The Prison Break season finale aired last night. It's now in Fate TBD status.

Heroes won't be back until next season (September at the earliest).

Forgot to mention this: When in doubt about a show, check the Cancelled/Renewed Shows Listing, I keep it up-to-date so chances are if I know anything about its status, it's there.

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Feb 20 2008.

Some Wednesday hot off the press news:
USA still likes having obsessive cops around. The cable network has just renewed its popular award-winning series "Monk" for a 7th season. The season should debut in July and will again be split into 2 halves-the first half airs in July, the second half in January.

CBS has just announced a Monday schedule change: Starting March 17, "How I Met Your Mother" and "The Big Bang Theory" swap timeslots. HIMYM moves to 8:30, Bang to 8. This was the scheduled return date for new episodes of both shows. This might be a ratings strategy-Bang, which has already gotten a second season, averaged 8.36 million viewers in its initial 8 episode pre-strike run. HIMYM averaged only 8.02 million at 8 and this move might go a long way towards whether or not the show gets a 4th season. The 9 PM hour will remain unchanged until March 31. On April 7, a "Two And A Half Men" rerun replaces Bang, the lineup otherwise is pre-empted for the NCAA Basketball Men's National Championship. On April 14, "Rules Of Engagement" returns to its 9:30 timeslot (the previous timeslot occupant, "The New Adventures Of Old Christine", wraps up its shortened 3rd season on March 31) and it's back to business as usual.

Edit: ABC has now announced the return dates for several of its returning shows, with a couple of relevant schedule changes as well:
First, the schedule change: Starting April 24, "Lost" moves to Thursdays at 10 PM. It will stay at that time for 5 weeks.

"Samantha Who?", which originally was not to return this season, now will return-April 7 for 6 new episodes.

"Boston Legal", which just went on hiatus, returns April 8 for 6 more episodes.

"Desperate Housewives" returns April 13 for 6 new episodes (including a 2 hour season finale).

"Brothers & Sisters" returns April 20 for 4 new episodes.

"Ugly Betty" returns April 24 for 5 new episodes.

"Grey's Anatomy" returns April 24 for 5 new episodes.

"Pushing Daisies," "Private Practice" and "Dirty Sexy Money" will not be back. They will return next season (all have already gotten renewed).

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Feb 20 2008.

Weekly Nielsen Ratings Report for Week Ending 2/17/08:
The expected happened at last this past week-although what took so long? I refer to Fox finally becoming the #1 network among all ages for the first time ever...but with the unstoppale Idol juggernaut fueling it, yeah, why did it take so long? 30 million Tuesday, nearly 25 million Wednesday, a good 10 million back to the next-highest rated show. Which was a Fox show too. That one being "The Moment Of Truth" but note that the 14 million it drew continues a slow but steady decline in total viewers since the show's premiere-and this is with the Idol lead-in. Let's see how it does come June when it comes off an April-May hiatus. Elsewhere, NBC revved up the classic 80s series "Knight Rider" for a 2 hour backdoor pilot preview of the likely forthcoming series-all things considered, KITT still knows how to talk viewers into checking it out. Nearly 13 million tuned in to the movie, making it the #2 scripted show of the week and also the top-rated movie of any type (TV or theatrical) in the 18-49 demo that the nets put so much into the tank to reach. CBS also tried a similar stunt figuring the strike would still be going on (thankfully, it's not) by borrowing the cable network Showtime's hit series "Dexter" and giving it what I'll call the "Cartoon Network Butchering" treatment in order to make it showable on network TV (on Showtime they really don't have to edit it because the premium/pay networks generally can show anything without worries except hardcore porn). For both sides it did very well-8.2 million tuned in Sunday at 10, and considering only about 1.2 million see it on Showtime, in part due to the network's limited availability, that's a win-win for both sides even though The Eye averaged about 10.3 million recently in the timeslot. As for other stunts, this question to "Jericho" fans-were you thinking about the wrestler when you tried that stunt to save your show? If not, then watch your saved show already! 20 tons of peanuts got it back on the air. And the result for series faithful? The return draws a record-low for the series: 7.1 million. Oh wait...this just in: Week 2 (the other night) drops to a new low-6 million. Note to those apparently trying similar with "Friday Night Lights" and "The 4400"-stop. It won't work. As for ABC's "Dance War", the finale took a bit of a stumble as just 9.2 million tuned in. Only slightly better than the previous week's series low and 15 million less than the recent finale of the show it was spawned by, Dancing With The Stars.

