at the series' insistence on making most every scene about Mer/McDreamy/McVet/McThis/McThat — it's gotten to be a bit much. "Seriously" (as they on Grey's say), the pervasiveness of Mer's love life has become an eye-roller in the same way that Carrie Bradshaw's on-and-off-again relationship with B...
Massive budget cuts announced on Thursday by NBC will result in 700 company-wide layoffs — or five percent of its workforce — and a few scripted series airing during the 8 o'clock hour, but will not impact fan faves My Name Is Earl or The Office, which currently call the family-friendly hour home. As reported by Variety, NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly, addressing reports that, starting next fall, NBC will strip 8 pm of all scripted shows, said at a Thursday function, "We are going to up our commitment to [reality/game-show programming]. We're going to play with the mix and shift some money away from scripted." But not at the expense or relocation of Earl and The Office. "You can't be exclusive with reality at 8," Reilly maintained. "It's not an absolute."