Saturday, April 30, 2011
L&O: CI
Law & Order: Criminal Intent is ending soon (maybe); Charlotte Howell proposes that it's been an outlier in the L&O franchise.
Prime-Time Ratings: Friday
Fast nationals: A decent night for CBS, while Fringe dropped in overall viewers but was steady in the demo. Final ratings. Cable ratings.
Good Wife's Women
Jan Hoffman discusses the female characters in The Good Wife and its female co-showrunner, Michelle King.
Kids' TV & Smart TV
Todd VanDerWerff assess the Hub show My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, and Dan Kois uses his 6-year-old daughter's Phineas and Ferb fandom to lead into a discussion of viewing sophisticated shows.
NBCU Synergy
The WSJ covers Comcast's attempts to exploit synergy with NBCU properties. (Note: article is behind a paywall)
Friday, April 29, 2011
Bravo Best at Product Placement
According to Nielsen, Bravo does product placement better than any channel.
Animation Postponed
Fox is postponing til next year an animation crossover event planned for Sunday because the hurricane-themed episodes might be deemed inappropriate given the recent tornado disasters.
Female Writers
Pamela Ribon writes of her frustration as a female comedy writer, such as being told she should be grateful that she gets writing jobs because writers' rooms have to have one woman in there. Community's Dan Harmon offers thoughts on women comedy writers.
Social Rankings
A firm called SocialGuide has created a ranking of shows based on social media buzz.
Prime-Time Ratings: Thursday
Fast nationals: On the first night of May sweeps, Idol won as usual, Steve Carell's exit was a good boost for The Office, a lot of other shows had drops. Final ratings. Cable ratings.
Local Tornado Coverage
Brian Stelter looks at how live local TV covered the devastating weather in the south this week. And Price Coleman covers how stations used multi-platform services to get coverage out.
HBO Expanding Access
HBO will make (or already has made) its programming available on mobile devices with its HBO Go app for phones and tablets. Will Richmond sees this as a necessary but insufficient step.
Royal Wedding Coverage
Matt Zoller Seitz reviews the mind-numbing display that was American coverage of the Royal Wedding, as does James Poniewozik. And Linda Holmes has a report from the scene. Somewhat more cheeky coverage from TWoP. As far as British TV's coverage, some are saying ITV outdid the BBC.
This could end up as one of the most-watched events in TV history.
This could end up as one of the most-watched events in TV history.
British Reality
American Drew Grant turned on a TV in Britain and observed some interesting reality TV (check out the comments section for some British responses).
Local TV Up
Local TV stations enjoyed increased revenue in 2010 thanks especially to political advertising and rebounding national advertisers.
Good TVeets
Snark, snark, snark, snark, snark, snark, oh that's a pretty dress, snark. #myfeedthismorning
Feeling slightly awkward about Princess Beatrice's hat, to be honest.
4 a.m. Matt Lauer says "fairy tale" within seconds of signing on. It's going to be a long day.
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Thursday, April 28, 2011
More Apps to Come
TWC's CEO says the iPad app is only the beginning of the cable operator's plans to enable live TV streaming.
Time Warner & Netflix
Time Warner CEo Jeff Bewkes insists, rather suddenly, that he's a big fan of Netflix's TV subscription service.
2.5 Men to Return?
Rumor is that Two and a Half Men will be back in the fall sans Charlie Sheen. Charlie Sheen has, um, responded.
Exec Moves
Mark Pedowitz has moved in as president of The CW, while VP Scott Landsman is moving out at Comedy Central.
Killing the Same
Daniel Walters argues that despite its AMC cred, The Killing isn't that different from conventional, gruesome network procedurals.
Real World Issue
Andy Dehnart reports on some behind-the-scenes reality at The Real World, a cast member's gay porn past, and how the show is dealing with it.
Discovery Profits
Discovery Communications is doing quite well, and will pump some of those profits into OWN.
Weather Channel Forecast
Weather Channel's CEO sees sunny skies ahead (sorry; I am fundamentally incapable of avoiding a pun in this situation).
