Welcome to CraveOnline's Idiot Box Updates, where we run down all the latest TV news and separate the facts from the rumors and nonsense on and about the small screen.
Here's a list of the top 20 prime-time shows by viewership numbers, compiled by Nielsen Media Research for April 27- May 3:
1. "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 23.26 million viewers.
2. "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 22.37 million viewers.
3. "Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 19.29 million viewers.
4. "The Mentalist," CBS, 17.11 million viewers.
5. "NCIS," CBS, 16.70 million viewers.
6. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 15.54 million viewers.
7. "Dancing With the Stars Results," ABC, 14.72 million viewers.
8. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 14.16 million viewers.
9. "Grey's Anatomy" (Thursday, 9 p.m.), ABC, 14.12 million viewers.
10. "Criminal Minds," CBS, 13.61 million viewers.
11. "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 13.48 million viewers.
12. "CSI: New York," CBS, 12.50 million viewers.
13. "Cold Case," CBS, 12.46 million viewers.
14. "60 Minutes," CBS, 12.31 million viewers.
15. "Without a Trace," CBS, 12.21 million viewers.
16. "CSI: Miami," CBS, 12.12 million viewers.
17. "Survivor: Tocantins," CBS, 11.73 million viewers.
18. "House," Fox, 11.69 million viewers.
19. "Rules Of Engagement," CBS, 11.30 million viewers.
20. "Amazing Race 14," CBS, 10.84 million viewers.
Adult Swim is looking to build on the success highest-rated show, "Robot Chicken," with "Titan Maximum," a new comedy series from the creative team behind "Robot" that shares more than a little with its predecessor: the show is a stop-motion animation series about robots.
"Titan," will launch in September with an initial order of nine episodes. It was created by "Robot" co-head writer/producer Tom Root and co-creator/executive producer Matthew Senreich, and "Chicken" co-creator/executive producer Seth Green will voice the show's villain and executive produce with Root and Senreich.
The voice cast of the series also includes "Robot" players Breckin Meyer, Rachael Leigh Cook, Dan Milano and Eden Espinosa. Set 100 years in the future, when Saturn's moon Titan is defended by an elite squadron of young, ballsy pilots whose spaceships combine to form the giant robot Titan Maximum. Because of budget cuts, the team has been disbanded but must hastily reassemble when a former team member turns rogue and tries to conquer the solar system.
With "Titan," the creators pay homage to 1980s Japanese animated cartoons. "There were always teams of extraordinary young people with the fate of the universe in their hands," Root said. "In reality, that would end terribly. The last thing you want when giant monsters attack is a bunch of teenagers in charge of defending you. 'Titan Maximum' is about what would really happen if a team of idiot kids was in charge of a six-story-tall robot." Unlike "Robot Chicken," which is a sketch series, "Titan" has a permanent set of characters and continuous story lines.
Fox has renewed J.J. Abrams' thriller "Fringe" for a full 22-episode second season!
"Fringe" proved to be a notable addition to our schedule all season, and it really has fans buzzing as it builds to a fantastic season finale," said Kevin Reilly, president of entertainment at Fox. "J.J. and the whole Bad Robot team have been phenomenal partners, and we look forward to years of making great television with them."
Series co-creator and executive producer Abrams said that "Fringe" "continues to gain momentum, creatively and with audiences. Helped by a strong lead-in from "House" in the fall and "American Idol" during the spring, "Fringe" is the No. 1 rated new series among the adult demographic.
Fox is rewarding "The Cleveland Show" with a second season - and the first hasn't even begun yet! The spinoff from the network's hit animated series "Family Guy" is scheduled to premiere next fall,
but now Fox says its boosting the initial 22-episode order by another 13 half-hours, which would carry the show into the 2010-11 season. From "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, "The Cleveland Show" focuses on Cleveland Brown, a popular character from the "Family Guy" gang.
Speaking of that snarky animated family, "Family Guy"'s Stewie in going to be on Bones. Yes, it's true. May 7. Tonight.
This season's weirdest crossover between two shows: "Family Guy"'s Stewie is making an appearance on "Bones". Do you care? It's... just... cool, I guess. But "Bones" still sucks.
Nicktoons network isn't idly watching the huge numbers for Wolverine come rolling through the box office. They just ordered another 26 episodes of "Wolverine and the X-Men" from Marvel Animation, bringing the show's order to 52 half-hour episodes. The new animated series follows Wolverine as he reunites the X-Men and embarks on new adventures. It was the network's highest-rated original series premiere ever with kids when it opened January 23.
Led by Marvel Animation's "Wolverine" and "Iron Man: Armored Adventures," Nicktoons bills itself as the fastest-growing kids' network, posting recent double-digit ratings gains compared with last year. New episodes of "Wolverine" will begin on May 22.
