Whedon Said No To Buffy

THR is reporting that industry insiders say Joss Whedon was offered the Buffy reboot and turned it down, but that is apparently old news.

Hate for Comcast

Janko Roettgers explains why people like to heap hate on Comcast.

Cord Cutting! It's Not On!

See, what did I tell you, even quicker than I thought: a "cord cutting is not happening" article.

West Wing Characters Live On

A group of people are tweeting as West Wing characters, as if that diegetic world was still ongoing alongside our own.

January Dates

For your calendar marking pleasure, Maureen Ryan has put together a list of the many shows returning or premiering in January.

Impact of an Ending

With Sons of Anarchy's much-criticized season ending tonight, Cory Barker wonders to what extent a season finale can rescue a mediocre season. Also the Terriers creative team offers a message on the eve of that show's season (hopefully not series) finale. And thoughts from Terriers creator Ted Griffin.

Prime-Time Ratings: Monday

Monday night's fast nationals: Chuck found a key route to good 18-49 ratings: Go up against CBS repeats and ABC's Skating With the Stars. Even so, those CBS repeats still won the night. Monday finals. Cable ratings.

In other ratings news, Walking Dead hit a series high;  The View is hitting highs while The Talk is steady; CBS won sweeps, ABC in 2nd (previously it was reported that Fox was the runner-up); and NASCAR is sliding down far.

Spectrum Revamp Begins

The FCC has ruled unaninmously in favor of launching its spectrum auction plan.

Early Show Overhaul

CBS is dumping Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez from The Early Show. An exec explains what's behind the moves.

Cable Diversity

You have to turn to cable to find much racial diversity on TV.

Ad Rates

Prime-time ad rates this year are flat compared to last year, but are trending downward, while cable ad rates are up.

Disney & Google Talking

Disney is negotiating to allow Google TV users to access ABC shows, but sticking points around piracy remain.

Local News Startup

Here in my home base of South Bend, a TV station group owner is launching a new multi-platform news operation.

The Missing in Iraq

An Iraqi TV show, translated as "Patron of the Oppressed," is devoted to call-ins about missing people.

Showrunners on Twitter

Jace Lacob interviews some showrunners about their run-ins with frustrated fans on Twitter. Damien Holbrook also writes about the issue.

New In Media Res

In Media Res theme this week: Disability in the Media

• Monday November 29, 2010 – Katie Ellis (Murdoch University) presents: A Disabling Environment
• Tuesday November 30, 2010 – Bill Kirkpatrick (Denison University) presents: Diane Rehm and the Sound of Disability
• Wednesday December 1, 2010 – Youngchi Chang (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor) presents: Why did Britney Spears need to go to a mental hospital again?: Disabling Female Emotionality and Mentality in Popular Media
• Thursday December 2, 2010 – Rachel Thibault (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) presents: Performance and Play: Mental Disability and the Class Character of Tarnation
• Friday December 3, 2010 – Liz Ellcessor (University of Wisconsin, Madison) presents: Playing Through Representation: Disability, Fable 3, and Consequences

Good TVeets

popscribblings : Not sure why, but first thought upon hearing that James Franco & Anne Hathaway are Oscar hosts: that would make for a great drinking game.

jrtrussell : Man I'm sure glad that James Franco is co-hosting the Oscars, cause I haven't seen him in anything lately.

DamianLovesTV : This just in from the future: the 2011 Academy Awards draw lowest ratings since before films existed. 

Follow @GoodTVeets

Comcast Dispute

An intriguing (and possibly infuriating, depending on your perspective) development in the net neutrality issue: a middle-man content delivery company, Level 3, is claiming that Comcast has demanded an additional fee for transmitting internet video, including Netflix streaming content. More from the WSJ, Bloomberg, and Will Richmond. George Ou questions Level 3's motives and background. Comcast says the complaints have no merit. If you're not sure what's going on, a Public Knowledge video tries to explain the technological relationships in question here(and here's a text version with the same goal).

Microsoft TV

Greg Sandoval has more on Microsoft's plan to offer a TV subscription service through the Xbox, which John Biggs says could blow up broadcast TV, while Matt Roseff reminds us of Microsoft's past failed endeavors in TV.

HBO Online

HBO and Cinemax shows will now be available online via AT&T's U-Verse service.

