Fox Adapting BBC Show Linda Green For U.S. Audiences
TV Goes Dark: Inside the Networks' Twisted New Shows
TV's killer cauldron is getting crowded. Now that viewers have been thrilled by the likes of The Walking Dead's Governor, Dexter's titular killer and American Horror Story's Bloody Face, the broadcast networks are looking to maim cable's momentum by airing their own dark, twisted tales this midseason. On Fox's The Following, James Purefoy plays Edgar Allan Poe scholar Joe Carroll, a serial killer who...
John Leguizamo To Star in ABC Comedy Project Based on His Life
ABC really wants to be in the John Leguizamo business. Just days after it passed on the pilot Kings of Van Nuys, which had starred Leguizamo, the network has picked up another project based loosely on the actor's life. The new untitled Leguizamo comedy script...
Exclusive Promo: Barbara Walters Touts Jimmy Kimmel's Timeslot Change
ABC has started promoting Jimmy Kimmel Live's big move to 11:35/10:35c, and tonight will lean on a network titan to help sell that message. Barbara Walters has taped a spot highlighting Kimmel's time slot promotion, which takes place next month. Walters' promo will air during the 90-minute special Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2012, airing Tuesday night at 9:30/8:30c. Man of the Year: Jimmy Kimmel on the Emmys, Oprah and Going Head-to-Head With Leno and Letterman The Walters promo is also notable because her special is produced by ABC News. Kimmel's move back a half hour (starting January 8) is displacing ABC News' Nightline, which shifts to 12:35/11:35c. Perhaps a sign of no hard feelings? Here's the short Walters promo — featuring a cameo by Jimmy Kimmel Live's Guillermo Rodriguez — that will air tonight...
Watch My Show: The Mindy Project's Matt Warburton Answers Our Showrunner Survey
Like many new shows, Fox's The Mindy Project is still finding its voice and creative direction. The comedy recently dropped a couple of regulars as part of a slight retooling, but the central conceit hasn't changed: Mindy Kaling stars as an ob-gyn looking to balance love, life and career. Chris Messina and Ed Weeks costar as her colleagues and romantic foils, while Kaling's old Office flame B.J. Novak (a consultant on the series) will guest star in an upcoming episode. Showrunner Matt Warburton tells us why we should book an appointment with The Mindy Project...
From Angus to Trump: When TV Stars Attack The Hands That Feed Them
Executives at Warner Bros. TV and CBS didn't see this one coming. Nor did Two and a Half Men boss Chuck Lorre. As a matter of fact, no one did.Angus T. Jones, who has played Men's Jake Harper since 2003, had always been a mild-mannered young star who mostly avoided press and shunned the limelight. So when a video emerged on YouTube of the 19-year-old actor saying, "If you watch Two and a Half Men, please stop. I'm on Two and a Half Men and I don't want to be on it. Please stop watching it. Please stop filling your head with filth," it stunned everyone — and became a major news story.
Exclusive: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Stages A Goonies Reunion
The Goonies never say die, and here's proof. More than 27 years after the fan favorite film was released, two of its stars are back together, this time on TV.Corey Feldman recently joined Sean Astin in the sound booth at the Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, Calif., where the two recorded voiceovers for a Season 2 episode of Nickelodeon's hit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Here's Who's Behind This Fall's Few TV Theme Songs
Music is just about everywhere on TV these days — except in most shows' opening credits. The glory days of the TV title song may be long gone, but a few new series are keeping the theme alive. Most notably, ABC's comedy Malibu Country boasts a traditional opening tune. When it came time to put the show's title credits together, it made perfect sense to ask star Reba McEntire to choose the song. McEntire — who also performed the opening theme to her last sitcom, Reba ("I'm a Survivor") — came back with "Goodbye Looks Good on Me," written by Kellys Collins, Juliana Cole and Jeff Smith. Here are the titles and talent behind some of this fall's new TV opening themes.
This Week's Chuck Lorre Vanity Cards Are Not in Response to Angus T. Jones, Say Insiders
Don't read too much into Thursday night's Chuck Lorre vanity cards at the end of Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. That's the word from insiders close to the show, who are concerned that viewers and others might misread this week's cards as a response to this week's Angus T. Jones flap. In reality, the vanity card that aired on Thursday night behind both Lorre shows is the same one that ran on Monday night at the end of Mike and Molly. That card was written by Lorre and delivered for air during the week of...
ABC's Peanuts Specials Are a Perennial Ratings Hit, Charlie Brown
Charlie Brown may decry the commercialization of the holidays, but there's no denying the continued popularity of his TV specials. A Charlie Brown Christmas returns to ABC Wednesday night (8/7c) for the first of two airings this month, and if the network's recent rebroadcasts of the Peanuts Halloween and Thanksgiving specials are any indication, it's sure to do well.
Exclusive First Look: Donnie Wahlberg's New TNT Reality Show Boston's Finest
He plays a cop on CBS' Blue Bloods, and now Donnie Wahlberg is exploring the lives of real-life police officers via TNT's upcoming reality series Boston's Finest. Wahlberg is an executive producer on the new show, which premieres Wednesday, Feb. 27.
Disney Schedules Launch for New Pre-school Phenom Sofia The First
Fresh off this month's top-rated TV movie Sofia the First, Disney Channel has finalized dates for the preschool property's regular series premiere. The show, which centers on a young girl who adjusts to life as an overnight princess, will debut Friday, Jan. 11 at 9:30am/8:30c. Disney Junior will repeat the episode at 5:30/4:30c. The premiere episode, "Just One of the Princes," will also be available a week earlier (starting Jan. 4) on Disney Channel SVOD and iTunes, among other platforms. Ariel Winter (Modern Family) stars as Sofia, while Sara Ramirez, Wayne Brady and Tim Gunn also lend their voices.
