Tagged: 24

24 showrunner Gordon a Patriot?

24 may be shopped to NBC from Fox, but it will do so without showrunner Howard Gordon. Gordon, who has been with 24 since its inception, is leaving the real-time drama to work on a new project, tentatively titled Patriots, which will focus on three Iraq War vets who were thought dead but re-emerge from a cave ten years later.

While part of the show is sure to focus on the discombobulation of how things have changed in 10 years (the switch of presidents from Bush to Obama, the shift in attitude against the war, the introduction of Skechers Shape Ups and whatnot…), the concept is actually drawn from an Israeli TV show, Prisoners of War, which recently finished its run. Gordon is hoping the show will be picked up during the upcoming pilot season for a Fall 2010 pickup.

24 to NBC?

Keifer Sutherland’s 24 is rumored to be heading for cancellation after this, the show’s eighth season; however, word around the ‘wood is that NBC has approached Fox to discuss terms on picking up the show for at least one additional season.

NBC is show-hungry after axing five hours of prime-time television to make way for the failed Jay Leno Show, and 24 is a solid performer, even though its costs are high and the ratings aren’t as stellar as they were when the show was fresh.

However, a switch to NBC could lead to nightmare scenarios like having the network force 24′s producers to force “go green” messages into their anti-terrorist drama. Sounds like a bigger recipe for disaster than simply having Keifer munching on tatuaje cigars throughout an entire season.

Forthcoming writers strike unwise

It hasn’t even happened yet and already HollyLibs are preparing for it like the second coming … of Ishtar. That’s right, the Hollywood screenwriters are about to go on strike … again.

Now, at issue are legitimate concerns. Studios are making tons off new revenue streams like DVD sales, cellphone deliveries, iPod sales and so forth; and the writers responsible for all that downloadable IP aren’t exactly getting their cut. That’s wrong.

But beware! Does anyone remember the consequences the last time HollyWriters went on strike? Hollywood proved it could adapt by developing an all-new, writer-less form of TV: reality program.

Some of the shows launched back then still survive to this day, including the one that nearly started it all, at least on network television: Survivor. Also still around are summer fare like Big Brother. And their progeny have littered network schedules ever since, to the chagrin of the creators of scripted dramas and comedies.

In fact, only in the last couple years have scripted shows really started to overcome the reality show challenge. Shows like Heroes and Lost and 24 and Prison Break have won back all the momentum lost during the last big writers strike.

I’m not saying the battle’s not worth fighting; it is. But beware of taking it all the way to a strike; beware of the very real risks of stretching out such a strike for too long.

Studios, too, need to beware of becoming too unreasonable in withholdiing the writers’ fair share of new revenue streams. Face is, studio bosses, without writers, you’re screwed into the corner of airing lots of sports, reality shows and other such fare. While much of it may indeed draw ratings, what must be kept in mind is even reality TV has a saturation point, and while a brief revival may help, it’s not a long-term solution.

Ratings of network TV has declined steadily since the last time the writers went on an extended strike. Deal fairly with them and either prevent the strike or keep it brief by dealing fairly.

Otherwise, folks just may stay tuned to their iPods, PS3s, Web browsers and endless supply of DVD libraries far longer than you think. The audience may indeed be hard to win back, once they realize home much other entertainment is out there to be had, and how little they actually need to find out whether the cheerleader will continue to be saved on Heroes, or whether House will ever settle on a new team of doc interns, or whether Losties will ever truly be… Found.

Four-night blitz pays off big for Fox

The Fox Network used to be the butt of jokes like this: “If someone offered the major networks a chance to broadcast live executions, the only one who’d turn down the opportunity is Fox. They would insist on live, nude executions.”

Yet the same ‘Net bigwigs making those jokes aren’t laughing anymore … and probably haven’t been for a long time. But the power of Fox was made crystal clear this week when it posted its first big win with a powerhouse lineup.

Sunday and Monday’s four-hour, two-night premiere of 24 blew away everything but The Golden Globes, and the Tuesday-Wednesday four-hour, two-night debut of American Idol will prove to be the top two shows of the week, posting an increasingly rare 20.2 rating and a 30 share, according to ratings reports released by Nielsen Media Research.

The 24-American Idol 1-2 punch has never been more potent and is a real metabolism booster for Fox, which did OK last fall with House and Prison Break leading the way; but there’s nothing that quite measures up to Bauer power and Simon making bad singers cry by telling them the truth.

Yet even as audiences grow smaller and smaller for the other big networks … whose ratings varied from a 7.1 (CBS) down to a 2.1 (The CW) … Hollywood grows more and more hostile to something that works.

Sure, Simon’s rudely honest with people. But the show is definitely family viewing. Even 24 can’t lay claim to that, and AI’s ratings are significantly bigger than even 24′s. Yet the networks continue not to get the message and idiotically despise AI while continuing to dish out shows that are anything but family viewing.

And they wonder why they can’t pull in the 30.0 rating that MASH did in the 70s and 80s anymore. It’s not just that cable and satellite bring people more choices, folks… it’s that people no longer like most of the choices the networks dish up anymore, so naturally they’re gonna splinter off and watch Bill O’Reilly, Mythbusters and whatever’s on the History Channel or Animal Planet instead.