On cable, Mr. Monk Is On The Run at USA, but he'll be back. By drawing 5.6 million viewers Friday for part 1 of the 2-part "Monk" season finale, USA got the #2 cable program of the week, a win over ABC head-to-head, and Monk gets a 7th season. On Tuesday night, USA also had its biggest Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show final night crowd in 3 years when 3.4 million tuned in to watch a beagle be named Best Of Show, aka the overall winner. No, not Snoopy. Some beagle named Uno. I guess that makes sense, Uno means "one" in Spanish-it's not just a card game.

The Week's Top 10 Most Watched Shows, in order: Tuesday's "American Idol", Wednesday's Idol, "The Moment Of Truth", Thursday's 10 PM "Lost", "Extreme Makeover Home Edition", "Survivor Micronesia", Monday's "Deal Or No Deal", "Knight Rider", "60 Minutes", Thursday's Deal.

Other news-ABC has announced that production of the full 7th season of "According To Jim" will be completed this season, which will mean probably 6 more episodes. It's believed that 12 episodes were completed before the strike with the rest to be filmed next month, meaning they likely won't air before late March. Timeslot isn't known either, its usual timeslot (Tuesdays at 9) will be taken by Dancing when it returns. There was some question as to whether it would be back due to very low ratings despite the fact that Jim is currently ABC's longest-running sitcom that's still airing.

Edit: Lots of midday news...
Speaking of Friday Night Lights, it may not be dead just yet. As you may already know, NBC did something new this past season, "sharing" one of its series, "Law & Order Criminal Intent", with another network-in this case the NBC Universal-owned cable network USA (which first aired new episodes that would later repeat on NBC). Zap2it reports NBC could do this with Lights-could the key word. But the difference here is The Peacock is talking to non-NBCU owned networks: Known nets approached are The CW and the cable networks TNT, E!, and G4 (which already has such a deal with...that show, and more specifically E & G4 owner Comcast). Lights averaged 6.2 million viewers this season, up a few over last season, which isn't bad considering it got punted to the "Friday Night Death Slot", and did an average 18-49 rating of 2.2. But what could save it is it does well with high-income viewers (which saved "The Apprentice") and the show has gotten lots of critical praise from critics and others. We'll see. Either way, it's done for the season, no more new episodes will be produced (15 were finished pre-strike).

TBS has ordered 8 more episodes os its new series "Frank TV". Its first season averaged more than 2 million viewers per episode before being halted after 5 of 8 episodes due to the strike. Look for the new episodes later this year.

Both CBS and NBC have announced plans to make full episodes of classic TV shows available for free online streaming effective immediately. Yeah, they've got commercials, and the same one every break at that, but hey, it's free. Here's what's known to be available:
CBS: Star Trek seasons 1-3 (original series)
The Twilight Zone seasons 1-2
MacGyver season 1
Hawaii Five-O season 1 (awesome, I so miss that opening credits music)
Melrose Place season 1

NBC (split between NBC, Chiller, Sci Fi, and Sleuth websites):
The A-Team
Emergency
Night Gallery
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
Miami Vice
Battlestar Galactica (1978 aka the "Classic" version)
Buck Rogers
Tek War
Swamp Thing
Tremors
Crow
Kojak
Simon & Simon

Late edit: Sci Fi today unveiled their midseason Friday night plans...new series "The Sarah Jane Adventures" debuts April 11, while the 4th season of "Doctor Who" (US version) premieres April 18 with a 90-minute episode. Starting April 25, the plan is 2 episodes of Sarah Jane at 8 (it's a 30-minute show), Doctor Who at 9, and the final season of "Battlestar Galactica" at 10.
Detailed lineups:
March 28:
8 PM-Chuck repeat
9 PM-Stargate Atlantis repeat
10 PM-Battlestar Galactica: Revisited (new special)
10:30 PM-Battlestar Galactica: The Phenomenon (new special)

April 4:
8 PM-Battlestar Galactica repeats
10 PM-Battlestar Galactica season 4 premiere

April 11:
8 PM-The Sarah Jane Adventures (premiere)
9 PM-Battlestar Galactica repeat
10 PM-Battlestar Galactica (new episodes)

April 18:
8 PM-The Sarah Jane Adventures
8:30 PM-Doctor Who (90 minute season premiere)
10 PM-Battlestar Galactica

April 25 on:
8 PM-The Sarah Jane Adventures
9 PM-Doctor Who
10 PM-Battlestar Galactica

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Feb 21 2008.