MIT7 Agenda
You can check out the agenda for the upcoming Media in Transition conference, which includes brief summaries of each paper.
Rosenthal Interview
Alan Sepinwall interviews Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal about his documentary on the Russian adaptation of Raymond.
Media & Birtherism
Brian Stelter outlines how news media coverage helped to fan the flames of birtherism to this point.
Prime-Time Ratings: Wednesday
Fast nationals: Idol dominant but down from last week; Survivor hit a demo low. Final ratings. Cable ratings.
TV Adapts
Tech company CEO Ron Frankel outlines the ways that traditional TV needs to adapt to ongoing and oncoming changes.
BBC Worldwide Changes
BBC Worldwide, the BBC's international commercial arm, is undergoing strategy changes.
BSkyB Growth
BSkyB has outperformed analyst expectations recently, meaning Rupert Murdoch may have to sweeten his takeover offer.
Geordie Shore
MTV UK has announced the cast of its British version of Jersey Shore called Geordie Shore, which starts airing in a month and will provide competition for The Only Way is Essex, which is sort of Britain's version of The Hills.
Meanwhile, Jersey Shore has helped fuel Viacom profits.
Meanwhile, Jersey Shore has helped fuel Viacom profits.
Spectrum Plan Illegal
A collection of station owner groups argues that the FCC's plan to reclaim spectrum space is unnecessary and illegal. And CBS says it's keeping its space, though it doesn't oppose the general idea of the FCC's plans.
Upfront Windfall
John Consoli says the networks are expecting the ad money to flow generously at this year's upfronts.
TV Dramas
Todd VanDerWerff takes us back to the world of 1980s drama with an excellent overview. Also among the AV Club offerings is Noel Murray's "Very Special Episode" analysis of an early 1960s detective drama called Checkmate.
Good TVeets
There are Civil War re-enactments that are less staged than 'Real Housewives.'
Real World fans Googling Dustin Zito's gay sex have taken down reality blurred. Porn is still the Internet's lifeblood.
This calls Trump's judgment into question. The Supreme Court should reopen the Gary Busey firing.
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Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Soap Items
Ed Martin blames creative bankruptcy on the part of the networks for soap cancellations, while ABC is being sued by the heirs of General Hospital's creators for revenue owed.
British TV Crime
BBC1 chief Danny Cohen believes there's too much crime on TV, plus too many male detectives.
Favorite Channels
A media research firm surveyed what viewers' favorite cable channels are; the winners (Discovery, History & Food Network) don't match up with the highest Nielsen-rated channels.
American Family Online
All episodes of An American Family can now be found online, along with two follow-up extras.
Comcast Network VOD
Comcast will now offer current prime-time programming from all four major networks via video-on-demand.
Prime-Time Ratings: Tuesday
Fast nationals: The Voice came out of the gate strong, while Glee dropped. Final ratings. Cable ratings.
In other ratings news, the NBA playoffs have been doing well.
In other ratings news, the NBA playoffs have been doing well.
Obama & Trump
For the TV media perspective on the Obama birth certificate release and Donald Trump's (pathetic) role, see James Poniewozik and Eric Deggans.
3D Scam
Jason Hiner argues that 3D TV and movies are a misguided attempt to scam viewers out of money.
Good TVeets
Why don't Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton have charm bracelets made of Emmys? #fnl
If you'd told me someday i'd watch Fox in primetime and a gay kid would sing a show tune, i'd have said, yeah, and there's a black president
If I could be allowed a food metaphor, HBO's Sunday lineup of Game of Thrones & Treme is like a supermarket sheet cake followed by raw kale.
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Tuesday, April 26, 2011
CW Renewals
No surprises among The CW's announced renewals today; we await news on the bubble shows like Nikita.
Supernatural Fandom
Cory Barker offers up a conference paper on Supernatural, fandom and anti-fandom.
NAB Says No Crisis
The NAB doesn't buy that there's a shortage of spectrum space dictating the need for repurposing it for mobile broadband use.
More Tyler for TBS
TBS has ordered a third Tyler Perry-produced show, this one a single-cam comedy-drama called For Better or Worse.
