Posted Nov 5th 2009 8:10AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, NCIS, Reality-Free
Michael Ausiello is reporting that
CBS has reduced the number of episodes of Numb3rs for this season from 22 to only 16. What does this mean for the show? Well, it means that sometimes numbers aren't good even on
Numb3rs. It also means that this pretty much guarantees that this will be the last season for the show. Ausiello thinks that CBS will put
Flashpoint in the time slot when the episodes run out.
So, are all of you people who tried to save
Southland going to mount a similar campaign for this show? I didn't think so.
Continue reading CBS adds to NCIS and subtracts from Numb3rs
Posted Nov 4th 2009 1:10AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: NCIS, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S07E06) Any time
Muse Watson returns to
NCIS as Gibbs' mentor Mike Franks, there's usually something special in the works. Tonight's episode was no different.
With Franks involved in what looked like a heinous act of double murder, Jethro was thrust into the middle of what appeared to be an open-and-shut case.
Not so fast, Probie. The Kelly adrift with two dead bodies -- two ex-military men with ties to a private military operation -- was the first and biggest clue to the mystery.
Continue reading Review: NCIS - Outlaws and In-Laws
Posted Nov 3rd 2009 9:33AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, NCIS, Casting, Reality-Free
There's good casting and then there's great casting.
NCIS has had a propensity for great casting when it comes to the father's of the core characters. Michael Nouri has been spot on as Ziva's autocratic Israeli father. Ralph Waite was a surprising, but superb, choice as Jethro's down to earth father.
Now, we've just heard the news that there's another pop coming to
NCIS.
If you haven't read about the famous TV star chosen and you don't want to know about it, please, don't read any further. However, if you can handle casting without feeling like the story lines are spoiled, follow after the jump.
Continue reading NCIS casts Tony's dad... and he's someone you know
Posted Oct 31st 2009 8:17AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, NCIS, Casting, Reality-Free
One of my favorite actresses is joining the cast of America's most watched drama series. That means about 20 million viewers a week will get to see her in action. The actress is
Rena Sofer and she's been cast on NCIS as a hard-nosed, no-nonsense lawyer. The role could be long term or recurring, they're not saying yet.
In fact, they're not giving much away at all. Not even the character's name or when she starts. Thus far, it's hard to see where a lawyer would be needed in the current storylines, so it's likely that there's an arc on the way that will bring her along as a key element.
Rena has a load of primetime experience, having appeared on
Heroes, 24, Couples, Blind Justice, Just Shoot Me... but for me she was never better than when she was on
General Hospital as Lois Cerullo.
Continue reading Rena Sofer cast on NCIS
Posted Oct 30th 2009 2:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, NCIS, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, The Big Bang Theory
The candy manufacturers had better watch out, because as Halloween is approaching, TV shows have been coming up with their own candies, inspired by some of the more colorful, interesting characters. Take a look at this list, and see which are treats and which are tricks. And, listen, tell us what kind of candy your favorite TV characters might inspire!
8. How I Met Your Mother - Robin Scherbatsky's Canadian corn
Oh, Canada. Slutty pumpkins aside, Robin had to convince her American friends that Canada not only celebrates Halloween, but Canadian corn is the best Halloween candy ever. That's right, Canadian corn. It's like candy corn, only it's orange on the top and white on the bottom. It also tastes like pancakes because it isn't made with corn syrup; it's made with maple syrup.
Continue reading Eight TV character-inspired Halloween candies
Posted Oct 30th 2009 10:03AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, NCIS, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
If I tell you right now, before November sweeps, that CBS will renew
NCIS: Los Angeles for a second season, you won't be surprised. The pre-season projections for this show were that it was a guaranteed success. It wasn't only that it was a spinoff from CBS's top-rated drama series,
NCIS. No, it was programming. CBS slotted
NCIS: LA in the hour right after
NCIS. It had a very strong spot, a monster lead in.
Continue reading Five reasons I'm not hooked on NCIS: LA
Posted Oct 22nd 2009 1:04PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, NCIS, Casting, Reality-Free
Circle the date on the calendar. On November 24 -- that's right before Thanksgiving so you might be busy with other stuff -- don't miss
NCIS: Los Angeles because Pauley Perrette's Abby will be guesting. She won't just be on a monitoring talking to the folks in L.A.; she'll be in the City of Angels.
Goth Abby in the City of Angels?
We knew it was coming. But how oxymoronic. All that sunshine is counter to the dark vibe, although if you ask me, Abby is a walking oxymoron. She's a scientist in love with forensics who is covered in tattoos, has a dog collar as a necklace and likes pigtails.
Anyway, back to the crossover. Michael Ausiello's sources have leaked to him at EW.com that Abby's visit to the Left Coast is a major plot point. Abby is not there by choice; she's been abducted.
Continue reading Abby's trip to NCIS Los Angeles is set
Posted Oct 21st 2009 1:32AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: NCIS, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S07E05) Happy Halloween from your friends at
NCIS! There was definitely some creepy stuff going on with this case, and for the first time in weeks, the concentration of the show was strictly on the mystery. No Ziva flashbacks, no Gibbs questions about Mossad, no Vance at all. It was just about how a Marine recently back from Afghanistan wound up dead in his car on the night before Halloween.
