stephen.battaglio

Who Will Survive Jericho's Explosive Finale?

Someone on Jericho will die this week so that the show may live on. It sounds heartless. But the producers of the CBS drama about life in a small Kansas town after a nuclear catastrophe are sacrificing one of the series' regulars in the battle-fueled finale as part of a long-term plan to take the story in a new direction. Executive producer Carol Barbee will only describe the victim as "somebody who had a deal to be here for the next five years." Is it bad boy turned local hero Jake Green (Skeet Ulrich)

Wed, May 9, 2007

Who Will Survive Jericho's Explosive Finale?

Cold Case Preview: A Hostage Crisis Closes the Season!

For a cop show, CBS' Cold Case isn't big on shoot-'em-ups. Maybe it's because the drama's Philadelphia detectives usually sift through evidence from long ago. The team recently closed the books on the murder of a 1919 suffragette. Let's just say they didn't have to call in a SWAT team to solve that one. But Lilly Rush and Co. will end their fourth season (this Sunday at 9 pm/ET) with a bang. Two bangs, actually. "Our detectives are getting shot," reveals executive producer Veena Sud. "I can't say who. They're all in jeopardy. It's very big." Almost unprecedented. Beyond the show's trademark flashbacks, George — the serial-killer tormentor of Rush (Kathryn Morris) — is the only character to have taken a bullet in nearly 100 episodes. Det. Kat Miller (

Fri, May 4, 2007

Cold Case Preview: A Hostage Crisis Closes the Season!

P.I., Spy: The Andy Richter and Conan O'Brien Q&A

In an unbridled side-by-side Q&A, Andy Barker, P.I. star Andy Richter and series cocreator Conan O'Brien riff on their new NBC sitcom (premiering tonight at 9:30 pm/ET), Britney Spears jokes and the future of Late Night. TV Guide: In Andy Barker, P.I., Andy plays an accountant who accidentally becomes a detective. As your company developed it with NBC, Conan, how did you keep it so funny?Conan O'Brien: We really like it, which is usually a bad sign. One of the things that was nice about this project is that I've always thought it's such a crapshoot to make a good television show. So many

Thu, Mar 15, 2007

P.I., Spy: The Andy Richter and Conan O'Brien Q&A

CBS' Jericho: Burning Questions Answered!

What do the Morse-code messages say? Is Hawkins a hero or a villain? As the Feb. 21 return of CBS' Jericho nears, TV Guide has the inside scoop on these bombshells — and more! Are we ever going to get outside of Jericho and really see what happened?You'll get a lot of answers in the first new episode of the year (airing next Wednesday), which shows events that happened 36 hours before the bombs were dropped — if they were actually "dropped." But in the future, the show will only follow peripatetic lead character Jake Green (Skeet Ulrich) and other Jericho residents. "We're trying to tell the story from the point of view of the people in this town," says executive producer Jon Turteltaub. "So we're not g

Wed, Feb 14, 2007

CBS' Jericho: Burning Questions Answered!

This TV Season's Winners and Losers!

Put a fork in the 2005-06 TV season. For the fourth straight year, CBS was crowned the most watched network, with an average of 12.6 million viewers per week. Fox was able to crow as well — for the second year in a row it was No. 1 among viewers ages 18 to 49, the group most coveted by advertisers. ABC didn't come up with a new hit, but its audience grew as Grey's Anatomy, Lost and Desperate Housewives remained hot, and Dancing with the Stars

Tue, Jun 13, 2006

Dancing Judges' Pasts Revealed

How many hit shows star an acerbic Brit, a Hollywood choreographer and a guy you've never heard of before? Well, now there are two. ABC's Dancing with the Stars, which turns celebrities into ballroom dancers within weeks, has become a summer sensation. Here we look at the judges who will help decide which couple will walk off with the winners' trophy. Len Goodman, 61, took up ballroom dancing when he was 20 years old after a soccer injury. "My doctor suggested it because it would exercise my foot," says Goodman, who comes from London. He soon became a top competitive dancer and owner of a successful dance school, but he became a star as a judge on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, on which Dancing with the Stars is based. Who had the steepest learning curve on the U.S. version? "Definitely Evander Holyfield. John O'Hurley is from a period where men did some sort of dancing. Ladies are always quicker at picking up the steps."

Wed, Jun 22, 2005

CSI Honcho Plots TV Invasion

Looks like the man behind all three CSIs, Without a Trace, Cold Case and The Amazing Race wants an even bigger piece of the prime-time pie. Movie producer turned TV-hitmaker Jerry Bruckheimer has five pilots vying for space on the fall schedule.A military drama called The E-Ring shines as the Bruckheimer series most likely to get picked up. Starring Law &amp; Order alum Benjamin Bratt and Dennis Hopper, the NBC pilot goes inside the Pentagon the way The West Wing went behind the scenes of the White House. "It's a formula that can be updated for these tenser times of insecurity over homeland security," says John Rash of ad agency Campbell Mithun, who's had a sneak peek at The E-Ring. CBS is considering American Crime, a drama about a prosecutor who's also a new mom (Jennifer Finnigan could star if NBC cancels her sitcom, Committed). Meanwhile,