Cord Cutting! It's On!

Here's your regularly scheduled article saying cord cutting is happening. I look forward to the "cord cutting is not happening" article that will come along in a few days. Related: charts!

Simpsons & Fox News

Dave Itzkoff gets the story behind The Simpsons' recent mockery of Fox News. Fox News says it isn't bothered by it, and the mockery is apparently over.

BBC Live Plus 7

The BBC is starting its own ratings measurement system to account for viewing within seven days, including via the on-demand iPlayer.

Writing Classic Simpsons

Bill Oakley describes his writers room experiences at The Simpsons.

Kurt Backlash

Aymar Jean Christian identifies a backlash against Glee's Kurt.

Brand Challenge

Tim Goodman looks at what can go wrong when a show (Terriers) doesn't quite match a channel's established brand (FX). But Jaime Weinman questions some of Goodman's points about branding.

Oscar Hosts Named

The next Academy Awards ceremony will be hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway. Linda Holmes says it's a good choice.

Prime-Time Ratings: Sunday

Sunday night's fast nationals: The usual story: football on NBC was big, plus football overrun helped FOX, the lack of it hurt CBS. Broadcast finals. Cable ratings.

Y&R Renewed

The Young and the Restless has received a three-year renewal from CBS.

Nielsen Tribute

Alan Sepinwall digs up some great clips for his Police Squad-themed tribute to Leslie Nielsen, and Zap2It digs out some early TV gems from Nielsen.

Xbox Over-the-Top

Microsoft is apparently working on making the Xbox into an over-the-top TV service. Peter Kafka reacts.

Nielsen CEO Extended

Nielsen's CEO has received a contract extension that includes a signing bonus worthy of a star athlete ($6 million!).

Local Over Syndication

With costs for syndicated programming rising sharply, some local stations feel locally-produced content offers a better choice to fill non-network time.

UK Streaming Site Denied

Just like the networks are going after TV streaming sites like FilmOn in the US, British broadcasters brought suit against a service called TVCatchup, and a judge has refused TVCatchup's request to throw out the case.

Good TVeets

edgarwright : Too many great Leslie Nielsen clips in Police Squad! http://tinyurl.com/yk8qggu http://tinyurl.com/32m9ce5  http://tinyurl.com/4jdct4  R.I.P.

EvanElkins : RIP Leslie Nielsen-star of Police Squad!, the greatest failed cop show genre experiment in US TV history. (sorry, Cop Rock, but it's true).

MattMitovich : RIP Leslie Nielsen. Always irked me that #PoliceSquad was axed because 'people had to pay too much attention' to get jokes. 

Follow @GoodTVeets

Google TV Experiences

Craig Howie and Rich Jaroslovsky discuss their experiences with Google TV.

Prime-Time Ratings: Saturday

Saturday night's fast nationals: College football on ABC won a pretty quiet night.

Hulu Tension

Hulu is experiencing tension with its network partners over ad sales.

Burke Profile

Brian Steinberg introduces us to future NBCU head Steve Burke.

NBC China Deal

NBC has signed a partnership agreement with China's Xinhua News Agency to cooperate on news gathering and production.

Fallon Praise

Robert Lloyd likes what Jimmy Fallon is doing with his show lately.

Good TVeets

TVMcGee : Forget #TheBiggestLoser. I think #TheWalkingDead is the best weight-loss show on TV, in that I can't imagine eating after watching it.

ChelseyLora : FX: channel for masculine shows w/ amusing, strong &/or insane female characters #SAMCRO #Justified #ItsAlwaysSunny #Archer #Terriers #etc

weinmanj : I somehow wound up watching a Caroline in the City episode the other day - Liz Lemon is eerily like Caroline (except Liz is funny). CAROLINE was one of several '90s shows that insanely tried to pretend ridiculously pretty women could easily be undesirable to men. Liz Lemon is sort of a modern version of that, crossed with a bit of Meg Griffin and just insane enough to make it semi-plausible.

Follow @GoodTVeets

Prime-Time Ratings: Friday

Friday night's fast nationals: Reruns and holiday specials bring lackluster numbers, with CBS ahead in overall viewers.

Russian TV Criticized

Guess Saturday is international TV news day: A Russian TV personality delivered a bold attack on the government's influence over broadcast journalism.