Some weekend news and notes:
Although NBC won't confirm this until its upfront presentation in April (same for all yet-unrenewed/not-yet-cancelled/Fate TBD shows), TV Guide is reporting that "Las Vegas" has just busted. According to their sources, it won't be renewed for a 6th season meaning this past Friday's season finale may have well been the series finale. Its average crowd dropped to 8.29 million viewers after the finale fell to just under 8 million and a 2.3 18-49 rating. Last season it did 8.96 million and 2.8 18-49. Also no word on "Friday Night Lights", but rumors are NBC's efforts to get it on other networks for a potential 3rd season are being hampered because The Peacock's asking price is said to be too high.

ION has acquired the off-network rights to all produced-to-date episodes of "Boston Legal". This news broke a week or so back but the way the press release was worded, I didn't know if ION was going to take it away completely from ABC or if it was just a off-network thing. Seems to be the latter. Said deal also tops out at 106 episodes.

In an extreme rarity, it's quite possible that 2 freshman HBO series don't live past one season. New series "John From Cincinnati" didn't get a second season, and the strike may have done in new comedy "12 Miles Of Bad Road" before it even airs. 10 episodes were ordered with 6 completed pre-strike, and the HBO brass is mulling whether to complete production on the remaining installments.

"Moonlight" executive producer/showrunner Chip Johannessen has left the show. Executive producer Joel Silver and the writing team will collectively shepherd the remaining installments as a new showrunner won't be named until when/if the show is renewed for a second season. CBS asked for 4 more episodes this season, and while it's not yet known if it wil be renewed, rumors are that The Eye may pick it up despite not-exactly-strong ratings, apparently fearing a stunt involving mass hemoglobin shipments to the network. Which shows just what is wrong with obsessive fans these days.

One Monday midday news item: ABC has now ordered 3 more episodes of "Women's Murder Club" to air this season, which means it will have completed its entire 13 episode 1st season. The show's return this season was contingent on finding a new executive producer and showrunner following the dismissal of creators Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain and showrunner R. Scott Gemmill earlier this month. ABC and 20th Century Fox, which produces "Women's Murder Club," have hired Robert Nathan, a veteran of "ER" and the "Law & Order" franchise, to take the reins of the series. Expect the first episode sometime in April. It has not yet been picked up for next season-while it consistently won its Friday night timeslot in total viewers with just under 9 million (for a Friday that's pretty good), the issue is that it also was 3rd in the critical 18-49 demo in said timeslot, only averaging a 2.0. The leaders, "Friday Night Lights" and "Moonlight", only did a 2.2 average, however, so the total number might keep it around. We'll see.

Late Monday edit: Las Vegas update-cancelled.

Another late edit: NBC has ordered 6 more scripts for "Lipstick Jungle", which if they become episodes will give the freshman series a total of 13 episodes (which, I believe, was the planned run before the strike).

Early Tuesday edit: Very late schedule changes from Fox Tuesday and Wednesday: "Back To You" returns ahead of schedule for 2 new episodes, tonight and tomorrow at 9:30 PM ET. This means no "House" Tuesday and no "The Moment Of Truth" Wednesday. Idol goes to 90 minutes this week as well.

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Feb 26 2008.

