HollywoodIdiocy.com

The Peacock network is relying on a defective detective to prop up its summer ratings; USA Network’s obsessive-compulsive detective, Monk, played by Tony Shaloub, will move from USA to NBC for its seventh season, scheduled to start in July.

The one-hour dramady, which has flourished on USA, has been airing reruns on NBC along with its companion show, Psych, for about a month and doing decent numbers. The move from USA to NBC for the summer half of Monk’s season is a big show of faith by the NBC parent network in the show, which has also done well in DVD complete season sales.

There is, of course, a risk that the show could do poorly and fade from memory as a result, although it is more likely that the show would just move back to cable netlet USA if it doesn’t perform well on the broadcast net.

So far, there is no word on whether the new, third season of Psych will join Monk in the NBC jump, or if it will remain on USA. Keep in mind, SAG and AFTRA continue to hold the looming threat of a possible actors strike, which could begin as early as June, could shut production back down in Hollywood on these and all other shows.

President George W. Bush will make a surprise appearance on NBC’s Howie Mandel-hosted game show, Deal or No Deal, to wish contestant Captain Joseph Kobes well in his quest to win the game show and thank him for his service to his country. Capt. Kobes has served in Iraq for three tours of duty and has won both the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star, two of the highest honors given by the US government.

Bush’s message was taped at the White House and is an appropriate honor for a serviceman who has given so much for his country during a time of war. While NBC did not reveal whether Captain Kobes fared well in his quest for as much as $1 million, you can bet his elation at a message from his commander in chief did not elicit a taciturn response and would have set off motion sensor lights when he saw it.

The fourth-season debut of Ghost Hunters on the SciFi Channel, scored record ratings for a regular-season broadcast, notching a 1.9 Neilsen, making the broadcast tops among all cable channels last Wednesday night. Boasting a more scientific, “attempt to disprove it all” approach than other paranormal investigation shows, Ghost Hunters focuses on the adventures of Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson’s “The Atlantic Paranormal Society,” known popularly as TAPS, as they investigate a variety of reported hauntings, trying to measure alleged paranormal activity at such sites.

Only broadcast nets scored biggest numbers in that time period, which makes Ghost Hunters the current darling of cable netlets owned by parent corporation GE under the NBC-Universal banner. If the ratings hold, expect Ghost Hunters to remain on SciFi for some time to come. You don’t need a Jaeger LeCoultre to tell you that right now, on SciFi, it’s Ghost Hunters time.

CityTV viewers in the great white north will benefit from a special scheduling situation this Monday night. The Canadian broadcaster will be transmitting the final two pre-strike episodes of the dramady CHUCK, about a reluctant spy, in its regular Monday night time slot. All NBC affiliates, including Canadian NBC affiliates, will still be airing the final two Chuck episodes on Thursday as planned, scheduled on either side of an all-new episode of Celebrity Apprentice.

The show’s brief return from hiatus marks a successful pre-strike run for the dramady, which typically aired on Monday nights in the fall, as a lead-in to HEROES. It is one of a handful of select shows already renewed for next season, thanks in part to the strike-shortened timeframe of the show’s run. Another freshman NBC drama from the Monday fall schedule, Journeyman, a personal favorite of HollywoodIdiocy.com, was not as fortunate; not only has the show been canceled, but the studio apparently tore up its agreement with the writer-producer of the show as part of a strike tactic.

One things for sure, owning a pair of disposable gloves might be necessary to avoid all the dust that’s going to be settling once this strike is done and over with.

Now the WGA writers strike is getting ugly for the long haul; the kind of ugly that a simple exchange of religious jewelry cannot solve.

In a trend started last week by ABC and taken up this week by Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox TV, CBS Paramount Network TV and Universal Media Studios, Hollywood’s leading studios have decided to cut costs by axing the development deals of several writer-producer teams whose output has halted as a result of the strike.

The move is seen largely as a counter-move to the WGA’s decision to come to individual agreements between the WGA and certain studios, like David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants, a deal which allowed the CBS late night host to return from hiatus with his staff of writers intact.

By axing the writer-producer deals with these studios, the studios are cutting their costs but are also freeing up a lot of creative talent from their current obligations, so that when the labor agreement is finally settled, there could be a lot of “free agent” producers available whose services could induce a bidding war.

But before that can happen, a labor agreement must be reached; unfortunately, the move of studio owners to ax existing deals in the middle of the strike is likely to result in a strike that is much longer, more bitter and increasing entrenched, rather than one that will be resolved more quickly.

It sounded too good to be true when it was announced last spring.

When it renewed breakout drama HEROES, the network ordered an extra-large portion of the drama for the 2007-08 season, asking for 24 regular-season episodes, and a six-episode miniseries called HEROES: ORIGINS, which would focus one six potential new heroes, one of whom would be added to the regular cast in the third season. That made a total of 30 hours of NBC’s most highly-rated drama.

Now, it looks like the network may be fortunate to produce 10 hours of HEROES this season. The network has already put plans on hiatus for HEROES: ORIGINS, and now has announced plans to shelve the series entirely until next fall, if the WGA goes through with the announced writers strike.

If a strike is averted, the show could still move forward this season as planned; however, at the moment I’m writing this, no deal has been announced, and it’s midnight on the east coast.

The final episode of HEROES this season, if the strike happens, would air on NBC on December 3. Stinks, doesn’t it? Not exactly the kind of thing that inspires folks to go out and buy designer inspired jewelry, is it?