Hugh Jackman-related stories
Posted Nov 3rd 2009 11:29AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Awards, Reality-Free
Oscar roulette is usually played when it comes time to figure out the nominations. However, this year there seems to be a wheel of fortune spinning with the names of possible hosts for the show. Of course, the
folks running the show have intimated that they might want to have a few stars sharing the duties. Historically, that hasn't worked out too well.
The other day when
Hugh Jackman removed his name from the running, I asked you for your ideas and told you that I like Kathy Griffin. Jimmy liked George Clooney and Justin Timberlake. Sancty suggested
Neil Patrick Harris.
Continue reading Who'll host the Oscars? The oddsmakers like Billy Crystal
Posted Oct 30th 2009 6:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Awards, Reality-Free
So
Ricky Gervais has signed to host the Golden Globes, which means the pressure is on the Oscars to come up with a host or hosts equally as stellar. Or interesting. Or compelling.
One star who has removed himself from the running is last year's host,
Hugh Jackman. He will not return as Oscar host when the show airs on ABC, March 7.
He's currently on Broadway in a play -- with 007 Daniel Craig -- and he "quietly turned down the job" according to sources. It's not because he was a bomb emceeing the proceedings either. He didn't do the "Oprah, Uma, Uma, Oprah" joke nor did he trip on his shoelaces in the opening number. Quite the contrary, in fact.
Hugh Jackman was a perfectly fine host.
But he doesn't want to do it in 2010. Maybe he doesn't want to push his luck? Maybe he just doesn't want to work that hard.
Continue reading Hugh Jackman says 'no thanks' to Oscar repeat
Posted May 5th 2009 2:03PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Reality-Free
Are you ready for 2011? Not the first part, the latter part. That's when FX is going to have all of your favorite blockbuster movies from the past few months.
According to Variety, FX has secured rights to show
X-Men Origins: Wolverine,
Taken,
The Wrestler,
The Day the Earth Stood Still, and
Marley and Me.
Variety also points out that it takes about 30 months for films to go from the big screen to television in these kinds of deals.
So, if you can keep from seeing them in the theater, or on DVD, or on demand from whichever cable system you subscribe to, on Netflix or Blockbuster, or from one of the torrents these scofflaw kids are into these days, you can see it for free on FX!
Continue reading Wolverine on FX! In ... 2011
Posted Feb 24th 2009 2:04PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Music and Variety, Watercooler Talk, Ratings, Awards, Reality-Free
Well, it looks like rejiggering the format of the
Oscar telecast paid off; ratings for the 81st annual back-patting orgy were
up 13% from last year's record-low ratings. Maybe it was the
"faster-paced" ceremony, or maybe it was just that there were some intriguing storylines (
Slumdog, Heath Ledger, what kind of nutty stuff would Mickey Rourke have said if he won... that kind of stuff). Or it could have been a matter of more people being at home to watch because, uh, they don't have the money to do anything else. But at least the ratings are back to being semi-respectable.
One interesting aspect to these ratings numbers, though,
was brought up by Newsday's Neil Best: the total number of female viewers for the Super Bowl (38.3 million) surpassed the
entire audience for the Oscars (36.3 million). So, despite the conventional wisdom, it looks like the "Super Bowl for women" is actually... the Super Bowl.
At the very least, the ratings will probably earn Hugh Jackman and producers Bill Condon and Laurence Mark a return engagement. Now if they can just get this thing under three hours, they're all set.
Posted Feb 23rd 2009 12:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Vs., Awards, Reality-Free
It was the best of Oscar it was the worst of Oscar. It wasn't the best show I've ever seen, but was it the worst Oscars ever as one friend emailed me? I think there were features that worked and features that tanked. There could have been more star power -- where were Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Jim Carrey, Sandra Bullock, Christian Bale, Tyler Perry (he had the biggest box office opening last week!), etc.? Forget about stars from the '70s...
Anyway, I had predicted that
the Oscars would stink. Well, I was wrong, or half-wrong. Separate from whether you agreed with the winners -- I did by and large -- or you didn't, what about the broadcast? I think if you had seen all the nominees (or at least the Best Picture noms), you probably had a rooting interest and were amused by most of the show. However, the other half was pretty bad. After the jump, what worked versus what did not.