Weekly Nielsen Ratings Report for Week Ending 2/24/08:
Last week was clear evidence that Hollywood is starting to get back to normal post-strike...I can sum it up in one famous line: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly. First, The Good: The Academy Awards went off without a hitch and drew the biggest crowd of the week-32 million viewers. Yes, something actually beat the unstoppable Idol juggernaut! Ah, but with The Good comes The Bad: Said 32 million crowd might be the best of the week, but it was the worst Oscar crowd. EVER. ABC could only spin numbers to say it best this year's Emmys, Grammys, and Golden Globes. Which means less than nothing because of the strike. The Ugly comes later on..."Prison Break" fans, you won't like it. Just a warning. Now it should be noted that, of course, Idol did handily win the glorious 18-49 demo and did come close to Oscar's total crowd-Tuesday and Wednesday averaged 29 million, Wednesday did 23 million. Late night TV also benefitted from the strike ending-although final national numbers are a few days away, early local major market figures indicate the first new "Saturday Night Live" in some time did an estimated 7-8 million viewers, which would be the series' biggest crowd in about 2 years. Jimmy Kimmel got nearly 3.7 million as well for a video "response" on the post-Oscar show to some video that, well, I'm not going to explain because I don't understand. I'm not the P-Utube type. OK, time for The Ugly: PB fans, stop reading now or just skip ahead...it's not so much that the season finale only did 7.4 million last Monday. But that it lost to, and I'm not making this up, a kiddie cartoon series on Nickelodeon! In quite the upset, the likes of which we haven't seen since, oh wait, only 3 weeks or so if we count that huge football upset, Nickelodeon's Monday special "Fairly OddBaby" clocked 9 million viewers Monday night at 8 PM, which actually beat every other network except NBC! Fairly Odd, indeed! Or as The Washington Post noted this morning about PB, Fox macho series pounded by Fairly OddBaby. Enough said. I agree. If it's any comfort, not a good week for The CW earlier-on the heels of news that it's losing its top-rated show, WWE Smackdown, after the season (it's moving to even worse confines-MyNetworkTV...it was them or the cable network/superstation WGN), but the return of "America's Next Top Model" was a surprise dud. Only 3.8 million tuned in, the smallest premiere crowd since '04, when it aired on what's now MNTV (UPN). And "Pussycat Dolls: Girlicious" was terribilicuous. Makes you wonder why CW brought it back when only 1.8 million people cared to watch. Oh yeah, can't forget the "Jericho" record-low number this past week: 5.9 million. Almost forgot, NBC had it's biggest "Deal Or No Deal" crowd in almost a year, 17 million Monday, for the end of the million dollar mission-where the contestant had a 50/50 chance to finally win the million...did they finally win it? I haven't heard anything so I assume not. Oh, can't forget the series premieres this week-"My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad" did 9.8 million post-Deal, "Amne$ia" did about 7.4 million. Dad lost nearly half it's Deal lead-in, but Amne$ia retained about all it's "1 Vs. 100" lead-in and actually gained a few viewers at the start.

On cable, lots of good and then some last week-as noted, Fairly OddBaby's 9 million crowd was also cable's most-watched show last week, but not terribly far behind were the latest Democratic Presidential Primary debate, doing 7.6 million Thursday on CNN (#2 primary debate crowd ever on cable) and the season finale of "Monk", which more than justified its 7th season pickup with just under 7 million viewers-that beat all the broadcast nets except Fox. And while this seems like a small number to most of us, apparently 1.1 million is a big deal at Oxygen-that's how many watched "The Bad Girls Club" last Tuesday night. That's the tiny network's biggest crowd ever. Not a lot of people get that network. I don't.

The Week's Top 10 Most Watched Shows, in order: The Academy Awards, Tuesday's "American Idol", Wednesday's Idol, Thursday's Idol, ABC's Academy Awards pre-show, "Deal Or No Deal", Thursday's 9 PM "Lost", "Survivor Micronesia", "Two And A Half Men", "Don't Forget The Lyrics".

Edit: The hopefully absolutely positively final strike update...at least until summer depending on what SAG does...WGA members have overwhelmingly approved their new contract. Of 4060 votes cast in LA and NYC, 93.6% voted for the new deal. That represents only about 40% of members affected by the strike and WGA heads said the turnout was unexpectedly low.
Under the contract, writers will get a maximum flat fee of about $1,200 for programs streamed on the Internet during the deal's first two years and then get 2 percent of a distributor's gross in year three. The deal also establishes guild jurisdiction for shows made for the Internet and other new media.
The contract is retroactive to February 13 and runs through May 1, 2011.

More on this later in the week, but the fast overnights from Tuesday indicate that success of a show on MySpace doesn't translate to success on TV. "Quarterlife", which debuted on NBC last night after a successful internet run, flopped extremely big time-only a 2.7 overnight rating. That'll translate to, if it's lucky, 4.5 million viewers or so. It may be lucky to see week 2.

Late edit: From the Better Late Than Never department...Fox has officially cancelled reality series "Nanny 911" and "Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy" today, both of which last aired last season (February '07 for Nanny 911, May '07 for Trading Spouses). Additionally, Fox has sold both shows to the cable network CMT (Country Music Television), where they will air starting next week. No word on if either series will maybe get new episodes in the future. Both lasted 3 seasons on Fox.

Thursday morning edit: The final "Quarterlife" number was just 3.1 million. While this isn't yet definite, early word from the NBC brass is that the show is likely going to be cancelled before the next episode (Sunday at 9 PM).

One other item that apparently slipped through the cracks in the post-strike hubbub: ABC has put "Carpoolers" in park permanently. They cancelled the new sitcom a couple weeks ago but decided to burn off the remaining episodes, meaning the series finale airs Tuesday. It managed to survive all 13 initial episodes, but the strike put the brakes on any potential ratings traction it had.