Continue reading Review: NCIS - Code of Conduct
Posted Oct 14th 2009 12:28AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, NCIS, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S07E04) First of all, let's get this out of the way quickly. This might be the best episode of the season. It was all character with just enough action to keep those who love gunfire happy. But most importantly, it cemented Ziva's place in the world of
NCIS (the show and the organization). For that reason alone, this was four stars all the way.
Mad Men is the kind of show where allusions are made and words have meanings that are not always readily apparent. It's a great show to watch, sometimes difficult to comprehend.
NCIS doesn't pretend to be poetic. It presents compelling, dynamic situations in which characters face tough decisions and loyalty is tested and burnished over time. And the words matter here, too.
Tonight the word was mishpocheh. It's Yiddish for family. Ziva used it in one scene referring to her mission on the freighter (the dead Marine was not mishpocheh), but it mattered more in a later scene with Gibbs. More on the complexities of the episode after the jump.
Continue reading NCIS: Good Cop, Bad Cop
Posted Oct 12th 2009 2:05PM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: OpEd, NCIS, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
I love military style series. I haven't missed one episode of
JAG or its spin-off
NCIS over the years -- I even watched reruns, including airings dubbed in French! -- and have watched all
NCIS: Los Angeles since it began.
What I like most about
NCIS: LA is that they do undercover missions, taking different personae and using gadgets, and that it stars one of my movie crushes when I was a teen, Chris O'Donnell, as well as the talented Linda Hunt.
Sadly, there are small things that I don't get about the series. These small issues are sort of bugging me and making me not enjoy the show as much as I would like as I keep asking myself these questions every episode.
Do you share the same issues? Do you have answers for me so I can enjoy the show as I want to? The list of things I don't get about
NCIS: LA coming up!
Continue reading Things I don't get about NCIS: Los Angeles
Posted Oct 8th 2009 5:02PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Pickups and Renewals, Ratings, NCIS, Reality-Free
CBS must be pretty happy. They've been dominating the television landscape for the past several years. And their spin-offs policy continues to work very well. In it's premiere week, not only was
NCIS: LA the top-rated new show of the season, but it pushed its parent series all the way to number one on the week, achieving its highest ratings, too.
Those strong ratings have helped boost Julianna Margulies'
The Good Wife to the top as well. As a show of thanks and support,
CBS has ordered full-season pick-ups for both The Good Wife and NCIS: LA. As much as I complain about procedurals dominating the CBS landscape, people want to watch these shows. CBS does them better than anyone.
So that's one more night locked in and secured for CBS to dominate. If America ever does get tired of procedurals, though, they're in big trouble!
Posted Oct 7th 2009 12:27PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Ratings, NCIS, Reality-Free
It's bigger than the NFL. It's drawing more than celebrity dancing. It's the little show that could. In its seventh season on the air,
NCIS is the number one show according to the Nielsen ratings. Over 21 million viewers for the week of September 28 put the drama series on the top of the heap, and there's no sign that it was a fluke. This is the
second week in a row NCIS was the top show.
The question a lot of people are asking, especially those who don't watch or have never even checked out
NCIS is this: how did that happen? It's not normal for a show to get stronger after the five year mark. Some, like a
Seinfeld for example, start slowly and nearly are canceled, but then find an audience and remain secure for the rest of it's run. Before
Seinfeld,
The Dick Van Dyke Show had done the same thing.
Continue reading NCIS is number one again
Posted Oct 7th 2009 1:28AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, NCIS, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S07E03) Is it even possible that an NCIS team led by Jethro Leroy Gibbs would make a mistake that would leave the agency open to an investigation by a blogger with an attitude? Nah. Not our Jethro. Still, that was the premise for the case on tonight's episode.
Hard as it was for Gibbs, DiNozzo and McGee to believe they'd screwed up, when the blogger -- BeltwayBurns.com -- turned up as a corpse, a whole can of worms was upended and a closed case was suddenly wide open. Fortunately, that meant a lot more chances for Ducky to interact with Gibbs, something sorely missed in the first couple of shows.
Continue reading NCIS: The Inside Man
Posted Sep 30th 2009 12:35AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, NCIS, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S07E02) After
last week's action packed NCIS, you might think that tonight's episode would be more sedate. Not really. There was a gruesome murder scene at the open, and plenty of mystery involving a cop who was out for revenge, but all that was a backdrop for something far more interesting. Ziva's return to the fold. More after the jump.
Continue reading NCIS: Reunion
Posted Sep 23rd 2009 6:01PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Ratings, NCIS, Reality-Free
Over the summer, spoilers were leaked that the
NCIS season premiere would begin with a bang. They weren't kidding. Last night's show was a spine-tingling puzzle of an episode that unraveled scene by scene, building suspense to the ultimate -- satisfying -- conclusion. If you were thinking that, like last year, the team was going to be torn asunder after the way things ended with Ziva being returned to Israel, you were pleasantly surprised. More after the jump.
However, there's another story to report. The overnight ratings are in and the viewers have spoken. Twenty million of them!
The return of NCIS zoomed to the top of the ratings with 20 million viewers tuning in. That helped CBS launch
NCIS: Los Angeles, opening with 18 million, and also bolstered
The Good Wife with nearly 14 million. Any way you slice it, those are stellar numbers. The folk at the Black Rock must be dancing in the hallways.
Continue reading NCIS's big-time return on screen and in the ratings
Next Page »
Six Mad Men characters who are in limbo after the finale
Fact or Fiction: Big Bang, Brothers & Sisters and CSI
The TV Squad Podcast: Linda Purl talks about The Office, we talk spoilers, and more
