HollywoodReporter-related stories
Posted Dec 4th 2008 4:32PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Industry, Reality-Free
The cold, icy death hand of economic uncertainty and depression-era apple bargaining has finally pointed its bony finger at the TV industry and said, "I choose you."
The Hollywood Reporter reports that NBC Universal has already laid off 30 people as part of their ongoing effort
to cut costs across the board. So far, the 30 people who have been given their pink slips worked in the sales departments. More pink slips are expected to land on desks later this week in the news division, the first areas of the media industry that normally take a bullet when Wall Street starts firing in all directions like Hunter S. Thompson on an ether binge.
Continue reading NBC Universal's job cuts are deeper to the bone than you might think
Posted Oct 18th 2008 3:32PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Pickups and Renewals, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Reality-Free
Let's hear it for Fox TV! No, you don't need to check my meds. I'm seriously giving a shout-out to Fox for their latest move. Despite so-so ratings, Fox has
renewed Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles for the remainder of the 2008-9 season. This says that Fox understands that shows -- especially the sci-fi genre -- need time to develop and grow an audience.
The greatest sci-fi success of all time,
Star Trek, struggled for three years on NBC in the 1960s where the network was very frustrated with the show because it wasn't a ratings smash. Imagine, if you will, how much NBC might have made if they had stuck with
ST and mined the cult success that exploded into a cultural phenomenon?
Continue reading Fox saves Sarah...Connor, that is
Posted May 5th 2008 12:02PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Industry, Boston Legal, How I Met Your Mother, Cancellations, Pickups and Renewals, Reaper, Moonlight, WGA Strike, Eli Stone, Reality-Free
The reverberations caused by the
writers' strike continue to affect how the networks are doing business. Case in point: according to
The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd, the networks may be
more generous with renewals than they have in the past, due to the fact that even hit shows have been returning to diminished ratings. My guess is that, after a three-month break, most people realized they didn't give two craps about things like Meredith and McDreamy's latest breakup. But it may just be that the weather's nice outside.
Anyway, Hibberd goes on to mention the current status of some of the most prominent "bubble" shows. The good news:
Reaper,
Old Christine, and
HIMYM and
Moonlight have shifted over towards the "likely to certain" end of the spectrum, and
Boston Legal will likely survive for another year. The bad news:
Shark,
Men In Trees (which is
already gone, according to reports)
, Cashmere Mafia, and
October Road are likely gone. And there's still no real feel for what's going to happen with
Eli Stone or
Women's Murder Club.
Posted Apr 25th 2008 9:04AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: TV on the Bigscreen, OpEd, Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, Reality-Free
I've always been amazed at how analysts can project who's won the box office for the weekend before that weekend even ends. But I've never seen a box office champ predicted before the movie is even released. Apparently, though, that seems to be the case with the new movie from two of the funniest women on TV.
According to
The Hollywood Reporter, the movie
Baby Mama, which stars
SNL's Amy Poehler and
30 Rock's Tina Fey,
will likely win the box office race this weekend. The film, which is being released today, has been garnering a lot of pre-release interest among 12-to-16 year-old girls, according to tracking surveys taken over the last few weeks. Huh? Didn't know stories about surrogacy were big with teenage girls. Is there something someone isn't telling me?
Continue reading Fey, Poehler expected to be box office champs
Posted Apr 17th 2008 9:02AM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Pickups and Renewals, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Reality-Free
Recently, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter,
Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly dropped a little nugget regarding Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles that should make fans of the show sigh a little more in relief.
In the interview, Reilly mentions that
Sarah Connor and
Back to You are the "lead candidates" for returning for a new season, adding that they've "already started staffing" the show.
We already mentioned the high likelihood that the
show would be returning before;
several times, even. Is it because of Fox's track record with canceling shows, seemingly so quickly, that's got everyone so nervous about
Sarah Connor's return? At this point, after hearing all of the rumors and mumblings that the show's safe, it would be extremely cruel for them to bring the axe down during the upfronts next month. Die hard fans are probably already planning a backup plan, thinking of what kind of crap they're going to send Fox studios to beg for the show to return. Any suggestions?