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Feb 28 2008.

NBC has announced some Sunday schedule changes which confirms my above edit if you missed it: "Quarterlife", the much-hyped MySpace TV success, was perhaps a bigger bust on network TV than even, dare I say it, Cavemen. It's one and out for the show-cancelled after its first airing. It was to move to Sundays at 9 PM ET, but after just 3.1 million viewers this past Tuesday at 10 PM and a very surprising 1.3 18-49 rating (isn't that like all of MySpace?), not happening. If you need your Quarterlife fix there's always MySpaceTV. 5 episodes are left unaired, no word on if NBC.com will stream them.
The new Sunday lineups as a result:
7 PM-Dateline or various specials
8 PM-Monk (starting April 6)
9 PM-Deal Or No Deal (this Sunday), Law & Order repeats (March 9-30), Psych (starting April 6)
10 PM-Law & Order SVU repeats

Oh yeah, forgot this about how bad Quarterlife was for NBC: That 3.1 million number was The Peacock's lowest 10 PM timeslot rating in 17 years.

And another noteworthy news item: CBS got a new nickname...The MM-Eye. Yeah, made that up. But anyway, CBS announced a new deal today with ProElite, the parent company of the MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) organization EliteXC, on a multi-year deal that will see CBS broadcast 4 live EliteXC events every year, usually Saturdays from 9-11 PM. The first such event could be in April, headlined by a fighter they call Kimbo Slice...and if either you're a diehard MMA fan or you've spent half your life on P-Utube the last couple years you know who he is. But also guys, the other reason this is good news is it means you could see more of your biggest Crush-EXC also features American Gladiators star Gina Carano, one of the top female MMA fighters in the US. And who doesn't love a hottie who can also kick major butt too? Only she does it without that giant stick she had in Joust and used to indescribably awesome Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am extent. Yes, you could say I have a Man Crush on her.

Edit: ABC announced several early pickups for next season:
"America's Funniest Home Videos" gets a 19th season.
"Dancing With The Stars", not surprisingly, gets a 7th season.
"Extreme Makeover Home Edition" gets a 6th season.
"Supernanny" and "Wife Swap" each get a 5th season.

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Feb 28 2008.

Today starts with the kind of news that really snaps you out of that 5 AM funk...on radio this morning I heard that, according to CBS News, "Scrubs" may not be done after this season, it may be picked up for an 8th season. On ABC. Don't get too excited yet, there's more to the story-these rumors have been floating around for 2 years or so, largely because the show is produced by ABC Studios even though NBC airs the show (the same deal as shows like My Name Is Earl, a Fox-produced show on NBC, and House, an NBC-produced show on Fox). But NBC claims a bunch of legal stuff and is apparently thinking of suing for breach of legal contract if the plan goes through. Stuff about right of first negotiation and right of first refusal. We'll see, but just keep in mind that if it shows up on ABC next season, this wasn't the final season after all.
Also, should Scrubs go to ABC, it's understood that the entire cast will go along too.

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Feb 29 2008.

quote SummonerSupreme

...Greek
The cable network ABC Family has renewed this new drama series for a second season. The show is ABC Family's top-rated original series in the adults 18-24 demo...

And in the meantime, back to news...The CW today announced the following pickups for next season:
"Gossip Girl" gets a 2nd season. Despite only so-so ratings, even by CW standards, it's one of the top 3 shows on TV in women 18-34, according to The CW.
"One Tree Hill" gets a 6th season. See Gossip Girl but with slightly better ratings.
"Smallville" gets an 8th season.
"Supernatural" gets a 4th season.
"Everybody Hates Chris" gets a 4th season. This was expected on the heels of an earlier report that CBS Television Distribution had signed a deal to air the show on the cable network Nickelodeon as part of Nick At Nite starting in '09. The deal was for 4 seasons, including the already-in-production season 4.
The CW also announced a pickup of "America's Next Top Model" for its 11th & 12th season, but that was just a formality of sorts, it had already been renewed through its 14th go-around (2009) last summer.