Kiefer Sutherland either A) thinks he really is Jack Bauer, B) is a raging alcoholic or C) both. The "24" star will face a minor assault charge after an incident earlier this week in which he reportedly headbutted another man in Brooke Shields' defense.
The New York Daily News said Sutherland, who is already serving five years probation for an unrelated drunken driving charge in Los Angeles, would surrender to New York police as early as Thursday and face a misdemeanor assault charge following the reported attack on fashion designer Jack McCollough. A spokeswoman for the New York Police Department told Reuters the star of hit TV show "24" had not been arrested or charged, but that it was likely he would be charged with a minor assault. She had no further information.
According to media reports, McCollough says that at a Monday night party after an annual costume gala held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sutherland Reports say McCollough had bumped into actress Brooke Shields at the party, but did not apologize. So, Sutherland approached him - and then headbutted him, causing the fashion designer to bleed.
Even the smallest criminal charge could have harsh consequences for the 42-year-old actor, who plays the national torture liaison between the US government and the entertainment world aka special agent Jack Bauer on the TV thriller "24."
He was arrested in 2007 for drunken driving in Los Angeles and served 48 days in a Southern California jail. At the time of his arrest, Sutherland was on probation for a previous drunken driving violation.
Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office, said Los Angeles officials will contact New York detectives to learn details of their investigation and decide if Sutherland violated his probation.
ABC says a new online "music lounge" will offer a full menu of songs and artists featured on its shows. The virtual ABC Music Lounge is aimed at making the most of the tunes included on "Grey's Anatomy," "Desperate Housewives" and other programs, the network said Thursday. The site offers a streaming radio station playing 200-plus artists whose songs have been heard on ABC, site links for featured artists and a link for online song purchases. Music videos, exclusive performance footage and interviews with artists and show producers are also available.
"This is way to bring all the music of ABC into one place, to allow people to find and enjoy it," said Michael Benson, ABC executive vice president for marketing.
Artists showcased on the new site include Adele, the Fray, Lenka, Anya Marina, Joshua Radin and Rilo Kiley.
ABC Music Lounge's scheduled Thursday debut was to coincide with 100th episode of "Grey's Anatomy." To mark the occasion, the site offered a retrospective of the music featured throughout the show's run.
"There's been so much talk about CD sales declining. That doesn't mean the use of music and demand for music is declining," said Peter DiCecco, ABC senior vice president of business and legal affairs for music. "People always want a venue to find music. TV is that venue."
"Entourage," the HBO series about a young actor's Hollywood posse, will make its off-network debut in January on Spike TV, which has picked up rights to all 78 produced episodes, the upcoming sixth season and future seasons of the show for an all-cash license fee of about $600,000 an episode, sources said.
The comedy about young actor Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) and his friends will launch on Spike at the beginning of 2010, after the show's sixth season wraps on HBO. The deal marks Spike's second acquisition of an HBO program in the past month. It picked up the Emmy-winning miniseries "Band of Brothers" for a premiere in the third quarter. HBO took "Entourage," "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and a second cycle of "Sex and the City" on the syndicated marketplace in March, with "Entourage" garnering interest from Spike and E! Entertainment.
In its first off-network series deal, HBO sold "Sex" to TBS in 2003.
The CW network is cutting its programing to five nights a week, confirming on Monday that it will return Sunday nights to its affiliated local stations to program as they choose. The last time the CW aired an original program on Sunday night was a year and a half ago, with the short-lived fall 2007 drama "Life Is Wild." And I've never heard of that nonsense, so it clearly didn't do well.
The move marks the first time a major broadcast network is dropping a whole night of programing. It's one of the strongest indications to date of the gloomy future of the broadcast model in the face of rising costs, audience erosion and increased competition from cable, a future made only bleaker by the severe economic downturn.
As recently as March, CW Entertainment president Dawn Ostroff denied the possibility of the network giving Sunday back to the affiliates, noting that she aimed to continue airing movies on the night.
But that wasn't sitting well with the affiliates, who can buy the same movies themselves and sell all 16 minutes an hour of advertising inventory instead of the 3.5 minutes an hour they get from the network. Behind the scenes, the major CW affiliate groups were actively lobbying to gain control of Sunday night.
Paula Abdul is a complete nutjob wacko with zero discernible talent, but until now she's claimed to never have been intoxicated in her life. However, miss "Opposites Attract" has told a magazine that she overcame a 12-year addiction to painkillers last year. Wha huh?
The "American Idol" judge told Ladies Home Journal in its June issue that she checked into a resort and spa in Carlsbad, Calif., where she weaned herself off her medications last Thanksgiving.
Abdul says she didn't like existing the way she had been, suffering for years from chronic pain caused by an unusual series of accidents.
Abdul's spokesman, Jeff Ballard, says Abdul "has moved forward in her life." Clearly. Because she seems much more together now. Pfft.
The guys over at ScreenRant put together a pretty comprehensive list of season finales for everything your TV has to offer in the next month or so. Check it out.