MuchMusic Denied

More Canadian TV news: the music video channel MuchMusic requested the opportunity to reduce music video programming and boost lifestyle programming, but the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission regulatory body said no.

Sun TV News Approved

The so-called Fox News North cable news channel in Canada, actually called Sun TV News, has been greenlit for a January 1 launch.

Good TVeets

weinmanj : “The day after Thanksgiving is, in my opinion, one of the busiest shopping days of the year.” - Peggy Hill

realityblurred : Amazon's reality TV on DVD deals leave something to be desired: $7 for Kardashians still seems like too much. ~http://amzn.to/gDvyJP

ehl : On furlough today so please do not tweet anything about TV that might make me think. Thank you.

Follow @GoodTVeets

Sitcom Analysis

Bill Brioux analyzes what distinguished The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Jaime Weinman laments how so many recent sitcoms insist on happy endings, as opposed to "failure comedy."

TV in 10 Years

A variety of Australians predict where television will be in ten years, and we see how close others were ten years ago, like "TV will be less driven by celebrities and more attuned to creating appealing content" (half right?) and "2010 television sets will be flat screens set up like mirrors in as many rooms as you can afford and they will have connections for interactive keyboards on each screen" (not quite there yet).

Ratings Catch-up

I've missed a few ratings days, so here's a round-up of links: Tuesday broadcast finals, Tuesday cable, Wednesday broadcast overnights, Thursday fast nationals, and DWTS' finale was fall's highest-rated entertainment show.

Music Television

Meg James looks at what's on the horizon for MTV, including a return to its music roots.

Comcast-NBCU Objection

Ceclia Kang reports: "Comcast and NBC Universal executives met with senior officials at the Federal Communications Commission this week, urging the agency against conditions to their proposed merger that would require the new company to provide shows and movies to Internet video distributors."

The Networks Online

Wayne Friedman briefly assesses the broadcast networks' efforts on the internet.

Netflix Growth

Tim Arango and David Carr highlight what a competitive force Netflix has become in the entertainment industry.

The Ticker

For Time Magazine's TimeFrames series, James Poniewozik profiles the news ticker.

Friday Fun

Good TVeets

JohnSolbergFX : If you're visiting your crazy relatives for Thanksgiving (the side of the family with a Nielsen box), plz make them watch Terriers tonight.

inessentials : Today I sent an e-mail to user@fxnetworks.com explaining that I am a 31 year-old male and therefore unreasonably powerful. #SaveTerriers … I've written FX to #SaveTerriers but not written my government about new screening procedures. I fear that I am why our country is failing.

TVandDinners : Those previouslies should come with the tagline: #Terriers! It's a heart-stomping good time! #itsagoodpainthough 

Follow @GoodTVeets

Brief Hiatus

I've been knocked out by a flu bug today, so blogging just isn't in the cards. I'll return in full force after Thanksgiving.

DWTS & Democracy

Myles McNutt offers his take on Dancing With the Stars.

Spectrum Plan Starts Next Week

The FCC is preparing its broadcast spectrum repacking, which will start next Tuesday.

TiVo Drops Again

TiVo revenues continue to drop.

Comcast-Tennis Channel Fight

The ball is now in a real court, as Comcast and Tennis Channel haven't been able to settle their channel position dispute.

SVU Showrunner Switches Nets

Neal Baer, who has helmed NBC's Law and Order: SVU for the past eleven years, is jumping to CBS.

TV & Social Media

Viewers are increasingly using social media services to mark when they are watching shows. And David Brennan notes that television can greatly benefit from incorporating social media.

Good TVeets

De_Kosnik : Still watch #Glee b/c I never expected a damn thing from it but singing/dancing. Fast-forwarding through all dialogue is liberating.

danieltwalters : #GLEE SPOILER: Mike Chang's dad is Señor Chang. There's a very heartfelt reunion between the two next episode.

TVMcGee : I'm ready for the Burt/Carole spinoff now, please. Forget that Christian Slater show. Make this happen. #Glee

Follow @GoodTVeets

More LA Lessons

Part Two of Miranda Banks and Jennifer Holt's lessons from their TV Academy Foundation experience.

Experiment for Success

Former BBC controller Jane Root urges TV producers and executives to take creative risks, in the hopes that we'll get more shows like The Office (UK), which she helped bring to the air.