On the heels of yesterday's pickups, The CW today set its midseason schedule:
Mondays:
8 PM-Gossip Girl (new episodes return 4/21)
9 PM-One Tree Hill (new episodes return 4/7)

Tuesdays:
8 PM-Beauty & The Geek (new episodes start 3/11)
9 PM-Reaper (new episodes return 3/25)

Wednesdays:
8 PM-America's Next Top Model
9 PM-Pussycat Dolls Presents Girlicious (new episodes start 4/9)

Thursdays:
8 PM-Smallville (new episodes scheduled to return 3/13)
9 PM-Supernatural (returns 4/3, new episodes return 4/17)

Sundays:
7 PM-America's Next Top Model repeats
8 PM-Everybody Hates Chris
8:30 PM-Aliens In America
9 PM-The Game (new episodes return 3/23)
9:30 PM-Girlfriends (new episodes return 3/23)

Also of note with regards to the fate of the sitcoms besides Everybody Hates Chris: There are rumors that The CW has laid off its entire comedy production staff.

Weekly Nielsen Ratings Report for Week Ending 3/2/08:
Wow, you'd think based on this past week that nobody cares about the strike being over. All but one top-rated program this past week, excluding live sports coverage, was reality. As usual the three-headed beast that is the unstoppable Idol juggernaut led the way, with 27-28 million for each night. But ABC got a nice ratings bookmark on either end from She With The Midas Touch-Oprah. "A Raisin In The Sun", the latest movie to be based on an Oprah's Book Club selection (that which pretty much guarantees you a bestseller), drew 12.7 million viewers Monday night and stopped NBC's 6-week Monday winning streak. It also did slightly better than the last Oprah made-for-ABC movie in December, which did 12.5 million. Then Oprah gave The Alphabet another big gift in the form of new series "Oprah's Big Give"-15.7 million, making it the #3 top-rated series premiere so far this year (only "The Moment Of Truth" and "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" drew more). Compared to regular slot occupant "Extreme Makeover Home Edition", Oprah gained a few viewers over the average EMHE crowd. Oprah also slightly improved on said lead-in crowd. ABC also had said only top-10 non-reality show this week: "Lost", with just under 13 million. And after Oprah Sunday, some other new ABC show, "Here Comes Newlyweds", debuted with about 10 million, easily winning the timeslot. On CBS, week 2 of heavily-sanitized "Dexter" did just under 7 million-while that's #3 out of 4 (read on for details) and maybe not the best by CBS standards, this is still a great number for the show as it's at least 6 times its average Showtime crowd. Another surprise was "Don't Forget The Lyrics" on Thursday, with a new record-high crowd of 14.4 million...oh wait, that's the Idol effect. Which also helped "Back To You", which made a surprise return for 2 new episodes before its original April return date-Idol helped both shows do 12.2 million each. Now for said Sunday 4...Fox planned to premiere new series "Unhitched" Sunday at 9:30, but The Fox didn't plan on a roughly 30 minute NASCAR overrun, so the entire Sunday slate was bumped back 30 minutes, so Unhitched aired at 10-which, of course, is when Fox usually hands the reigns back to its local affiliates. Not sure in how many places that happened, but Unhitched was just that-only 5.8 million tuned in. If you like the show, thank Jeff Gordon. If you hate it, thank Jeff Gordon. And of course I have to note NBC's record-low 10 PM crowd on Tuesday for "Quarterlife", just 3.1 million tuned in and it got Das Boot. Read on for more...it gets interesting...

On cable, MSNBC drew its biggest audience ever for Tuesday's Democratic Presidential Debate-nearly 8 million tuned in. Now here's the interesting part-see the Quarterlife item above? NBC might have, through MSNBC (it owns both), killed its own show! Said Obama-Clinton yakfest did air opposite Quarterlife from 10-10:30, and the Debate attracted more of the key 18-34 demo than Quarterlife did. Nice job, NBC. But still funny nonetheless. On Bravo, "Project Runway" enters its 4ths eason finale on the strength of 4 million viewers last week, its 2nd-largest crowd ever (only the season 3 finale had more, 5.4 million), a number that bodes well for its future.

The Week's Top 10 Most Watched Shows, in order: Tuesday's "American Idol", Wednesday's Idol, Thursday's Idol, "Oprah's Big Give", Monday's "Deal Or No Deal", "Extreme Makeover Home Edition", "Don't Forget The Lyrics", Fox's NASCAR coverage/overrun (7-8:30), Thursday's 9 PM "Lost", "A Raisin In The Sun".

Some other morning news:
Bravo, which is also owned by NBC Universal, will burn off the remaining 5 episodes of Quarterlife. They will air as a marathon of the entire series this Saturday from 8 AM-2 PM ET.
The cable network ABC Family is reportedly close to renewing drama series "Lincoln Heights" for a 3rd season. The order is expected to be 10-12 episodes, to likely begin airing later this year.

