Archive for October, 2011
Do You Watch ANYTHING On CBS?
Oct 31st
In the year and a half that I’ve been writing Remote Patrolled we’ve covered a whole heap of shows on a range of networks from ABC to Fox to AMC to FX and many more. But as I was writing a piece last week a sudden thought hit me. There isn’t a single show on CBS that I regularly watch!
Now of course there are many other networks out there that I barely glance at. I can’t say I’m tuning into HGTV religiously, or BET, or any sports related channel. But CBS is a MAJOR network – in fact in terms of overall ratings it’s the biggest network of all. No other channel has a slate where virtually everything that airs attracts over 10 million viewers. And yet in our household CBS barely registers.
Ratings Roundup: 30th October 2011
Oct 30th
Winners and Losers From The Last 7 Days
WINNERS
FAIRYTALE TV: Looks like there might be a couple of happy ever afters for the broadcast networks this week!
After a mixed season with several successes but no major out of the box smashes, both ABC and NBC received some good news this week from some rather unexpected sources.
For ABC the pleasant surprise was Once Upon A Time, the fairy tale series that’s been tasked with launching their whole Sunday night line-up. Given that that line-up includes Desperate Housewives and Pan Am, two shows that define the phrase ‘fading fast’ that’s quite a tall order. But Once Upon A Time more than stepped up to the challenge, pulling in a terrific 12.93 million viewers and a 4.0 18-49 share. That’s ABC’s best drama premiere this Fall and LAST Fall! Now of course the question becomes – how will the ratings hold up in week 2? Remember Pan Am…
Richard Recommends: Suburgatory
Oct 28th
Time for a little comedy here at Remote Patrolled – and one of the most unexpected surprises of the Fall TV Season.
Let’s be honest – did anyone have high expectations for the new ABC sitcom Suburgatory? Aside from a dubious title and a complete lack of buzz there was also the fact that Suburgatory hailed from the producer of Emily’s Reasons Why Not – one of the biggest sitcom misfires of the last few years (remember how the Heather Graham starrer only aired ONE episode!)
But that’s the thing with the TV industry – you just never know where the next big hit might hail. Suburgatory isn’t a smash hit quite yet, but it’s doing a very good job as part of ABC’s terrific Wednesday night line-up and is gradually winning over an army of fans. For me the show is delivering at least 5 proper laughs an episode – which is 5 more than Two And A Half Men has ever given us – total!
In case you haven’t caught Suburgatory yet here’s the basic story. The show follows George and Tessa, a father and daughter who relocate from Manhattan to the suburbs. Tessa is the snarky teen who hates her new More >
101 Ways To Make TV Better: Enough With The 50’s / 60’s Set Series!
Oct 25th
We all know that TV sometimes isn’t a hive of originality – hello CBS – but sometimes the lack of imagination in the industry does leave me scratching my head!
Take the latest craze – for show’s set in the 50’s / 60’s!
A couple of days ago I posted the trailer for the new Starz series, Magic City, a show based in the hotel industry in Miami Beach in the late 50’s. Now I don’t want to be mean to Magic City and it may turn out to be an amazing show – but it’s hard not to look at the series and make comparisons with a certain iconic 60’s series set on Madison Avenue.
Yep, Mad Men has cast a large shadow on the TV industry and spawned more than its fair share of imitators. Of course we all know about The Playboy Club, the ill-fated NBC series that lasted just 3 episodes before being unceremoniously yanked in favor of Prime Suspect repeats (which are also stinking up the joint!)
2011 Fall TV Preview: Grimm
Oct 24th
When Does It Start: Friday 28th October at 9pm EST on NBC
In A Nutshell: Crime fighting gets a fairytale spin…
What’s It About: Nick Burkhardt is an ordinary homicide detective who’s about to make a startling discovery. Turns out Nick is descended from a long line of ‘Grimms’, crime fighters with the ability to see supernatural monsters hidden to the normal human eye. But Nick is also the last of his kind and must now devote his life to fighting fairytale killers who have infiltrated the real world…
Ratings Roundup: 23rd October 2011
Oct 23rd
Winners and Losers From The Last 7 Days
WINNERS
HORROR TV: It’s been a big week for horror on TV as Halloween approaches and ratings for scary series continue to rise
First up of course is The Walking Dead. AMC’s zombie epic blasted back onto our screens on Sunday night with an amazing 7.25 million viewers and an eye popping 3.8 18-49 demo number (a further 2.17 million watched the encore showing immediately after the show). That’s the biggest 18-49 rating for a cable drama series EVER!