Posted Feb 27th 2008 11:23AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: House, Lost, Pickups and Renewals, Dexter, Brothers and Sisters, Dirty Sexy Money, WGA Strike
There's a new guy running the show for ABC's drama
Dirty Sexy Money and his name is Daniel Cerone. Cerone replaces Josh Reims. As executive producer, Cerone will be working with creator Craig Wright (
Lost), as well as Greg Berlanti (
Brothers & Sisters), Matthew Gross and Bryan Singer (
House) -- so the show's got lots of first-class pedigree. Now they have to put it all together for the show.
Continue reading New showrunner for Dirty Sexy Money
Posted Feb 15th 2008 4:20PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Industry, Programming, CSI, Numb3rs, Criminal Minds, How I Met Your Mother, Pickups and Renewals, Shark, Ratings, NCIS, Cane, Moonlight
Fans of the Tiffany network can do the happy dance.
CBS has renewed 11 scripted shows for the 2008-2009 TV season. The lucky 11 are:
CSI; CSI: Miami; CSI: New York; NCIS; Criminal Minds; Cold Case; Without a Trace; Ghost Whisperer; Numb3rs; Two and a Half Men; and
The Big Bang Theory.
There are not a lot of surprises in this bunch, although it's great news that
The Big Bang Theory, CBS's rookie Monday-night sitcom from Chuck Lorre's stable, made the cut. Still in limbo, however, are three other Monday-night comedies from the network:
How I Met Your Mother, Rules of Engagement, and
The New Adventures of Old Christine. The story speculates that
Mother will get the greenlight for a fourth season soon, but
Rules and
Christine seem to be in competition for the 9:30-10:00 half-hour slot.
Continue reading Update - CBS renews a slew of shows
Posted Nov 1st 2007 1:20PM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Heroes, WGA Strike
Production of one of the more highly anticipated shows on the NBC schedule, Heroes: Origins, has been put on hold. Apparently, due to fears of a pending writers' strike. Or, maybe not.
According to The Hollywood Reporter the Heroes spin-off will not be receiving its six-episode run, which was to begin in April of 2008. While NBC hasn't officially said that the series is canceled producers have not been given a date when it would be put on the schedule. During the network upfronts held last May it was mentioned that Origins would be spelling its older sibling during a late-season hiatus.
Continue reading Heroes: Origins put on hold
Posted Jul 3rd 2007 1:07PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Desperate Housewives, Casting
On the heels of
yesterday's news that Dana Delany may soon become a
Desperate Housewife, is news that Nathan Fillion is also in talks to join the show.
The Hollywood Reporter says that Fillion would play Delany's much younger husband. They'd be the new couple on the block at Wisteria Lane and would, no doubt, have some sort of mysterious past and secrets that they're hiding from the neighbors.
Rounding up the Fillion/Delany family is Lyndsy Fonseca, who may play the couple's daughter. Fonseca is currently the unnamed "daughter" that we occasionally see at the beginning of
How I Met Your Mother.
It'll be interesting to see whether Fillion's addition to the show brings some Browncoats over to ABC on Sunday nights (probably not this Browncoat). Fillion had a lot of support from his fans when
Drive launched this spring, but it was swiftly canceled by Fox.
Posted Jan 2nd 2007 1:04PM by Brett Love
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, NBC, Celebrities, Heroes
I think that at this point we can probably say that the two breakout stars of the 2006-2007 television season are America Ferrera (
Ugly Betty) and Masi Oka (
Heroes). And for Masi, that is starting to pay dividends. From The Hollywood Reporter comes word that
he is in talks for a gig in the Robert Luketic film
21.
Based on the Ben Mezrich book "Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions," the movie will also star Jim Sturgess.
The book tells the story of the MIT Blackjack Team. Organized by a former math instructor, and backed by anonymous investors, the team used a system of card counting, disguises, and secret signals to take Vegas for nearly $4 million before they were found out.
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