Edit: More midday news...
NBC is rolling out some of their summer series earlier than usual this year, in part because of the Olympics. Here are known premiere dates:
May 12-American Gladiators (2 hour season premiere, then 90 minute episodes)
May 22-Last Comic Standing (90 minute episodes)
May 29-Fear Itself
June 9-Nashville Star (90 minute episodes)
June 11-Celebrity Circus
June 24-America's Got Talent
June 25-The Baby Borrowers
Talent will run through June & July then go on hiatus for the Olympics and return in late August.

Tuesday's fast overnights just came out, and the numbers for the new Fox series "New Amsterdam" are mixed. It did an 8.3 rating, which should mean a final number in the 13-14 million range. It easily won the 9 PM timeslot but lost over half it's Idol lead-in.

One early Thursday item: NBC may have found the partner needed to keep "Friday Night Lights" on for a 3rd season-DirecTV. According to Zap2it, details of the agreement haven't been released yet, though reports are that DirecTV and NBC would each run "Friday Night Lights" on multiple platforms. It's not yet clear how the sharing arrangement would work-whether DirecTV would get first crack at new episodes, a la the NBC-USA deal for "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," or where NBC would place the show on its schedule. Lights averaged only 6.2 million viewers a week this season, although its fans are among the more loyal on TV and have organized a save-the-show campaign targeting NBC executives. I guess that's obligatory for any show these days among all you crazy psycho fans. It does perform fairly among affluent viewers, which helps any show's cause (see The Apprentice).

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Mar 06 2008.

Well, all you suffering "24" fans might not have to suffer until January. No, Season 7 is not airing ahead of schedule. But, according to Zap2it, the producers are working on a prequel that may air this fall. The prequel would be able to lay the groundwork for what is expected to be a very different season of "24." The seventh season will move the action from Los Angeles to Washington and will force Kiefer Sutherland's Bauer to operate without his familiar CTU backdrop. Among the new characters to be introduced are Tony winner Cherry Jones as the first female President of the United States. The trade paper has no word on when the prequel would be produced and which actors might participate. Writing has resumed on the seventh season of "24" with veteran showrunner Howard Gordon in charge. The series had a bit of a creative shake-up in February when co-creator and long-time executive producer Joel Surnow left the show to go work on other projects.

Some Monday news, sponsored by the letter "L"...read on:
The cable network Showtime today renewed its criticially-acclaimed series "The L Word" for a 6th season of 8 episodes, which will also be the show's final season. Look for the 8 episodes in '09. The groundbreaking series follows a group of Los Angeles-based friends as they navigate careers, families, friendships, inner struggles and romantic entanglements. Since its January 2004 debut, the series has become part of American popular culture, spawning its own social networking site (OurChart.com), huge popularity in Second Life, dedicated fan websites and blogs, along with ancillary products such as THE L WORD(R)- branded perfume, jewelry and books. Basically, it was TV's first lesbian-themed primetime drama.

Get ready for another Duel at ABC. The Alphabet has renewed new high-stakes game show "Duel" for a second run of 10 episodes, to start in April. This time, instead of just a 1-2 week stunt, it'll air only once a week-Friday nights at 9 PM. The first time around, the big winner took home almost $1.8 million at the end. Ratings were generally so-so for the series.

The cable network HBO has ordered a season of "The #1 Ladies' Detective Agency", based on the international bestselling novels by Alexander McCall Smith. HBO will partner with BBC and The Weinstein Co. on production, with HBO distributing the series in the US & Canada and the BBC distributing the show in England. A 2 hour movie will serve as the pilot with 13 episodes filming starting this summer.

And finally, time to kill some rumors starting to pop up on the web: Heather Locklear is alive and well. Repeat: Heather Locklear is alive and well. Zap2it has learned that reports of the actress trying to commit suicide this past weekend are totally false. A mysterious someone had called 911, reporting that the actress would try to kill herself, but when the Ventura Fire Department and two paramedics units arrived at her Woodland Hills home on Saturday, March 8, they determined there was no suicide attempt made and left after 10 minutes. The call was made by someone outside of the actress' home. The suicide attempt reports were confirmed as false by Locklear's rep, who spoke directly to Locklear then to TMZ.