Sitcoms Help LA Production

Location shooting is up in Los Angeles, with successful sitcoms helping to provide a boost.

Conan Evaluation

Tim Goodman assesses Conan two weeks in.

Rise of AMC

Matt Zoller Seitz outlines how AMC has become the HBO of basic cable.

Characters Unite Around Tolerance

USA Network is extending its Characters Unite campaign, which is intended to promote tolerance (and, of course, USA).

Cable Syndication Deals

Ed at Spotted has a chart of cable syndication deals, money per episode.

Prime-Time Ratings: Monday

Monday night's fast nationals: Dancing with stars, sure. Skating with them? Not so much. ABC had most total viewers; CBS most in the 18-49 demo. Chuck hit an all-time low. Final numbers. Cable ratings.

In other ratings news, Sarah Palin's Alaska dropped 40% in its second week, CBS dominated the top of last week's 18-49, and live sports topped last week's cable top 25.

Ratings tweets:
JBFlint : Got any pharmaceuticals to sell? Median age for TLC's Sarah Palin show is 57! That's about 15 years older than their average.
Zap2ItRick : Also: The big "Dancing" numbers at 8 put a hurt on "House" and "Chuck," but "HIMYM" was steady with last week. Such is the power of Hurley.

Reality's Back

Brian Steinberg notes that with numerous scripted failures on the fall schedule, midseason will bring a rise in reality TV.

Show + Web Presence = Ratings?

Liz Shannon Miller wonders if TV shows that have a complementary web presence benefit in the ratings.

Late Night Overview

David Bauder surveys the late night talk scene.

Franken Accuses Comcast

Senator Al Franken has accused Comcast of illegal collaboration in naming NBCU executives before the merger has been approved, but some business experts say the accusation is unfounded.

Charter Considering Cheap Package

Another cable operator, Charter Communications, is considering a cheap package offering like TWC has launched.

Grey's Musical Episode

Grey's Anatomy has a musical episode in its future.

MTV Should Acquire Vevo

So says Mike Henry at Ad Age.

Good TVeets

ITveee : This makes me feel STABBY. RT @LATherocomplex Joss who? Meet the writer of the new 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' film http://lat.ms/ds4w8J

JustinFowler Come on, Internet, there's no way the Buffy reboot could be any worse than season 7.
noelrk : And now Justin will get dead rodents in his mail.

BrianLynch : Feeling pretttttty good about my Whedon-less DOLLHOUSE reboot. 

Now follow @GoodTVeets on Twitter

Online Ad Tolerance

A study conducted by Turner Broadcasting found that people are apparently perfectly happy to watch a lot of ads in online TV.

FilmOn Halted

The major networks have succeeded in getting a court to at least temporarily halt FilmOn.com streams.

Biggest Loser Deal

The Biggest Loser labor dispute has been resolved.

LA Lessons

A pair of media scholars got to experience a Television Academy of Arts & Sciences Foundation Faculty Seminar and now share what they learned, such as, "The bottom line, according to broadcast programming executives: flow and scheduling still matter," and the prime time game show is on its way back.

DirecTV Not Saving Shows Anymore

DirecTV is shifting more to original programming (article behind Variety paywall), so shows won't be able to go the Friday Night Lights or Damages revival route anymore.

Cord Cutting By City

The WSJ has a very cool map of cord cutting (and adding) by media market.

Buffy Reboot

Some random non-Joss Whedon person has a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot script in development. Joss Whedon reacts. James Poniewozik offers his take.

Twitter Interactivity

Here's an article from the future (it's dated January 1, 2011): Ellen McGirt analyzes the meshing of Twitter and TV. In our current time, Ben Crair says Twitter has killed media criticism.

Attention Span Issue

This is more related to digital technology than TV specifically, but TV ties in enough to warrant linkage: Matt Richtel worries that digital technology is destroying youth attention spans, Virginia Heffernan questions that perspective, and Michael Z. Newman tried to give Heffernan more fuel for her argument.

TWC Plan Designed to Fail

Research analyst Richard Greenfield says Time Warner Cable's cheap package plan has to be designed to fail, because nothing about it has any redeeming value.

Prime-Time Ratings: Sunday

Sunday night's fast nationals: NBC dominated the night thanks to football.

