RoyalPains-related stories
Posted Aug 27th 2009 9:02AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
What an interesting summer for television. In general, the claim that
television viewing reached an all-time high this summer doesn't really surprise me. After all, we're in what the media tells us is the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. That means more people out of work and less money for everybody.
People out of work and unable to find work are going to be bored, so they're going to watch television. People with less money are going to stay home more often, so they're going to watch television. That part makes sense to me. The part that is a little surprising, but only a little, is that all of that record viewing went to the cable networks and not the big four.
There was not a single break-out summer success story on ABC, CBS, NBC or FOX. Every single show they put on the air either crashed and burned, or barely stayed afloat. But the story is so very different on cable. Week after week we got new stories about original series breaking records on almost every network.
Continue reading TV just had its most-watched summer ever while the big four struggled
Posted Aug 10th 2009 3:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, Ratings, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
A lot of times, the news about ratings isn't good. Or not good enough, so shows that you care about have to hope for the kindness of TV executives to give that show more time to improve or find a new time slot or something ... just to survive. That's why it's such a pleasure that
Burn Notice did great in the ratings for the summer season finale last Thursday. According to the numbers, 7.6 million total viewers were glued to the set, the most eyeballs for any scripted TV shows that night.
Continue reading Great news for Burn Notice
Posted Aug 4th 2009 8:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Industry, OpEd, Law and Order, Pickups and Renewals, Ratings, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
Things are really cooking at the USA Network. Not only has the new show
Royal Pains been renewed for a second season, but
Burn Notice is also coming back for a fourth.
Law and Order: Criminal Intent is on the verge of being re-upped, and now
In Plain Sight has just gotten a pick-up for Season Three.
Wow! Talk about a winning formula. This part of the Universal family, as opposed to NBC, seems to have figured out how to make dramas work and work well.
Continue reading USA signs up for more In Plain Sight
Posted Jul 29th 2009 12:03PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
USA has to be rather pleased. Last week, the
top rated show on cable was Burn Notice. And their newest series
Royal Pains is hanging in there impressively in fourth place, creating a powerful Thursday night lineup. As a reward, word has it that
USA has renewed both Burn Notice and Royal Pains.
I first fell into
Royal Pains because I have this bizarre fascination with the Hamptons. I hadn't even heard of it until a few years ago, and now it's just fascinating to me. Here's a place full of people I will never get to mingle with, living and partying somewhere that I will never go. It's
Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous with a plot.
Burn Notice I've not watched because I didn't jump in when it first started (regular readers may remember that I have a thing about that), though I should probably just get over it and check it out. It has Bruce Campbell in it, and he's always a blast and I've heard nothing but good things about it. Regardless, it's more good news for cable broadcasting while the networks keep crying away the summer.
Posted Jul 3rd 2009 12:23PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Reality-Free
Apparently, there are a lot of medical emergencies in the Hamptons - deflated boobs, dying socialites, hemophiliac kids. And apparently, there is also a shortage of doctors in the area that is so bad everyone is clamoring to be attended to by a visiting doctor from out of town who has just been conveniently ostracized for having let a hospital trustee die in his care.
That's the basics of
Royal Pains, USA's latest edition to its "characters welcome" line-up. Unfortunately for Doctor Hank Lawson, the physician in the center of this maelstrom of health issues, none of his patients are particularly interesting, which means I didn't care if they lived or died or if any of their wounds were healed properly. Nor did I care if the overly ambitious would-be doctor's assistant Divya got her wish that Lawson hang his shingle in the Hamptons. Or if his brother found a way to get laid.
Continue reading Royal Pains throws everything at the wall, nothing sticks
Posted Jun 5th 2009 1:23AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews
(S01E01) Never ever, ever go into work on your day off. It could just cost you your job. Especially if in doing so, the man who's name on the building dies and it in any way can be blamed on you. Just a friendly tip from the blogosphere. In these tough economic times, because I just had to start an article about a show set in the Hamptons with that, there's nothing better for people struggling to make ends meet than a show about people whose biggest struggle is ... well nothing, really.
I went into this show kind of expecting to be too annoyed by the fact that it's in the Hamptons to enjoy it, but dammit, I really started liking it. A big part of that is thanks to the dynamic between Mark Fuerstein and Paulo Costanza. Fuerstein, as Hank Lawson, is our lead who did the whole guy dying losing his job thing. And Constanza as his brother Evan, is the kind of guy who can breeze into a German Consulate's party with a bad accent and a fake ID.
Continue reading Royal Pains: Pilot (series premiere)
Posted Jan 5th 2009 5:19PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Sing with me: here's a story about a doctor who is busy caring for rich folks in New York... Okay, it doesn't have the bouncy tune of a Sherwood Schwartz theme song, but this new USA show sounds like fun.
USA has picked up Royal Pains, a new summer series starring Mark Feuerstein as Hank Lawson, M.D., a doctor who is on-call to some of the most demanding patients around, the richie-riches who live in the fashionable Hamptons of Long Island.
There are a few reasons to be psyched about this new drama. For starters, it's coming from the same network that brings us
Psych, not to mention
Burn Notice, Starter Wife and
In Plain Sight. In other words, USA has been doing very well in developing idiosyncratic, interesting comedy-drama series. There's no reason to think that
Royal Pains will be a dud.
Continue reading USA says yes to Royal Pains
Posted Jul 15th 2008 7:03PM by Erin Martell
Filed under: Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
USA has recruited Mark Feuerstein for one of its new projects. The actor was recently
cast as the lead in
Royal Pains, a 90-minute pilot for the cable network. As Bob reported back in March,
Royal Pains is
one of four upcoming series that USA is currently developing. Feuerstein will play Hank Lawson, a former ER doctor who reluctantly takes a job as an on-call physician to wealthy residents of the Hamptons.
Jace Alexander, the director behind the pilot episode of USA's
Burn Notice, has signed on to direct the
Royal Pains pilot, which is encouraging news for the series.
Continue reading Mark Feuerstein confirmed for Royal Pains pilot
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