Alright everyone, get your brackets out because CBS has just unveiled its entire NCAA Basketball Men's Tournament coverage schedule (all times ET):
March 20 and 21-Noon-5 PM and 7 PM-midnight
March 22-1 PM-11 PM
March 23-Noon-7 PM
March 27 and 28-7 PM-midnight
March 29-2:30 PM-11 PM
March 30-2 PM-7 PM
April 5-3:30 PM-11 PM (Final 4; pregame/specials at 3:30, games at 6)
April 7-9 PM-11:30 PM (National Championship)
Naturally all primetime shows will be pre-empted during coverage, and there may be additional pre-emptions/delays due to unexpected overruns when games run long, and they always do.

The ESPNs will carry the Women's Tournament.

3/12 edit: I'm a bit under the weather, so no ratings report this week.

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Mar 12 2008.

Monday news (and by the way, you may have noticed a new name doing this stuff now...it's the same person as before, I just got a name change):
ABC has announced a few more schedule changes, mainly tying up some loose ends on the spring lineup...
"According To Jim" returns on April 15. It's now on a month-long hiatus due to "Dancing With The Stars" returning tonight for its spring run. It will move from Tuesdays at 9 to Tuesdays at 8 & 8:30, expected to be a mix of reruns and new episodes (it should have 7 new episodes remaining this season as it was expected to complete its entire season despite the strike). "Just For Laughs", currently in the 8 PM timeslot, finishes its 2nd season on April 8.
"Oprah's Big Give", currently airing Sundays at 9 PM, will move to 8 PM on April 13 & 20 to make room for the returning "Desperate Housewives" & "Brothers & Sisters". "Here Come The Newlyweds", currently airing Sundays at 10:02 PM (to get the ratings benefits of an Oprah lead-in at 10), finished its first season on April 6.
Housewives and "Lost" will air back-to-back repeats of the final pre-strike episodes on April 10 & 17, respectively, at 8 PM.
"Men In Trees" will not air Wednesday, April 9 to make room for the "Primetime" special "The Last Lecture: A Story for Your Life." This is expected to be just a 1-week break for Men In Trees.
"America's Funniest Home Videos" wraps its 18th season with a 2-hour finale on Friday, May 16, at 8 PM.
The Alphabet's two-hour coverage of the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee has been set for Friday, May 30 at 8:00/7:00c. It's not known if this will be live or taped as the Bee usually airs live during the daytime hours on one of the ESPN networks (ESPN, ESPN2, or ESPN Classic).

"Secret Talents of the Stars", a new series that CBS has ordered for this season, will premiere Tuesday, April 8 at 10 PM ET and run for 6 weeks in that timeslot. While not officially announced, an audience solicitation notice indicates Ben Stein, Bridget Marquardt, Cindy Margolis, Clint Black, Danny Bonaduce, George Takei, Joe Frazier, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Marla Maples, Mya, Ric Flair, Roy Jones Jr., Sasha Cohen and Sheila E. are among the participating celebrities. No host or judges however have been confirmed. The current timeslot occuipant, "Jericho", finishes its extremely disappointing (ratings-wise) 2nd and should-be-final season on March 25, then a special new "CSI Miami" airs in the timeslot on April 1 before Secret Talents is to take over (the 4/8 slot is currently listed as TBA repeats).

One quick ratings note ahead of Wednesday (and I hope to be able to do the ratings report this week as hopefully I'll be over this bad cold that kept me from doing it last week)-if the premiere ratings are any indication, "The Return Of Jezebel James" wasn't much of a return Friday for Fox, as the 2 premiere episodes averaged a paltry 2.2 rating, the worst of anything that night-a whole .5 rating point worse than #11 of 12 that night, WWE Smackdown. It might be gone after this week without improvement. Also of note last week, the series premiere of "Canterbury's Law" drew mixed results that give it a cloudy fate already. Not so much because of its overall rating-4.9, which was a very solid 2nd in its timeslot, but because it's key 18-49 rating was a surprisingly low 1.8. That only beat new episodes of "October Road" and "Pussycat Dolls Present" and a "Gossip Girl" repeat. So if this promising new series gets cancelled despite some nice praise, it's because maybe it skewed a little too old for young-skewing Fox. If these numbers were on, say, CBS or even NBC, it's in fine shape, but on Fox its already on shaky ground. Stay tuned.

This just in: Despite rather low ratings for the franchise this current run, CBS reportedly wants "Big Brother" back for a 10th season, to run in the usual summer timeframe. The 9th season, currently airing, premiered last month well ahead of schedule due largely to the strike. Big Brother's ratings this season are well off what it usually does, namely it's 18-49 rating is down to 2.1. It has been averaging 2.8-2.9 during the summer the last 3 times.

This message was edited by DCRage on Mar 17 2008.