Disney Channel Sets Airdate For One-Hour A.N.T. Farm Season Premiere
First Look: Disney XD's Max Steel
Coming to Disney XD later this month, Max Steel tells the story of teenager Maxwell McGrath and his alien companion, Steel. Max has a super strength secret: Turbo energy. And Steel possesses alien intellect. Combined, they become the ultimate superhero. Disney XD ordered 26 episodes of Max Steel, a Mattel property based on a line of action figures first introduced in 1999. Disney XD premieres Max Steel on Monday, March 25 at 4/3c. Here's a sneak peek trailer, directed by Stephen Sommers (The Mummy) and scored by DJ Cole Plante (TRON: Uprising).
Exclusive: Discovery Renews Amish Mafia For Season Two
TV's Amish craze isn't dying down yet: Discovery is ordering a second season of Amish Mafia, which performed well for the network this winter. Discovery will air eight more hour-long episodes of the show later this year. Amish Mafia centers on a guy who calls...
NBC Brings Saturday Night Live to Saturday Primetime
NBC is expanding its reliance on late-night staple Saturday Night Live, which is once again ready for primetime on a weekly basis. NBC has quietly started airing the previous week's episode of SNL, edited from 90 minutes down to an hour, on Saturdays at 10/9c. The repeat doesn't attract a large audience, averaging just 2.3 million viewers on Feb. 23 (featuring guest host Christoph Waltz and musical guest Alabama Shakes). But it still managed to tie ABC (which ran the movie Dreamgirls) and CBS (a Vanity Fair Hollywood special) for No. 1 among adults 18-49 in its second half-hour.
Watch My Show: The Neighbors' Dan Fogelman Answers Our Showrunner Survey
The Neighbors creator Dan Fogelman knows that viewers have a few pre-conceived notions regarding his ABC comedy about aliens living next door to a suburban family. But audiences — and critics — are starting to come around to the fact that, despite the show's outlandish premise, at its core The Neighbors is a family show that explores how we relate to and fit in with the world (As TV Guide Magazine recently reported, an ABC marketing campaign is touting those initial negative reviews to show how opinions are evolving.) Fogelman's resume is chock full of Pixar and Disney animated features (Cars, Tangled and Bolt) as well as more adult fare (he wrote the screenplays to Crazy, Stupid, Love and The Guilt Trip). Fogelman answered our showrunner survey to explain why adults and kids should make an effort to meet The Neighbors....
After A Lackluster Year, Networks Aim to Make More Noise This Pilot Season
The broadcast networks are desperate for your attention. They know that you're overwhelmed with their programming and distracted by cable, the Internet and now even streaming services. Plus, they didn't produce a new major hit this season, and their ratings are suffering for it. That's why this year's crop of nearly 100 series pilots at the five networks (48 comedy and 50 drama from the five networks) is all about being big: big stars, big producers, big concepts.
Watch My Show: Community's Moses Port and David Guarascio Answer Our Showrunner Survey
Greendale Community College is back in session! After a nine-month hiatus, Community returned to NBC on Feb. 7 for its fourth season. The comedy was originally supposed to air on Fridays in the fall — but when NBC scrapped those plans, the show...
How Netflix and the Internet Might Impact This Year's Emmy Race
Broadcast network execs have long grumbled about their shows having to compete against edgy, star-driven and sometimes bigger budgeted cable fare at the Emmy Awards. But now broadcast and cable foes may find themselves united against a new rival: digital programmers like Netflix and Amazon.
Exclusive: ABC Family Picks Up Two New Reality Shows
ABC Family is looking to expand its presence in the reality TV world, picking up two new unscripted series: Dancing Fools, hosted by Melissa Peterman (Baby Daddy) and the docusoap The Vineyard...
Inside the Scheduling Wars: Why TV Lineups Still Matter
The second-season return of Smash on Feb. 5 was always going to be a tough sell. But ABC's decision to schedule a last-minute special Tuesday-night edition of The Bachelor against it helped to crush NBC's musical drama, which attracted just 4.5 million viewers. Meanwhile, Sean Lowe and his roses brought in 7.9 million.In this age of time-shifted and on-demand viewing, TV network scheduling seems like an antiquated idea. Yet as the networks fight over smaller pieces of the Nielsen ratings pie, scheduling — and the strategy behind how and when programs run — continues to play a critical role.
Why ABC Is Promoting The Neighbors' Bad Reviews
ABC's latest on-air promo for The Neighbors starts off by quoting some rather negative reviews, including four scorching ones from The Hollywood Reporter: "Small slice of stupidity," "Supremely unfunny," "It's awful" and "How the hell did this get made?"
Watch My Show: Banshee's Greg Yaitanes Answers Our Showrunner Survey
In Cinemax's new action drama Banshee (already picked up for Season 2), Antony Starr plays a thief who assumes the role of sheriff in Banshee, a small town in Pennsylvania's Amish country, yet finds it hard to escape his past. Jonathan Tropper and David Schickler created the show, which also boasts True Blood's Alan Ball and House alum Greg Yaitanes as executive producers. Yaitanes explains why you should visit Banshee. TV Guide Magazine: I've got room in my life to watch one more show. Why should it be yours?Greg Yaitanes: There's always room for dessert. Banshee is a delicious mix of sex, action and...
Exclusive: The Price Is Right Reveals Celebrity Week Contestants
Sharon Osbourne, Demi Lovato, Charles Barkley and NeNe Leakes, come on down! You're among the next contestants on The Price Is Right's second annual celebrity week.
