Sunday, January 29, 2012
DGA Awards
The Directors Guild Awards were handed out last night; in the TV categories, awarded shows included The Biggest Loser, General Hospital, The Kennedys, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and The Killing.
Good TVeets
catmolicious
I wish I were as good
at anything as Kyle Chandler is at looking put-upon.
Next on Hannity, why
can't Hollywood Celebs just shut up? Sean finds out with Jon Voight, Victoria
Jackson & Chuck Norris!
The Cheers theme song
is really sad when you realize the only place where everybody knows your name
is packed with alcoholics.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
NBC Balks at Romney Ad
NBC News has asked Mitt Romney's campaign to pull an ad mostly made up of Tom Brokaw reporting on Newt Gingrich's legal problems. The Romney campaign thinks it has a fair use right to the footage.
Filming Made
Another behind-the-scenes view of a reality TV production, this one from a teacher whose high school was featured on MTV's Made.
Big Brother Controversy
Brazil's Big Brother has been rocked by allegations of sexual assault captured live on camera but not initially acknowledged by producers.
Good TVeets
Huh. Big Bang once
again got better ratings than IDOL in the Coveted Demographic™. If Modern
Family does it next week, it's the New Trend™.
Sure Chuck is
juvenile, cheesy, contrived, sexist, etc. But at its best, charming, witty, and
refreshingly unserious. I've enjoyed the ride.
"Subway Closes
Down All Branches, Cites Lack of #Chuck As Reason for
Plummeting Sales." #TomorrowsHeadlinesToday
Top Chef Taping
YiMay Yang describes what it's like to be a diner at a Top Chef taping: "You could tell from Padma's expression that she was not adapting well to the Texas summer. She looked like she might melt as her assistants touched up her makeup and cooled her neck down with wet rags. But as soon as the cameras went on, her scowl disappeared."
Social Growth
As a sign of the growth of social media TV commenting, Simon Dumenco reports, American Idol's mentions have grown 557% over last season, Jersey Shore grew 612%, and Parks & Rec grew 739% (I'd love to see Ron Swanson's mentions in particular parsed out).
Friday, January 27, 2012
Globes Testimony
In the Golden Globes rights trial, NBC exec Marc Graboff testified that NBC screwed up the deal negotiations and overpaid. (Oh, NBC.)
SOTU Viewing
Ratings numbers on the State of the Union address show that a good number of people only stuck around for the first five minutes (They missed the milk joke!) and their preferred subsequent destinations were TBS, USA, and ESPN.
NAB Criticizes TWC
The NAB has responded to Time Warner Cable's big earnings statement with retrans rhetoric. An NAB spokesman says: "Given that Time Warner Cable just announced a quarterly net income increase of 44% and annual profits of $1.3 billion, it's time for pay TV's poster child for skyrocketing rates to come clean on retransmission consent. The fact is that local TV station carriage fees account for less than 1 percent of the cost of a monthly cable bill. It's laughable to suggest that broadcasters are responsible for higher cable rates."
The CW + 7
John Consoli points out that The CW gains significant viewership when looking at Live + 7 ratings, but unfortunately that's not what advertisers pay for.
Stealing Downton Abbey
John Sellers defends the practicing of illegally accessing Downton Abbey versus waiting til it airs legally in the US.
Homeland & War on Terror
Pamela Aucoin argues that Homeland validates the war on terror and a security state. UPDATE: Alyssa Rosenberg thinks Aucoin is misreading the show.
Also related to Homeland, Todd VanDerWerff concludes his walk through the series with co-creator Alex Gansa, part two and three and four.
Also related to Homeland, Todd VanDerWerff concludes his walk through the series with co-creator Alex Gansa, part two and three and four.
Comcast-NBC Anniversary
It's been nearly a year since Comcast wed NBC, and Harry A. Jessell praises Comcast's efforts at supporting the broadcasting side of the merger. However, R. Thomas Umstead points out that there's still nothing created in terms of promised multicultural channel launches.
Global Educational Soaps
Sarika Bansal highlights some of the soap operas around the world that serve also as educational tools about social issues.
NZ Summer TV
Geoff Lealand describes how little good TV there was to watch in New Zealand over its summer period: "For a moment there, I did wonder whether this might spell the end of television, as we know it, as days went by and I didn't bother switching on the set."
Thursday Ratings
Network numbers from TV By the Numbers. Big Bang Theory surpasses Idol again. More on that from Bill Carter. Final ratings. Cable ratings.