Couric Officially Out
Katie Couric confirmed exclusively to People Magazine (?!) that she's leaving CBS Evening News. Bill Carter and James Poniewozik follow with thoughts.
Prime-Time Ratings: Monday
Fast nationals: ABC had a pretty good time of it against mostly repeats. Final ratings. Cable ratings.
International Key for Soaps
Sara Bibel proposes that if Disney had put more effort into selling All My Children and One Life to Live internationally, they might not be expiring soon.
Multi-Platform Efforts
ESPN, Weather Channel, and Turner Sports receive the highest marks for multi-platform extension efforts.
Online Investment
Travel Channel has invested in the travel site Oyster.com, which Courtney Boyd Myers sees as a shrewd move.
Harmon on Reddit
Community creator Dan Harmon took questions on Reddit and gave some great answers about writing and his show.
BAFTA Awards
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts Television Awards nominations are out, and standouts include the drama Misfits and Doctor Who's Matt Smith (who becomes the first Doctor to be nominated). Listed separately are the craft nominations.
Good TVeets
Near as I can figure, The Voice is just like Idol, except the contestants sing directly into the judges' asses.
I can't make sense of Game of Thrones but basically decent textiles are hard to make and then everyone got puppies.
Jack Donaghy/Ron Swanson is the brother Ron Swanson/Jack Donaghy never talks about.
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Monday, April 25, 2011
Charter Selling LA
Continuing its reorganization, Charter Communications is putting up for sale its Los Angeles region cable systems, with Time Warner Cable pinpointed as the most logical buyer.
Maddow Profile
The Guardian profiles MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and her anchor image. Update: Maddow now clarifies a few of the comments she made about closeted gays in the news business.
Global Subs Up
While cord cutting is nipping at subscriber numbers in the US, globally pay TV subscriptions have risen.
Inside The Stream
Jared Keller looks at Al Jazeera's social media-focused online news show The Stream.
Netflix News
Netflix has just released its latest earnings statement and now touts more subscribers than any other video service in North America, passing Comcast (though Robert Seidman thinks that's a flawed comparison). That makes it seem quite a challenge for Dish to potentially catch up as a competitor with its Blockbuster purchase. Netflix insists its about TV reruns, not cable competition.
New In Media Res
Theme: Globalization and Japanese Popular Culture
- Monday April 25, 2011 – Ian Peters (Georgia State University) presents: "Genki Dama Saves the World": Japanese Popular Culture, Globalization, and Relief Efforts
- Tuesday April 26, 2011 – Jake Tarbox (Arashi Productions) presents: The Death of Manga?
- Wednesday April 27, 2011 – Alex Leavitt (University of Southern California) presents: The Global Cult(ure) of Hatsune Miku
- Thursday April 28, 2011 – Kinko Ito (University of Arkansas at Little Rock) presents: Love and Sexual Fantasies of Adult Women in Japanese Ladies’ Comics
- Friday April 29, 2011 – Laura Imaoka (University of California, Irvine) presents: The Ambassadors of Cute: Helping or Hurting Japan’s Global Image?
BBC Risks
The incoming head of the BBC Trust insists that the BBC needs to take more risks, and the head of Editorial Policy says he will dial down compliance demands to encourage more risk-taking.
Upfronts Optimism
The upfronts are expected to bring good news for TV ad time (note: WSJ article behind paywall), and Steve McClellan reports that entertainment cable networks are in an especially good position.
Royal Coverage
The networks are turning to on-air talent to help them stand out amidst a ton of royal wedding coverage all using the same video feed, and Simon Reynolds explores what image of Britain some Americans have thanks to TV and film imports.
DVR Ratings
Bill Carter reports that networks are paying greater attention to DVR ratings when weighing cancellations and renewals (see: Fringe), even over some advertiser objections.
Good TVeets
I feel wrong watching #ThKilling over #CelebrityApprentice. and then I feel wrong for feeling that. #TVshamespiral
Tonight on AMC's "Who Killed Dat Girl?": Lady Sleepsalot and City Councilman Raspy Squarejaw grieflirt in the cereal aisle!