Meanwhile over on FX, American Horror Story is proving to be quite the hit. After a predictable week 2 decline, this week Story bounced back, up over 100,000 in viewers, and scoring 2.58 million and a 1.5 18-49 share. Plus with reviewers and audiences starting to embrace the show – and an Entertainment Weekly cover this week – look for American Horror Story to continue to grow in the weeks to come.
And finally, we’ve The Vampire Diaries over on The CW. This week the teen friendly vampire drama managed 3.03 million viewers and a 1.4 18-49 share – the ONLY show on The CW all week to climb above the 3 million mark (most of the CW shows can’t even bring More >
First Look: Magic City
Oct 22nd
And the Mad Men copycats continue…
Check out the just released trailer for Magic City, the upcoming Starz series chronicling the behind the scenes dramas of a Miami Beach hotel in the late 1950′s. In a nutshell it’s Mad Men meets Casino…
City stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) as Ike Evans, a luxury hotel owner who in order to finance his dream partners with a Mob boss called Ben ‘The Butcher’ Diamond (Danny Huston, so menacing in the under-rated 30 Days Of Night). Meanwhile Evans’ fiercely loyal wife Vera remains unaware of what’s really going on and his kids try to make their own way in the ever-changing Miami social scene…
To be fair to Magic City the trailer is much more Boardwalk Empire than Mad Man but nowadays it’s hard to look at shows of the era and not instantly think of the iconic AMC series. Not helping matters is the fact that both of the much hyped sixties set network series have either been cancelled (The Playboy Club) or are on their way out (Pan Am). I wonder if Starz would have commissioned Magic City in today’s climate?
That said the ratings bar is set a lot lower at Starz and Magic City’s More >
Before They Were Big: Megan Mullally’s McDonald’s Commercial
Oct 20th
Yesterday, over at the Huffington Post I spotted a fun feature looking at celebrities who’ve starred in McDonalds commercials – including Michael J Fox, Julianna Margulies and Christopher Meloni…
But check out the most amusing advert of the bunch – former Will and Grace star Megan Mullally shilling for the burger giant back in 1983!
Megan would have been about 25 at the time and is still instantly recognizable, with that squeaky voice that would eventually morph into the high pitched Karen Walker.
I’m a big Megan fan and think she’s been criminally wasted since her Will and Grace heyday on shows like Party Down and In the Motherhood. And let’s not even talk about that butter commercial! Someone please get Megan a starring role in a worthy 2012 Fall sitcom – she totally deserves it…
In the meantime check out Megan in action… oh and as an added bonus, look out for a young John Goodman in his pre-Roseanne days! (more…)
The Celebrity Apprentice 5: Meet The New Cast
Oct 20th
What do you do if you’re a D-list celebrity in need of a quick buck – and a brief hit of fame?
If you’re lucky you might land yourself a spot on Dancing With The Stars – which not only pays big bucks and brings in great ratings but also has the power to reinvent stars (Gilles Marini, Kirstie Alley, Joey Fatone).
Unfortunately not everyone can make it onto DWTS – they’re gotten fairly choosy over at ABC – so what’s the next best place to be? Well Celebrity Apprentice of course. The ratings are nowhere near as good (about 8 million on average compared to Dancing’s 18-20 million), and the Donald Trump show can’t resurrect your career – but hey it’s a payday. And who’s going to turn down a $50,000 fee for a few weeks work? Not these guys anyway…
Yep, the latest Celebrity Apprentice cast has just leaked and they’re the usual assortment of D-listers and desperadoes…
The X Factor USA: The Final 17 Are Revealed!
Oct 19th
So here they are – the X Factor final 17!
And the question on everyone’s lips this morning is – what the heck! Why is Simon allowed to pass through 5 acts while everyone else just gets 4…?
Of course we all know that Simon is the producer, creator and God of The X Factor, but as a judge on the show shouldn’t he be subject to the same rules as Paula, Nicole and LA?
To be fair I do understand the dilemma that Simon faced. He had by far the most competitive category, The Girls, and I think everyone felt that Melanie deserved her place in the live shows – alongside Simone, Tiah, Drew and Rachel (who I thought was heading home). But while Simon’s last minute save made for good TV – I do think it’s dangerous to bend the rules of the show at this stage and in The X Factor’s premiere US season.
