Idiot Box Update: December 10
The Mentalist goes to #1, Leno goes prime-time, and Steve-O does DWTS?
Here's a list of the top 20 prime-time shows by viewership numbers, compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Dec. 1-7:
1. "The Mentalist," CBS, 18.74 million viewers.
2. "NCIS," CBS, 18.52 million viewers.
3. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 17.48 million viewers.
4. "The OT," Fox, 16.22 million viewers.
5. "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 16.09 million viewers.
6. "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 15.28 million viewers.
7. "60 Minutes," CBS, 13.79 million viewers.
8. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 13.63 million viewers.
9. NFL Football: Washington at Baltimore, NBC, 13.29 million viewers.
10. "Barbara Walters Presents the 10 Most Fascinating People of '08," ABC, 13.19 million viewers.
11. "Survivor: Gabon," CBS, 12.73 million viewers.
12. "House," Fox, 12.52 million viewers.
13. "Without a Trace," CBS, 12.32 million viewers.
14. "Hallmark Hall Of Fame: Front of the Class," CBS, 11.88 million viewers.
15. "Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer," CBS, 11.82 million viewers.
16. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," ABC, 11.41 million viewers.
17. "Law and Order," NBC, 11.31 million viewers.
18. "CSI: Miami," CBS, 11.16 million viewers.
19. "Shrek The Halls," ABC, 11.14 million viewers.
20. "Eleventh Hour," CBS, 10.86 million viewers.
The new season of Dancing With the Stars is headed our way in March, and producers are scrambling to draw new audiences to the flashy, boring-ass show. Their last brainstorming session somehow ended with Jackass stuntman Stephen "Steve-O" Glover as a possible contestant.
DWTS dancing pro Karina Smirnoff' doubts Steve-O really wants to cut the rug in a serious way, but assumes it will be her that he's paired up with, should he actually appear on the show. "Based on the history of the partners I have gotten, usually I get people who have very strong personalities," Smirnoff said.
Smirnoff's previous DWTS partners have included Miley Cyrus' dad, Billy Ray, R&B singer Mario and then-boyfriend Mario Lopez, among others. But with Steve-O, "I would not know where to start with him," she said.
If you were among the millions who rejoiced at the announcement that late-night talk show host Jay Leno is being replaced by Conan O'Brien in 2009, rejoice no more. Sure, O'Brien's gearing up to take over Leno's 11:30 time slot, but NBC's not letting their cash cow go without a fight. Instead of mercifully disappearing from our screens, Leno will be moved up to the 10 p.m. time period each weeknight beginning next fall.
The move is reflective of NBC's strong-arm cost-cutting during these cash-strapped times, and a sign that the network's finally feeling a little bit of the sting from the fact that so many of its new shows failed hard this fall.
If you think about it, the move is a no-brainer, really. Producing one talk show that runs five nights a week is a hell of a lot cheaper than producing five different shows to fill that time slot. This means that NBC could have as little as only 10 hours of programming to schedule each weeknight. Sounds like a money-saver to me.
Leno's new show is set to air sometime next fall. Conan O'Brien is slated to start his run as host of "The Tonight Show" in June.
Bear Grylls, the enigmatic, maggots-and-eyeballs-eating host of Discovery Channel's "Man vs. Wild," was injured Friday night while on an expedition in Antarctica. The trip had nothing to do with his show, however; he was taking part in an expedition for Ethanol Ventures to promote the potential of alternative energies like bioethanol, Discovery said in a statement. Grylls is currently getting medical attention in the U.K.
Bear rose to worldwide fame with "Man vs. Wild," which finds him parachuting into a different uninhabited territory in each episode, without a map or any proper equipment, after which he spends several days trying to "survive" as he finds his way back to civilization.
I put the word "survive" in quotations because, unlike "Survivorman"'s Les Stroud, Grylls' shows of survivalism are exactly that - just for show. He's been known to check into motels when it appears he's sleeping under the stars in the hollowed, maggoty husks of dead animals he finds, and so on.
Speaking of the NBC shuffle, Universal chief Jeff Zucker has announced that the network is keeping "all options" open in their effort to save money in these crushing financial times. That includes potentially cutting of prime-time hours, and even possibly the dropping of an entire broadcast night.
NBC is currently ranked fourth in total viewership, and is feeling the crunch of a shifting media trend as well as economic crises. Viewers have TiVo as an option now, advertisers have much less to spend, and nobody's watching TV on the weekends anymore, it seems.
Zucker asked during the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference Monday, "Can we continue to broadcast 22 hours in primetime? Three of our competitors don't. Can we continue to broadcast seven days a week? One of our competitors doesn't."
Californication, the sex-laden comedy starring David Duchovny, will be back for a third season. Showtime has picked up the show for 13 new episodes, which are set to debut in late 2009.
"This unapologetic show, about a group of characters led by the inimitable David Duchovny, has quickly established itself as one of our signature comedy series," said Showtime president of Entertainment Robert Greenblatt. "Beneath its veneer of debauchery, however, is a complex take on love and adult relationships that surprisingly turns poetic and romantic just when you least expect it. "
CBS has ordered 5 additional episodes of "Eleventh Hour," making for a total 18 episode count for the 1st season run.
You may have also noticed that "Jericho" is back on the CW on Sunday nights. The show that just won't die is the best the CW can come up with to battle the Sunday night animation-fest each week.
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ABC has greenlit a pilot for the upcoming drama "Fables," which draws from the DC Comics comic book of the same name for its source material.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Six Degrees" creators Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner have been signed to write the script for the hour-long drama's premiere episode.
Fables chronicles characters from various fairy tales and folklore living day-to-day on the fringes of society in New York. Among the characters confirmed to make an appearance on the show are The Big Bad Wolf (who has to shave everyday to control his facial hair), Snow White, and Prince Charming. The Wolf works as a sheriff, and is ironically investigating the death of Rose Red, who is, of course, Snow White's sister.
"Their lives become interconnected in a very big way," Zicherman told The Hollywood Reporter. "They share a secret and a bond." However, "they are just like real people in the real world who live and breathe and look just like you and me," added Metzner.
"Grey's Anatomy" creator Shonda Rhimes reportedly just fine with the news that actor T.R. Knight, who plays Dr. George O'Malley, is negotiating a deal to get out of his contract and leave the show. I'd say more, but this show has been such a behind the scenes trainwreck it's a miracle it's not cancelled already, what with Heigl's retarded diva behavior, the homophobic incident last year with Knight and Washington, and most recently, the unceremonious axing of a lesbian character on the show.
The world caught a tiny glimpse of Jimmy Fallon's upcoming gig as late-night host Monday night, when his first video blog went up on nbc.com at 12:35 a.m. Quick, all over the place and just 96 seconds long, the video was mostly just an anticipatory prologue, a rapid-fire "hey how are ya, here's what's up" from SNL's former Weekend Update host. Fallon appeared as a slightly evolved version of the familiar stained-shirt, tousled-hair semi-slacker we remember him from on Saturday nights. He hasn't gotten fat and boring just yet (a la Sandler) - but a little growing up seems to have done him some good.
Monday's was the first in a series of 5-minute videos that will be posted daily on latenightwithjimmyfallon.com - essentially practice shorts for March 2009, when "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" becomes "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" - the host of the former, of course, moving into Jay Leno's slot (and hometown) when he goes prime-time, or whatever the hell they end up doing with him.
After Fallon gave us the quick tour of his NBC office, he officially announced his worst-kept-secret house band: The Roots.
Stay tuned to latenightwithjimmyfallon.com for more video blog updates.