Continue reading Oscars 2009: What worked vs. what didn't
Posted Feb 23rd 2009 10:43AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Watercooler Talk, Awards, Reality-Free
It's the age-old question that comes up just about every year, but after last night's marathon Oscar ceremony, I need to ask it again: Is it about time for the Academy to award most of the technical prizes (for editing, art, costumes, makeup, visual effects, etc.) either another day or before the televised ceremony starts?
The reason why I ask is because of the way the producers formatted the show this year. They did a nice job of grouping those technical awards together, threading them through the life cycle of a film's production. Believe me, it helped; instead of dragging out new presenters for each and every category, one set usually presented a few at a times (poor Will Smith was out there presenting the post-production awards almost as long as host Hugh Jackman was on stage). But somewhere around 10:30, I was still looking at the clock and trying to count how many categories were left.
Continue reading Should the Oscars skip the technical awards?
Posted Feb 22nd 2009 1:08PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, Celebrities, Awards, Reality-Free
Ricky Gervais
won't be hosting the Oscars tonight, but he'll be doing the next best thing. It looks like Gervais will be
writing some of the jokes to be used by host Hugh Jackman and company. If so, then I draw a few conclusions from this:
Tonight's jokes will be swipes at Hollywood and probably the entertainment industry in general. As one can tell from
The Office and
Extras (and even the BBC article itself), Gervais excels at self-deprecating humor. They will be nasty, but nasty in a funny and cute way that industry insiders and the audience will enjoy. He could even recycle jokes from
Extras.
Also, tonight's jokes will be extremely funny if Jackman can deliver them in a Gervais-like style. Hopefully he'll practice them beforehand. I wonder if Stephen Merchant was involved with the joke-writing as well?
If this works out, perhaps he'll accept that offer to host the event next year? Fingers crossed.
Posted Jan 23rd 2009 10:03AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Celebrities, Ratings, Awards, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
Do you remember what film won the Oscar for Best Picture last year? (
No Country for Old Men). What about Best Actor and Actress? (Daniel Day-Lewis and Marion Cotillard). If you didn't remember, don't feel bad. You're probably like most people. Most of us weren't watching in 2008. Even though they were celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Academy Awards, it was the lowest rated and least watched telecast ever.
As I perused the
Academy Award nominations yesterday, I couldn't help but think that this year's broadcast is going to have a hard time drawing a huge TV audience. And considering that the only thing you can usually count on with the Oscars is that they'll run over three hours long, the show will probably leave something to be desired, too.
In fact, here's six reasons the Oscars -- which will be broadcast live on February 22 on ABC -- will probably stink.
Continue reading Six reasons the Oscars will probably stink - VIDEO
Posted Dec 12th 2008 5:05PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Celebrities, Awards, Reality-Free
At the very least, this sounds more promising than an awards show
hosted by reality TV stars.
Hugh Jackman, probably the only Tony Award-winner to be named
People's "Sexiest Man Alive," will
host this year's Academy Awards ceremony. Yep, it's an odd pick. The last few Oscar night hosts have been comedians (Jon Stewart, Ellen DeGeneres, Chris Rock), but something tells me this broadcast will be the funniest in years.
Why? Because Hugh Jackman likes to sing. And dance. And he usually looks pretty silly when he does those things at the same time, like in that episode of
Viva Laughlin.
Continue reading Are you ready for a singing and dancing Hugh Jackman on Oscar night? - VIDEO
Posted May 9th 2008 2:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Awards, Reality-Free
She's an experienced host, an Oscar-winner, a Broadway star. But is
Whoopi Goldberg hosting the 62nd Tony Awards the answer for the struggling annual broadcast? The Tony Awards, which honors the best in Broadway theater is considered one of the four major entertainment awards, along with the Oscar, Emmy and Grammy. But the Tonys have been losing viewership year after year despite the stars lured onto the broadcast. After having no single host the past two years, CBS has tapped Whoopi to be the emcee for the June 15 live broadcast from Radio City Music Hall in hopes that she'll make a difference in the Nielsens. The last single host was Hugh Jackman in 2005.