In other ratings news, The Daily Show is closing the gap on Conan, and Saturday's SNL did ok. TV By the Numbers isolates the top-rated shows on FX from last week.

Ratings tweets:
TVMoJoe : The American Music Awards got sacked by NFL last night: ABC's awards collapsed in ratings, down 22 percent to lowest-ever [18-49] demo score. ... Wow: ABC plays the Bieber card in spinning ratings, citing AMA's growth in teens and kids 2-11 to mask demo declines.
BigTVFan : Last year the story was Awards shows were higher than ever. So far the CMAs and AMAs are down

Live Sports & Packaging

Will Richmond notes that live sports has upsides and downsides in terms of cord cutting and cable packaging.

ABC-Affiliates Ad Exchange

ABC and its affiliates are exchanging ad spots.

Political Channels, Not News Channels

Andrew Tyndall criticizes the cable news networks for being political channels, not news channels.

State of NBC Daytime

The daytime offerings on NBC's O&Os have improved in the ratings over last year, but those slots will offer fertile ground for new syndication offerings next year.

CBS Plots

Brian Steinberg looks at CBS's successful use of the episodic-serial hybrid narrative to expand the procedural genre.

DWTS Implications

With the finale coming this week, James Poniewozik lays out the Dancing With the Stars and Bristol Palin scene. Linda Holmes dubs it a non-scandal. John Doyle considers the political angle.

Traditional Viewing Still Strong

Viacom's CEO and other broadcasters insist that traditional TV viewing, i.e. sitting on your couch in front of the TV set at scheduled times, is as strong as ever.

Comcast Latest

Bill Carter analyzes what the new Comcast-appointed execs mean for NBC's future, and media buyers approve of the new exec line-up, while Brian Stelter says the future marriage of Comcast-NBCU still isn't a done deal, as regulators have been annoyed by Comcast's presumption that it is.

New Netflix Plan

Netflix has announced its long-rumored streaming-only plan. Greg Sandoval investigates how Netflix acquires content.

Viacom Blocking Google

Add Viacom to the list of TV companies not interested in playing nice with Google TV, while Google keeps insisting it doesn't intend for Google TV to replace cable and satellite services, it just wants to complement them.

Good TVeets

TVandDinners : Just turned on the #AMAs. I now know far more about Rhianna's lady business than necessary. #pants #sheshouldwearsome

TVMcGee : This unholy #NKTOBSB alliance is giving Ryan Murphy far too many bad ideas for it to be legal. #Glee #AMAs #halp

DamianLovesTV : dear sesame street, Katy Perry and her breasts are near children again! #AMAs 

Now follow @GoodTveets

Future for Fringe on Friday

Robert Seidman considers what Fridays will mean for Fringe.

Showrunners & Fandom

Ryan McGee responds to Damon Lindelof's recent essay about fandom and the Twitter experiences of showrunners like Dan Harmon with thoughts about the relationship between showrunners and fandom.

Prime-Time Ratings: Saturday

Saturday night's fast nationals: Cops and America's Most Wanted keep chugging along for Fox, while Notre Dame-Army did nothing for NBC.

Playwrights on TV

Jason Zinoman highlights how playwrights are increasingly bouncing between the stage and TV.

QVC on TV and Online

QVC is now generating more revenue from its online services than its TV channel.

TV Goes After Taliban

Backed by U.S. money, a TV action-drama in Afghanistan depicts an Afghan police unit pursuing the Taliban. Laura King also covers the show.

Reality TV's Allure

Elizabeth Day explores theories about why viewers like reality TV so much.

3D Adoption Coming

TV execs seem pretty convinced that we'll go nutty for 3DTV any year now.

Cord Connecting

A research study says that cable subscriptions are up among African-Americans.

iCarly Review

Another good entry in the AV Club's series on shows that are popular with a mass audience but rarely get critical attention: iCarly.

Good TVeets

ThisJessicaRae : Eventually on #GossipGirl they'll run out of pairings and do Dan/Jenny by accident.

TheOnion : Pop Culture Expert Surprisingly Not Ashamed Of Self ~http://onion.com/bXK9tP

urthstripe : Horn Rimmed Glasses from Heroes guested on this week's Office and now I'm having violent, horrific flashbacks. Yeah, I watched every single episode of Heroes. You don't know, man, you weren't there. 

Now follow @GoodTVeets