UsaNetwork-related stories
Posted Nov 6th 2009 10:05AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free, The Mentalist
Did the USA Network decide not to buy the
Simon Baker series The Mentalist for syndication because it would conflict with their own psychic detective show
Psych?
You have to wonder, because
The Mentalist has been snatched up by TNT in a lush syndication deal. How lush? About $2 million per episode, a broadcast series record. (The overall record is HBO's
The Sopranos going to A&E for $2.5 per episode.)
Continue reading TNT snags The Mentalist ... in syndication
Posted Aug 31st 2009 3:02PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Sports, Industry, Programming, Music and Variety, Reality-Free
Before it became all cooking, gossip, fashion and interior decorating, Bravo used to be a fine arts network that aired classic drama, music, opera, etc.
TV viewers everywhere are hoping such sophistication returns to television with the news that World Wrestling Entertainment chairman
Vince McMahon wants to create his own cable network.
McMahon wants to launch the WWE-dedicated channel for basic tier rates within the next two years. While a return to fine arts TV is unlikely, McMahon's wrestling product has been greatly softened in tone over recent months -- looking to attract a more family-based audience.
Continue reading Vince McMahon wants to muscle in his own cable network
Posted Aug 29th 2009 1:30PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Industry, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
Summer Glau isn't the only
Terminator alum heading to a high-profile show next season. The cool and creepy Garrett Dillahunt has
landed a role on USA's Burn Notice. Dillahunt will play Simon, Michael's super smart new client, when the show returns in the winter.
It's unclear whether this is a guest stint or a recurring role, but chances are good that Dillahunt will be sticking around for a while. The actor has made memorable guest stints on
Life,
CSI,
and
Law & Order: SVU, and critics praised his recent big screen performance in
The Last House on the Left.
Continue reading Terminator's Garret Dillahunt lands role on Burn Notice
Posted Aug 28th 2009 11:29AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
If a show is good enough to get nominated for an Emmy, why not watch it for hours on end while you forget forever what the sun looks like?
USA Networks has announced that it's reaching around and patting itself enthusiastically on the back for its Emmy nomination collection with a marathon event of
Monk,
House and
Law & Order: SVU. The chain of would-be red carpet winners runs Friday, September 4 through Sunday, September 6 and includes the episodes of each show up for awards.
Monk is all USA's baby and garnered 16 total Emmy nominations including seven nominations and three wins for Tony Shalhoub (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series).
House is Fox and
SVU is shared with NBC. But it's one big happy Emmy family for USA.
Continue reading USA gives itself props with Emmy-nominated show marathon
Posted Aug 28th 2009 9:29AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Ratings, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
Lost in all the news of the
major networks' summer decline and the struggles of the pay channels and the ongoing soap operas of the endless reality shows is the news that
Burn Notice is very quietly becoming a major ratings player on cable.
What originally looked like a silly, self-referential genre show tucked in after wrestling on the USA Network,
Burn Notice is one of the biggest hits on cable. It doesn't get the critical love of
Mad Men, but it has a lot of fans.
According to a USA press release, the show's August airings are burning down nine million viewers at a pop -- making it the period's most watch scripted episodic on cable.
It's now USA's most-watched original series ever with 9.1 million viewers during August episodes -- the first time a USA original series has broken the nine million viewers benchmark.
Continue reading Burn Notice quietly catches fire in the ratings
Posted Aug 13th 2009 5:03PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Reality-Free
With USA Network's
Monk entering its final season, this is as good a time as any to explore how its title character developed his obsessions and ticks.
According to a network press release, USA Network and Sleep Inn Hotels (No, I don't get the connection, either...) teamed up to launch USA's first live-action original web series on usanetwork.com,
Little Monk.
The web series seeks to explore the origins of the anal-retentive and obsessive Monk's chronic conditions.
Continue reading Little Monk web series to explore big Monk's problems
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 7th 2009 1:43AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
(S03E09) Wow! Talk about a powerful finale. There were a lot of plot points and emotional issues addressed, and if you had any question about Michael's true loyalty, this show answered it.
Burn Notice goes on hiatus -- is that what they call it? -- till the winter, and it's going to be a long rest of the summer and fall waiting for the story to resume. There was change in the air, what with Michael inching closer to a return to the CIA -- or so it seemed. More on all that and the blistering finale after the jump.
Continue reading Burn Notice: Long Way Back (summer finale)
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 9:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Watercooler Talk, Celebrities, Reality-Free, Burn Notice, The Mentalist
Sometimes when I'm watching USA Network, I'm as tickled with the promotions for the shows as I am the shows themselves. That's saying a lot, because as a rule, networks are not very clever about commercials hawking their shows. However, USA is the exception to the rule. Just yesterday,
Kona wrote about the Psych promo that took a shot at
The Mentalist -- completely justified, too -- and here's another that caught my eye. It's a tribute to Monk.
This is the last season for
Monk, so USA gathered some of the stars -- in character -- from its other programs to give a little tribute to Adrian Monk. What a stroke of genius!
Continue reading USA scores with Monk tribute promo
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 27th 2009 9:00PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Video, Watercooler Talk, Reality-Free, The Mentalist
I've been hearing about this for a couple of days, but today USA just posted
Psych's new promo on the show's official
Twitter feed. In it, they make the not-so-subtle point that
The Mentalist kind of ripped them off.
To be fair, when I first heard of
The Mentalist, the exact way it was described to me was, "It's like
Psych, but a drama." So I can see where
The Mentalist's ridiculously high ratings and
Emmy noms may rub some people associated with
Psych the wrong way.
However,
Psych's assertion is kind of like
Scrubs saying that
Grey's Anatomy ripped them off because they're both shows that follow hospital interns who transition into residents. Granted, the "fake psychic" genre is slightly more specific, but other than that,
Psych and
The Mentalist don't have a whole lot in common. Regardless, the promo is pretty funny, and I've helpfully embedded it below.
PSYCH on USA Network - The Mentalist Spoof - Click here for funny video clipsPosted 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 May 6th 2009 11:03AM by Isabelle Carreau
10 -
Survivor, CBS
9 -
Ghost Whisperer, CBS
8 -
The Bachelor, ABC
7 -
The Unit, CBS
6 - At least one
CSI, CBS
5 - At least one
Law & Order, NBC/USA Network
4 -
Brothers & Sisters, ABC
3 -
Private Practice, ABC
2 -
American Idol, FOX
1 -
Grey's Anatomy, ABC
Want to see the pictures or leave a comment? Click here.Posted Mar 25th 2009 9:05AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Cable/Satellite, Casting, Reality-Free
The final season of the show that made USA famous for something other than playing non-stop reruns of
Wings is turning into a reunion special. Or should I say a special reunion?
Bitty Schram, the actress who played Sharona, Adrian Monk's original partner in fighting crime on
Monk,
will return for an episode sometime during the show's eighth and final season.
This will mark her first appearance on the comedy-mystery since she mysteriously disappeared from the show halfway through the third season. It should also make for an interesting close to a series that has redefined the way the higher channels on the dial create and produce their own series.
Continue reading Sharona returning to Monk
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