While this is Whoopi's first turn as Tony host, she is well regarded for her four stints as Oscar hostess. At the most recent Oscars, when Whoopi was left out of the host-highlight clip package of years gone by, she was ticked off and talked about it the morning after on
The View. Perhaps doing the Tonys will be her way of sticking to the Oscars?
Continue reading Can Whoopi save the Tony Awards?
Posted Oct 27th 2007 3:01PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Video, Music and Variety, Web
Before Viva Laughlin (one of the worst shows to premiere on television in the past five years) debuted, no one would have believed a show like Cop Rock ever existed. Cops and crooks suddenly breaking into song and/or dance about robberies, shootings, drug deals, and murder? Sure, why not!
It came from Steven Bochco and ran on ABC in 1990. Check out the video after the jump. It's the classic scene you saw on Hill Street Blues all the time, the cops getting their morning rundown on what's going on. Then the captain suddenly starts singing "Let's Be Careful Out There." There's a cameo by another Bochco star at the end. I'm still wondering why the cops don't look at the guy singing and say "um, shouldn't we call the police psychologist?"
Continue reading Viva Laughlin is gone, so let's remember Cop Rock! - VIDEO
Posted Oct 22nd 2007 3:45PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Contests and Giveaways, Cancellations, Ratings
Well, that was fast. After an avalanche of scathing reviews (including
mine) and extremely low ratings,
CBS has canceled the musical mystery drama Viva Laughlin after two episodes. According to the story on
Variety's web site, the show will be replaced in its Sunday 8 PM timeslot by
The Amazing Race starting November 4 (a
CSI rerun will air in that slot next week). No word yet on if the remaining episodes will be shown on CBS' web site, or anywhere else for that matter.
I imagine what happened is that CBS took a look at the low ratings for the show's Thursday premiere (
8.8 million viewers) and the even lower ratings for the first regular Sunday showing (a 1.2 rating and 3 share in th 18-49 demo, according to
Variety), saw that the quality of the remaining episodes were not going to improve, and decided to bail out. Those are the two factors that usually lead to such quick cancellations, especially to shows that were as heavily-promoted as
Laughlin was.
Continue reading Viva Laughlin gets a quick cancellation
Posted Oct 16th 2007 4:21PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Early Looks
In the world of TV, one of the riskiest things a creative team can do is shoot for the "quirky" factor. It's an all-or-nothing deal: either it works, where everything clicks and the audience embraces the show, or nothing works, and the show explodes in a big awful mess over the poor suckers who decided to tune in and watch. At the beginning of the 2007-08 season, we have two shows who went for the quirk:
Pushing Daisies and
Viva Laughlin. And as it turns out, one show works and the other show is a disaster. Considering
Daisies is one of the most praised new shows of the season, we all know where we're going with this.
Continue reading Viva Laughlin -- An early look
Posted Jul 20th 2007 12:01PM by Michael Maloney
Filed under: Industry, Programming, TCA Press Tour
It was back to school after the Jericho presentation with a look at CBS Interactive/CBS Audience Network Presentation and Q&A.
Remember what I said about how attending the cable and PBS portion of TCA is like taking all those science and humanity classes during your first two years of college -- and the network portion of TCA is like all the fun courses in your major?
Well, today, CBS threw us a few calculus lessons.
Continue reading CBS press tour day 2, Viva the future! - TCA report
Posted Jul 5th 2007 11:00AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Industry, Programming, OpEd, Early Looks, Upfronts
CBS probably has one of the more interesting schedules of the fall, just for the fact that they are making a concerted effort to try something different. They could have rolled out yet another procedural (
CSI: LA?), and who could really blame them. Those shows have performed extremely well for the network over the past few years.
Instead, in what is a definite gamble, the network will be bringing out some decidedly alternative programming. There is a musical drama about the casino business in Laughlin, a vampire detective, a drama about a Cuban family and their rum making business, and some swinging couples getting their freak on in the 70's. The kind of fare that would probably cause Horatio to tilt his head to the side and remove his sunglasses. Will it work? Time will tell, but we've seen three of them and have a rundown after the jump.
Continue reading TV Squad previews CBS's new shows
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