Cable Costs
Peter Kafka reminds us just how much cable subscribers pay for ESPN and other sports channels in our cable bills and wonders just when someone will step up with a sports-less bundle or over-the-top option.
Indie Films as Pilots
Writing from Sundance, IFC president Evan Shapiro laments how little attention great indie films get and proposes that some, like Welcome to the Dollhouse, would be better off as TV series.
TDS on Indecency
Jon Stewart tackled the Supreme Court's deliberations on the FCC's indecency regulations last night. The last minute is especially good.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| A Love Supreme | ||||
| ||||
Netflix Overseas
Netflix is looking at overseas losses as it builds its business in various countries.
Chuck Interview
Chuck ends tonight; Alan Sepinwall has a five-part interview with creators Chris Fedak and Josh Schwartz. The interview starts here, and links to the others on today's final post. Sepinwall also highlights his favorite moments from the show.
Good TVeets
hodgman
I am watching 30 Rock
on actual TV--AS IT AIRS. Commercials too! I feel like I am at Colonial Williamsburgh.
Are you there,
Chelsea? It's me -- Nielsen #NBC
Fox has a pilot called
"Prodigy Bully," following CBS's "Widow Detective." I know
titles will change, but can "Police Cops" be far away?
Thank You, Gossip Girl
Upon its 100th episode, NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg visited the set of Gossip Girl to honor the show for being a Big Apple ambassador.
Gaming & Soaps
John Vanderhoef delves into the ways in which soap opera and video game fandom are similar in terms of being tied to denigrated media cultures.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Leno Complaint
India is unhappy about a Jay Leno joke.
UPDATE: The State Department is defending Leno. And the issue continues to snowball.
UPDATE: The State Department is defending Leno. And the issue continues to snowball.
Analyzing Catherine
June Thomas profiles the departing Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) on CSI.
BBC Boss Leaving
BBC General Director Mark Thompson says he will step down after the Olympics. Dan Sabbagh sees this decision as good timing, and the Guardian considers possible successors.
Luck Interview
Alan Sepinwall talked with Luck producers David Milch and Michael Mann. Also, Stuart Levine talked with HBo's programming head about Luck, as well as HBO's cancelled and new comedies. Andrew Wallenstein is pessimistic about Luck's odds.
Making Cord Cutting Harder
Dow Jones Newswires explains how studios and pay TV operators are trying to keep viewers from cutting the cord in favor of online options.
Cable Raising Rates
Andrew Wallenstein reports on the risk major pay TV operators are taking in raising subscriber fees.
CNN Excels Online
Lucas Shaw conveys CNN's boasting that while it lags behind in traditional TV ratings, it leads cable news outlets online. UPDATE: Daniel Frankel explains why this could be a problem for Fox News.
Local NFL Ratings
Harry A Jessel says while the media has focused on big national NFL playoff ratings, the local ratings are even more impressive.
Subscriber Numbers
Peter Kafka analyzes Time Warner Cable subscriber losses in a larger context to determine if it's cord cutters having an impact or just people choosing other providers.
OWN Shakeup
OWN fired an exec who has been with Oprah Winfrey for 18 years and brought in a new programming and development exec.
Wednesday Ratings
Network numbers from TV By the Numbers. The early preview of Touch did well, as did Marg Helgenberger's CSI exit. Cable ratings.
India-Pakistan Reality
Radhika Bhirani describes how India and Pakistan relations are playing out in reality TV.
More Netflix News
More Netflix news I missed yesterday: Netflix reached 4th quarter earnings expectations, but Will Richmond says you need to dig deeper to see the consequences of the company's poor decisions; Netflix agreed to the Warner Bros. DVD delay, and it says the UK launch was successful.
Good TVeets
FrankConniff
To ensure that the
identities of Seal Team 6 members remain secret, they've all been given
primetime shows on NBC.
Ever wonder what happened to lovable bailiff Bull
after Night Court ended? No? Well, tough shit, NBC's got a Wednesday night to
program.
NBC has ordered a spin-off about that trivia night
contestant that Steve Carell didn't play a few weeks ago.
Proving TVBTN right, NBC cancels "Harry's
Law." In unrelated news, NBC has picked up a new Kathy Bates series,
"Harry's Order"
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Office Spinoff
Nellie Andreeva reports that Dwight Schrute might get his own show. Or not? James Poniewozik sees this as a terrible idea.