Mon, Apr 18, 2005

Why Big Stars Are Flocking to TV

Pity the struggling young actor. The competition this year for a big break on network TV is stiffer than ever, as pilots angling for spots in the fall lineup have enough familiar faces to pack an I Love the '90s (or even the '80s) marathon on VH1.Lara Flynn Boyle, Kristin Davis, David Boreanaz, Brooke Shields, Peri Gilpin, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Fred Savage, Don Johnson, Benjamin Bratt and Dylan McDermott are among the dozens of prime-time favorites cast in prospective shows that network execs hope will turn into the next Desperate Housewives or Lost. And they're being joined by other stars better known for their work outside of TV — including Chris O'Donnell, Dennis Hopper, Ellen Burstyn, Tom Berenger and Aidan Quinn.Networks desperate for a rat

Mon, Mar 28, 2005

Justice Served on 48 Hours, Mystery

Crime is paying for 48 Hours Mystery. After fighting each year for a spot on the prime-time schedule, the long-running newsmagazine is looking more secure since it's been turned into what could be called CSI: CBS News. The show still has its single-topic format, but gone are the long-winded intros by a CBS anchor, so viewers now get right into the story. The changes have resulted in decent ratings and a different kind of show for CBS News. While 60 Minutes wouldn't touch the Laci Peterson murder case — which has offered up endless fodder for lurid supermarket tabloid covers — 48 Hours Mystery dove right in. But the show is at its best when it takes a Law &amp; Order-esque look at less high-profile whodunits drawn from real life, such as the murder of a Williamsport, Penn., woman by her surgeon husband. This week's episode (Saturday at 10 pm/ET on CBS) features the grisly tale of an una

Fri, Mar 25, 2005

Are Your Fave Shows in Trouble?

Just call them Endangered Series — those unlucky shows whose declining ratings are killing their chances of survival. Is your favorite on the list? Here's a rundown of the programs that might get the ax to make room for next season's new shows.NBCThe West Wing has chosen Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda as candidates for a post-Bartlet White House, and NBC has reelected Wing for a seventh term, but only after Warner Bros. reportedly offered to halve the show's hefty license fee. Ad-buying executive Tim Spengler believes the political drama's appeal to upscale viewers, which makes it valuable to advertisers, convinced NBC to finance another fictional presidential campaign. Other shows in NBC's danger zone: Third Watch,

Mon, Mar 21, 2005

ABC's Ad Trick Holds Viewers

There's a good reason you aren't flipping away from ABC. And we're not just talking about Desperate Housewives or Lost. This season, ABC executives have changed the way they schedule commercials during their shows, using a little trick to keep you from changing the channel. Typically, one-hour dramas start with a short scene, run the opening titles and then cut to a commercial. But now ABC's shows start with a complete "act" to get viewers fully hooked before they bring in the first ad. That's why the Alias season premiere ran a full 20 minutes before the credits rolled. ABC's shows also have action after the last set of commercials, so there are no breaks between programs (when viewers reach for their remotes most). ABC executives who have looked at minute-by-minute Nielsen ratings say they've seen a "pretty dramatic" improvement. So expect NBC and CBS to follow suit.

Thu, Jan 27, 2005

CNN Hires Court TV Diva

It's hard to imagine that Nancy Grace has ever met a defendant she didn't think was guilty. Fair and balanced she's not, and the prosecutor-turned-Court TV legal commentator (and victims' rights advocate) freely admits it. "I've never pretended that I do not have an opinion," she says. "And people who pretend they don't are deceiving you." Now Grace is expanding her pulpit, with a book this spring (Objection!, written with TV Guide contributor Diane Clehane) and, starting Feb. 21, her own nightly show on CNN Headline News. After successfully filling in for Larry King the past few years, Grace will lead a new lineup of programs aimed at bringing appointment viewers to CNN's ratings-deprived sister channel. Though she promises the series will include opposing views, she cautions, "Can I help it if they're wrong? No, I can't."

Fri, Jan 21, 2005

CSI: NY Lightens Up

The third installment of the CSI franchise has gotten off to a strong start, cleaning up in the ratings against NBC's long-running warhorse Law &amp; Order on Wednesday nights (10 pm/ET). But CBS isn't content to rest on those laurels. CSI: NY producers have been given a mandate to lighten up the look of their show and tell stories that are unique to the Big Apple. Early episodes looked like they were shot in the sewer system and had a generic feel to them. "We need to bring Melina [Kanakaredes] and Gary [Sinise] into the light so our audience can get to know them," says CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler. "And we want this CSI to tell stories that can only be told in New York, which has many faces. There is the darker underbelly downtown. But there is also Central Park. New York's a vibrant, bright, colorful, multicultural place." Changes will be noticeable this week, with an episode set at a Westminstere

Mon, Jan 10, 2005

Hardball Host Talks Election

Chris Matthews has never seen a political convention he didn't like. (Even though there hasn't been a surprise presidential candidate since 1952, when the Democrats picked Adlai Stevenson.) The motormouthed host of MSNBC's Hardball, who's anchoring the channel's coverage of the Democrats' gathering in Boston, recently told us why the floor fights and roll calls still matter. TV Guide Online: What are the chances of any real drama when the Democrats meet to nominate Sen. John Kerry?Chris Matthews: I would like to think the Democrats will debate the Iraq war and take a position that is stark. Somebody is going to raise their hand and say, "Let's debate this. We want an antiwar plank." That could be hot. TVGO: Any tips for Kerry's acceptance speech?Matthews: He has to make people feel good about voting for him. Nobody has a personal feel for the guy yet. He's got to tell a couple of jokes. He has to break the ice. Because people do

Tue, Jul 27, 2004