Category: News (Page 210 of 401)

NBC moves “Kings” to Saturdays

April 7, 2009 /

It debuted to low ratings, and the viewership just keeps dropping, so NBC has exiled “Kings” to Saturday nights.

Critically acclaimed but little-seen drama, which has disappointed on Sunday nights, is now being exiled to Saturdays.

Peacock plans to air two-hour editions of “Dateline NBC” in the 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. slot beginning this Sunday, April 12. NBC execs believe the newsmag will serve as a better lead-in to “Celebrity Apprentice.”

But rather than scrap “Kings” altogether, NBC will continue to air the show – but in the Saturday at 8 p.m. slot, where expectations are extremely small. Peacock mostly airs drama repeats on the night anyway.

NBC had been waiting to see if “Kings” would hold steady, but the drama posted its lowest rating yet this past Sunday – a 1.1 rating and 3 share among adults 18-49, and 3.6 million viewers.

I haven’t yet watched the latest episode, but the show has been pretty compelling thus far. NBC has to be taking a bath on the series — apparently the production costs are on the high end of the $2 million to $4.5 million range for an hour prime time network television. All 13 episodes of the first (and likely only) order are in the can, so fans of the show will at least get to see how the first season was supposed to end. Anything past that is a long shot.

External Entertainment, External TV, News, TV, TV Dramas

Shocker: Fox News has no sense of humor whatsoever.

April 5, 2009 /

According to Nikki Finke and her invaluable Deadline Hollywood Daily blog for L.A. Weekly, the Fox News Corporation has fired “Fox 411” freelance columnist Roger Friedman for ostensibly promoting piracy via some comments he made in regards to the already-infamous leaking of an early print of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” onto the internet earlier this week.

Per Ms. Finke’s column…

Besides writing a review from watching the purloined print of Wolverine, Friedman posted, “I did find the whole top 10 [movies in theaters], plus TV shows, commercials, videos, everything, all streaming away. It took really less than seconds to start playing it all right onto my computer. I could have downloaded all of it but really, who has the time or the room? Later tonight I may finally catch up with Paul Rudd in ‘I Love You, Man.’ It’s so much easier than going out in the rain!”

I’m told that Fox News’ actions were swift and severe. First, Roger Ailes, who overseas Fox News, deleted the offending post after he was contacted by 20th Century Fox about it. And then Ailes fired Friedman as a freelance Fox News entertainment writer. I hear the move was done with the full support of News Corp. “He promoted piracy. He basically suggested that viewing a stolen film is OK, which is absolutely intolerable. So we fired him,” a source told me Saturday. “Fox News acted promptly on all fronts.”

Are you kidding me? I’m sorry, but this sounds exactly like something *I* would write, in an attempt to be facetious about the ridiculousness of being able to find all of this stuff online. For all I know, Friedman was being completely serious, but given how quickly everyone’s been attempting to bring the perpetrator of the “Wolverine” leakage to justice, I simply can’t imagine that he was.

Nikki’s latest update says, “I did reach Friedman for comment. He emailed back only that he was at the Paul McCartney concert.” So he’s apparently not nearly as concerned about this as I am. But from my perspective, it looks like Fox is just pissed off about one of their internal employees being a dirty rotten scoundrel and is taking it out on anyone they can…which smells like bullshit to me.

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Old Show, New Season: “My Boys”

March 31, 2009 /

As you may recall, Season 2 of “My Boys” ended with Bobby running to PJ’s room to tell her, “I think I’m marrying the wrong woman,” only for him to see his brother standing behind her, his shirt half-unbuttoned. Unfortunately, when it comes to previewing the Season 3 premiere, TBS has put TV critics in a bit of a difficult spot by offering the following request at the beginning of the episode:

“We respectfully ask that you refrain from mentioning the outcome of the wedding and the last scene of the episode. We hope that you agree that this is the best way for the audience to experience the full impact of the moment in this episode.”

Well, of course it is. But given that the outcome of the wedding is determined well before the halfway point of the episode, it also makes it a little bit difficult to tell you too much about what to expect from the proceedings. Fortunately, there is no such embargo on the other key part of the episode, so here are the three words which will demand that you tune in:

MUSTACHE GROWING CONTEST.