Why is ABC's Nashville Out of Tune?
Will the stars of Nashville be singing the blues by the end of the season? The freshman drama's critical acclaim and decent bump with time-shifted viewing was good enough for ABC to reward it with a full-season pickup, but inside the network, executives are wondering: Why aren't viewers watching? And what can be done to save the show beyond this season?
Exclusive: Greg Louganis Talks About Diving Into Celebrity Splash
Diving is not just for the Summer Olympics anymore. The sport is about to make waves in prime time, with two competing star-driven reality series coming to TV in 2013. ABC recently announced the series Celebrity Splash, based on a hit show from the Netherlands, while Fox countered with the two-hour special Stars In Danger: High Diving, based on an annual German TV event. Diving legend Greg Louganis, who signed on to serve as a judge on Celebrity Splash, believes the shows will give diving some needed exposure outside of the Games.
From Reality to Scripted, TV Enlists in More Military-Themed Projects
Six years ago when producer Stephanie Drachkovitch began pitching the idea for a show that followed the lives of real-life soldiers' wives, the U.S. Army was understandably wary. "The feeling was the families have enough stress," says Lt. Col. Steven Cole, an Army public affairs liaison based in Los Angeles. "There was a general reluctance to have our Army families be the object of entertainment." But Drachkovitch didn't give up, and last spring, the Army decided the timing was right. "It struck me that the stories of the families were just so invisible during this war," she says. "And yet there are thousands of them who are basically heroes on the other side of the battlefield. We've been at war 10 years as of last spring, and while the war in Iraq [has wound] down, we're still in Afghanistan. The Army felt it was important, now more than ever, to keep the stories of its families and soldiers in front of the American public." The result is Married to the Army: Alaska, which debuted November 18 on OWN. Drachkovitch and her team at 44 Blue Productions were given unprecedented access to the highs and lows experienced by families stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. "The way all the services look at it, they are the people's military," Drachkovitch says. "So their job is to get those stories out there and to tell us, the citizens, what our Army is doing."
NBC Develops Sitcom with Saturday Night Live's Kenan Thompson
Kenan Thompson may be ready for primetime. NBC and Lorne Michaels are developing a comedy script that would serve as a starring vehicle for the Saturday Night Live cast member.
Exclusive: Hot in Cleveland To Air Live Episode Next Summer
TV Land better invest in a really good bleep button: The saucy women of Hot in Cleveland will go live in an episode set for next summer. The "super-sized" live episode will launch Hot in Cleveland's summer season on...
New MTV Programming Head Susanne Daniels Shares Her Plans For The Channel
Susanne Daniels, MTV's just-hired president of programming, joins a channel that has seen its primetime ratings slide 31 percent this season. New series like Teen Wolf and Awkward have high viewership and buzz, but MTV is about to lose its signature hit, Jersey Shore. Daniels, who developed faves like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Felicity at The WB and later helped reinvent Lifetime, will now lead the charge to develop MTV's next generation of shows.
YouTube Boosts Its Commitment to Original Programming
One of this fall's big programming events wasn't actually broadcast on TV. Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, a live-action series geared toward the launch of the new Xbox 360 video game, has become a hit for YouTube, where it runs on the young male-oriented Machinima Prime channel. YouTube is taking on the traditional TV model in a big way, with the help of major stars, original programs like Halo 4 and big events like Felix Baumgartner's space jump, which broke YouTube user records on Oct. 14. A year after YouTube parent Google unleashed an aggressive $100 million initiative to launch around 100 original programming channels (and committed $200 million to market the channels), viewership on the platform was up 11 percent year-to-year in September. It's a slow build, and so far YouTube's original programming initiative hasn't produced a hit that was big enough to enter the public consciousness. But according to newly released comScore data, YouTube users spent an average of 419.1 minutes watching video in September, compared to 378 minutes in Sept. 2011.
Richie Sambora to Serve as The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson House Band For A Week
Wanted Dead Or Alive: Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, who's been tapped as Craig Ferguson's ad-hoc in-house band for one week on CBS' The Late Late Show.
Watch My Show: Chicago Fire's Derek Haas and Michael Brandt Answer Our Showrunner Survey
Countless movies and TV shows have revolved around firefighters, and now NBC's Chicago Fire (Wednesdays, 10/9c) gives an authentic look at the brave men and women tasked with putting out blazes and saving lives. Jesse Spencer and Taylor Kinney star in the drama, which is produced by Law & Order maestro Dick Wolf and was just picked up for a full season. Creators Derek Haas and Michael Brandt (who wrote the movie 3:10 to Yuma) took our showrunner survey to explain why we should be hot on Chicago Fire...
NBC Boss: Why We're Tweaking Our Comedy Brand
NBC may be on the rise this season, but comedy — traditionally one of the network's strong suits — hasn't played much of a role in its recovery. Freshman half-hour Go On is showing promise, but NBC's Thursday night block, once the home to "Must See TV," now limps along.That's why execs are taking a long, hard look at its comedy brand to decide in what direction to steer the laughs next year. NBC introduced the new slogan "We Peacock Comedy" this fall, but what kind of comedy does NBC actually "Peacock"?