#thekilling #spoileralert it was Colonel Mustard in the library with the gun.
Follow @GoodTVeets
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Prime-Time Ratings: Saturday
Overnights: Moses dominated the night.
In UK ratings news, early results indicate Doctor Who's premiere was solid but down from last year's premiere. Ratings for the BBC America airing will arrive in a day or two.
In UK ratings news, early results indicate Doctor Who's premiere was solid but down from last year's premiere. Ratings for the BBC America airing will arrive in a day or two.
Belsat TV
The media in Belarus are tightly controlled by the government, so it's left to Belsat TV in Poland, which sends its satellite signal into Belarus, to provide independent coverage of the country's news.
Good TVeets
Sometimes I wish I was an at-risk teenager just so Coach and Tami Taylor could inspire me.
Moses: From everlasting to everlasting. Translation: God, this movie is long. #tencommandments
I'm pretty sure Steven Moffat has given me more nightmares in my adult life than I ever had as a kid. #DoctorWho
Follow @GoodTVeets
Saturday, April 23, 2011
OVD Category
The FCC will now count online video distributors in their own category -- as OVDs -- when analyzing viewership trends. The other two categories are broadcast TV stations and MVPDs (or multichannel video programming distributors).
Blue Bloods Turmoil
Deadline reports that the creators of CBS's Blue Bloods have left the show due to creative differences with the network over how heavily procedural (versus character-based) the show should be.
Luck Troubles
Creative differences among big-name producers David Milch and Michael Mann are causing problems for HBO's Luck.
Community's Community
Ryan McGee, who has decided to stop watching Community, writes of the gruff he's gotten from Community fans for this decision and questions why some seem to feel threatened by other viewers' and critics' opinions and experiences of shows.
Network Promotion
Steve Sternberg argues that fewer network shows would fail if they were advertised on the other networks.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Cord Cutting
Yet another cord cutting study says it's no big thing, but a digital antenna retailer says it expects sales to double this year. And NewTeeVee has declared Tuesday to be Cord Cutters Day.
McCourt & Fox
You probably saw headlines that MLB has taken over the Dodgers; this follows owner Frank McCourt making a TV deal with Fox, as well as a personal loan deal, which may not hold up. Update: Joe Flint questions Fox's judgment in making the loan.
Prime-Time Ratings: Thursday
Broadcast finals: After Fox, NBC did best in the key demo, CBS in total viewers. Also, The Paul Reiser Show did miserably and has already been cancelled. Cable ratings.
New Flow Issue
- "'Let's Get Stinko': Melodrama and the Mundane in Todd Haynes's Mildred Pierce" by Lisa Coulthard: An exploration of melodrama and the mundane in Mildred Pierce.
- "Lines in the Sand: Media Studies and the Neoliberal Academy" by Hollis Griffin: A critique of the neoliberal academy's influence on media scholarship.
- "Undateable: Some Reflections on Online Dating and the Perversion of Time" by Lucas Hilderbrand: An examination how online dating alters traditional notions of romantic temporality.
- "The Hills, Jersey Shore, and the Aesthetics of Class" by Amanda Ann Klein: A considertion how aesthetics construct a performance of class and ethnicity as being tied to specific notions of taste and cultural capital.
- "An Eye for an Eye: Remakes and Repression" by Janani Subramanian: An examination of stylistic distinctions in film remakes, noting the cultural, narrative and stylistic contrasts between contexts of production.
Hoover Impact
A Wharton post considers the possible impact of Hoover's soap-defending boycott of ABC.
Black News Coverage
A group of Pittsburgh local TV news directors may sign a pledge to cover the city's black community in more positive ways.
Indecency Request
The White House has asked the Supreme Court to reinstate the FCC's indecency rules and fines, tossed out by a circuit court last year as unconstitutionally vague.
Spectrum Fight
Broadcasters are pitted against wireless companies in the spectrum battle, which the FCC has foreseen coming for more than a decade.