There are a few other tidbits to be had throughout the episode that longtime viewers will enjoy, including Mike’s ongoing chatter about Maggie and a quicker dismissal of Andy’s newborn child than anyone could’ve imagined. (Seriously, as a sitcom geek, I almost felt like I should applaud. The writers aren’t pretending for a second that it’s going to impact the show.) And, yes, TBS is right: it’s a fine ending, indeed. But years from now, when you consider your favorite “My Boys” moments of all time, you won’t be picturing the ending. You’ll be picturing the boys sitting around the poker table, sporting some of the greatest facial hair you can imagine, and you’ll be hearing the various new nicknames they have for each other.

Oh, and you also might still be laughing at Reid Scott’s impression of Burt Reynolds’ laugh, which is uncanny in its precision.

Tune in to TBS tonight at 10:30 PM EST and get your first “My Boys” fix of 2009…and if you need to play catch-up before then, just look below:

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, News, TV, TV Comedies

“Bruno” scenes screened at SXSW

March 16, 2009 /

A few hundred movie fans got a sneak peek at 22 minutes the upcoming Sacha Baron Cohen comedy “Bruno” at the South by Southwest film festival. Baron Cohen’s Bruno character is a “flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion correspondent hoping to make it big in Hollywood,” and he’s just as crazy and provocative as his now-famous Borat character.

In the first bit of footage, Bruno has decided to achieve celebrity by adopting a black baby, and wants to feature the child in an avant-garde performance art project. (“Ich bin pushing the limits,” he explains in broken German.) He interviews several mothers and fathers to determine whether their children would be suitable to play guest stars, and his questions grow increasingly absurd: Are they afraid of stuffed animals? Reptiles? Hornets? Would they be OK with being dropped off a four-story building, or willing to have liposuction? Regardless of the request, the parents categorically say “yes.”

Part two, which was shot just north of Dallas, finds Bruno appearing on a Jerry Springer-style talk show in leather pants, looking for Mr. Right. Members of the predominantly black studio audience are appalled by his in-your-face homosexuality, and they get even angrier when he brings out his adopted baby and shows them a self-consciously artsy photograph of the child posing as Jesus on a cross. Although it appears there are a few plants in the crowd to ask the right questions, the majority of them seem genuinely disgusted as they storm out.

Finally, Bruno decides to reinvent himself by going hetero and changing his name to “Straight Dave.” Dressed like Ted Nugent in camouflage, long hair and a scruffy beard, he stages a mixed-martial arts contest, which was shot last summer in Arkansas. When Bruno’s ex-boyfriend crawls into the ring and the two start making out, stripping and rubbing all over each other, spectators in the conservative crowd holler, make anti-gay slurs and throw plastic cups of beer at them. They end up storming out, too.

I think he has another smash hit on his hands.

Actors, Celebrities, External Movies, Movie Comedies, Movies, News

Greetings to the New Show: “Kings”

March 15, 2009 /

Mark my words: you need to tune in for the premiere of “Kings” tonight. It’s an epic drama with the kind of scope that you rarely see on television in series form – executive producers Michael Green, Francis Lawrence, and Erwin Stoff have literally created a new world, one which provides them with the opportunity to offer tales of war and love without offending any existing countries – and it needs to be a hit right out of the box, lest it be canceled without ever having a chance to build on its concept.

If you’ve seen the commercials for the series (and if you’ve watched NBC for more than about fifteen minutes at any point in the last few months, you surely must’ve caught at least one), then it’s probable that at least one familiar face has leapt out at you: Ian McShane, late of HBO’s “Deadwood.” McShane plays King Silas Benjamin, leader of a land known as Gilboa, which, despite being an obvious monarchy, looks suspiciously like America. When “Kings” opens, Silas is preparing to address his subjects, and when he embarks upon his speech, we’re introduced to some of those who are watching it at home, including a young man named David Shepherd (Chris Egan). Unfortunately, despite the optimism within Silas’s speech, we soon fast-forward to two years later, when David and many other men of Gilboa are in the midst of fighting in Gilboa’s war against the neighboring nation of Gath.

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Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, News, Pilots, Reviews, TV, TV Dramas

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