How I Met Your Mother Bosses Have Big Plans for Final Year
When CBS announced that How I Met Your Mother would return for a ninth and final season next year, the network took the unusual extra step of proclaiming that the show's heretofore unseen "mother" would be also finally be revealed. HIMYM co-creator Craig Thomas (who says he wasn't consulted on that part of the release) admits he was surprised that CBS felt the need to spell it out. "The plan has always been to meet this girl at some point," he says. "I think we would be forbidden from show business if we ended the series without meeting the mother, and rightfully so. They want to make sure, I guess, that the audience knows they're not going to be jerked around or short changed in any way."
Five Ways Fox's The Following Could Change TV
Fox's The Following opened to killer ratings on Jan. 21, attracting 13.3 million viewers (which includes three days of DVR use). Week 2 was just as sizzling for the new Kevin Bacon thriller, which experienced an even bigger DVR lift. Not bad for a show that doesn't look and wasn't marketed like your typical broadcast drama.
Exclusive: MTV's Buckwild Concludes Season 1 With Clip Special
MTV's Buckwild ends its initial run on Thursday, Feb. 7 with a 30-minute clip special, "Bucking Unseen Moments," at 11/10c. The special is set to air immediately following two back-to-back season finale episodes of Buckwild starting at 10/9c. The show, which has filled the Jersey Shore void on MTV, has performed decently for the network. According to MTV, Buckwild rates as the No. 1 original cable series on Thursday nights among viewers 12-34.
First Look: Good Morning America Anchors Help Phineas and Ferb Celebrate Platypus Day
Disney Channel is launching a month-long Phineas and Ferb event leading up to its annual National Platypus Day celebration on Saturday, March 2 — in honor of the show's resident platypus, Perry. This year, they've enlisted some unusual help: Good Morning America anchors George Stephanopoulos, Josh Elliott, Lara Spencer and Sam Champion can be seen in one spot dancing along to "O.W.C.A." (a riff, of course, on the Village People's "Y.M.C.A."). Phineas and Ferb fans know that "O.W.C.A." stands for Organization Without a Cool Acronym, the evil-fighting group where Perry the Platypus serves as his alterego Agent P. The "O.W.C.A" song premieres on Radio Disney on Friday, the same day Disney Channel introduces the music video (which also includes a wide variety of Disney Channel stars dancing along). The flagship episode ("Sidetracked") for this year's Phineas and Ferb "Platypus Day" will air Friday, March 1 at 9/8c. In the episode, Agent P teams up with his former partner, the human agent Lyla (voice of The Daily Show's Samantha Bee) to stop a hijacked train. On March 2, Disney Channel will air multiple episodes, while boy tween-centric Disney XD will run a five-hour marathon, starting with the new episode "Primal Perry," starting at 8 a.m./7c.
As More Networks Develop Series, Is There Too Much TV?
TV viewers have never had it so good — or maybe they have it too good. There's never been more original programming to navigate than at this very moment. Take Sunday nights: Even with the NFL season over, viewing options include The Good Wife (CBS), The Walking Dead (back Feb. 10 on AMC), Girls (HBO), Shameless (Showtime), Downton Abbey (PBS), Family Guy (Fox), Revenge (ABC) and Kourtney and Kim Take Miami (E!). And that's just in one timeslot: 9/8c. That's a lot of DVR space being filled up week in and week out with must-see shows. "There's definitely more programming that I'm interested in watching than I can actually consume," says Showtime Entertainment president David Nevins. According to FX Networks president John Landgraf, there were just 35 scripted shows on cable when The Shield premiered 11 years ago; now that number is up to...
Exclusive: ABC Takes On Smash Premiere With Special Bachelor Episode
ABC isn't giving its regards to Broadway. The network has quietly slotted in an original two-hour episode of The Bachelor on Tuesday, Feb. 5 at 9/8c — directly opposite the Season 2 premiere of NBC's musical drama Smash. Such a move puts...
Exclusive: How Jimmy Kimmel Live Pulled Off Its Matt Damon Episode
Viewers of Jimmy Kimmel Live tuned in Thursday night to see the late-night host bound and gagged at the corner of the stage. Matt Damon had hijacked the show, and proceeded to oversee what may have been one of the most star-studded episodes in talk show history. The Damon episode, of course, was the culmination of a long-running joke...
Exclusive: Disney Channel Sets Premiere Date for Wizards of Waverly Place Reunion
More than a year after the Wizards of Waverly Place hung up their wands, the show returns to Disney Channel with a one-hour special on Friday, March 15 at 8/7c. Selena Gomez is back to star in and executive produce the event, dubbed The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex. In the special, the Russo family and pals travel to Tuscany, Italy, to meet relatives. But while attempting to prove that she's serious about her craft as a wizard, Alex (Gomez) accidentally conjures up a spell that splits her personality into two — a Good Alex and an Evil Alex. The two dueling Alexes eventually battle over the fate of her family and mankind atop the Tower of Pisa.
Bigger Bang for Big Bang; Here's The Theory Why
The Big Bang Theory has turned into a full-blown supernova. The sitcom, now in its sixth season, has been on a roll this year, posting ratings highs several weeks in a row. On Jan. 10, it crossed the threshold of 20 million viewers for the first time. "We think it's pretty amazing," says executive producer Steve Molaro, who took over as showrunner this season from Bill Prady, co-creator of the series with Chuck Lorre. "It's an honor to have so many people watching the show." Molaro credits the sitcom's exposure in syndication — particularly on TBS, where Big Bang often tops the cable ratings charts — for boosting the CBS episodes. "Syndication has reached a lot of new people," he says. "I try not to get caught up in the numbers, but it's fun."