Netflix News
In addition to the DVD/streaming profit disparity I posted about earlier, there was much more Netflix news today: Netflix has given up on video games, is planning to give up on DVDs, considers 3D a possibility, and has twice as many streaming subscribers as DVD ones.
Academy Summer Internship
Students should check out the Television Academy Foundation's Summer Internship Program: "The summer Student Internship Program provides more than 40 industry-wide internships to college and graduate students from across the country, and has been hailed for more than a decade as one of the top ten internships in the country. The program is designed to provide college students with in-depth exposure to professional television production during an eight-week summer period in Los Angeles...The competitive eight-week program is based in Los Angeles and provides students with real-world work experience and in-depth exposure to the television industry, focused within their specific field of interest...All submissions must be postmarked by March 15, 2012."
National TV Awards
The UK's National Television Awards were given out tonight in London. Doctor Who, Downton Abbey, and Outnumbered were among the shows honored.
USA Reality
USA Network has picked up a reality show featuring Kurt Warner and the theme of second chances.
Retrans Predictions
A NAPTE panel of station group execs brought forth predictions for the future of retransmission fees.
Carriage Preferences
John Eggerton reports on a survey of cable operators asked which emerging and mid-size cable channels they most want to carry: "Hallmark Movie Channel is the emerging network cable operators most want to carry (88%), while the emerging net large systems are most interested in adding BBC World News (33%)."
Netflix Profit Challenge
Netflix has a challenge in that profit margins are much higher on DVD subscribers than streaming ones. From AdAge: "Netflix would have to sign up four to five streaming subscribers to make up for the loss of one DVD subscriber who canceled because of last year's price hike, according to Janney Capital Markets analyst Tony Wible."
Channel 4 Loss
Britain's Channel 4 lost money last year, for the first time in a decade, though C4 executives say it was a planned loss to invest in the future.
Weiner at NAPTE
Matt Weiner spoke at NAPTE about Mad Men while accepting the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award.
Tough Time Slots
Gail Pennington highlights some of prime time's most competitive time slots and how they challenge viewers to choose.
Defending Episodic Viewing
Todd VanDerWerff appreciates watching shows with time between episodes, rather than marathoning in one sitting. (If you want more on this topic, Michael Newman wrote about it for Flow a few years ago.) Jaime Weinman adds thoughts.
Telenovelas With Subtitles
Univision will offer closed-captioned English subtitles on its prime-time telenovelas.
Tuesday Ratings
Network numbers from TV By the Numbers. An unusual night due to the State of the Union address. Final ratings. Cable ratings.
Testing Technology
Time Warner has a media lab where consumers test out technology like video games and 3D TV.
Amazon Streaming
Claire Atkinson reports that Amazon wants to take on Netflix in the subscription streaming arena.
Fatherhood Drama
Alyssa Rosenberg discusses how dramas like Justified and Mad Men are presenting fatherhood.
Online Complements TV
Will Richmond reports on a study finding that when it comes to advertising, online video effectively complements TV ads, and online should be paired with TV for maximum effectiveness.
Interactive Rise
Richard MacManus looks at how the TV viewer experience is becoming more interactive.
Lionsgate-Grupo Televisa Partner
Meg James reports: "Lionsgate and Mexico's programming powerhouse Grupo Televisa are expanding their budding partnership with a new venture that aims to create television shows for English-language audiences."
BBC Sexism
The BBC is accused of allowing a "culture of sexism" to exist against its female TV and radio presenters.
DA Jewelry Controversy
Downton Abbey's British production company is not happy with PBS for selling jewelry inspired by the show without its knowledge.
Idol Reigns
Wayne Friedman discusses how American Idol is still tops in the TV ratings and social media buzz.
Netflix Helps
Netflix's chief content officer insists that Netflix is good for TV, especially streaming, which brings people to new shows.
Good TVeets
mollyeichel
No Swinton, no
Gosling, and no Depp? Come on, Oscars. You know the rules: at least one Red
Carpet weirdo nomination per category.
Know that upbeat #ParksAndRec theme song? Just heard
the lyrics, and they're SUPER dark. Way worse than M*A*S*H. #morphinedrip #mutilation
"I am proud to
report that in addition to bin Laden, I just killed the dude who wrote that
milk joke." #SOTU
Sitcom Plot Overload
Daniel Walters notes that the longer sitcoms last, the more they overload their plots with separate storylines, to the detriment of the show.
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