Tagged: NBC

NBC also cancels Free Agents

NBC has been quicker on the cancellation trigger than most networks; surprising, considering their fourth-place status.

The latest victim? The half-hour comedy starring Kathryn Hahn and Hank Azaria. Personally, I loved the show, set in Portland, and the chemistry between Azaria and Hahn. It was cleaver and funny, but not as innovative as Up Al Night. When it was unable to hold that show’s lead-in, the writing was on the wall.

It’s too bad. The show had a lot of charm. And that’s not the jewelry beads supply apparent on the show talking!

Carell delivers ratings for Office exit

Steve Carell delivered great ratings for the episode of The Office that featured his exit from the series. 8.25 million viewers tuned in to watch Michael Scott bid farewell to his crew and join Holly in Colorado for his happily-ever-after.

Now speculation begins on just who the network has settled on to replace Carell long-term. Will Ferrell is the current favorite but has been notably listed as a guest star during his current run on the show to date. To fuel speculation, NBC is planning guest spots from just about every prominent actor named by fans as a favorite to replace Carell over the past year.

The list includes British The Office star and creator Ricky Gervais, Will Arnett, Ray Romano, James Spader and perhaps even Jim Carrey. I’m sure NBC is sending out Gift Baskets for Men to lure most of these folks back to TV, but for my money the favorite remains Arnett, with Gervais as a fan-favorite. Carrey would be an incredible get, but unlikely; Romano is uninspiring and while Spader could do some interesting work with the role, I’m not sure he’s quite the right fit.

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.

Conan offers NBC ultimatum

Conan O’Brien offered NBC an ultimatum this week: move the Tonight Show later than it has aired for 60 years, and I’m walking away. While he hopes NBC will choose to keep The Tonight Show in its traditional spot with him as host, O’Brien’s ultimatum is viewed by some network execs as his resignation papers. This means NBC will effectively have given Conan only seven months on the Tonight Show after a 16-year partnership.

If NBC boots Conan, Jay Leno would be free to return to the Tonight Show, but as damaged goods; he’s already the butt of national jokes that paint him as the reason NBC is now viewed as a “minor-league” network on par with The CW and MyNetworkTV. NBC trashed five hours of scripted programming last spring to launch The Jay Leno Show, simply to hang on to a relationship with the aging comic; now, they could be trashing the future of The Tonight Show by losing out on its natural successor in O’Brien.

Sure, O’Brien is joking about selling the best weightloss products in a matter of weeks, but the truth is that he will immediately become the focus of a bidding war for his services, with Fox being the most natural suitor.

NBC muffed the Carson-to-Letterman transition, opting for Leno about 16 years ago; now they’ve muffed the Leno-to-O’Brien transition. Nitwits.

Chuck’s return is set!

After the miserable failure of just about everything else currently airing on NBC Mondays, the network has finally decided when to put on-air something that does work: the third-year dramedy, Chuck, will return to NBC’s beleaguered schedule on Sunday, January 10 with a two-hour movie-length special, and then will settle back into its old home on Mondays at 7 PM Central (8 PM Eastern).

This should be the cause of much rejoicing for Chuck fans, who saw the series’ initial order for this season expand from 13 episodes to 18, long before even a single episode has aired; while NBC’s miserable status since dropping out of the “major network” race by turning its third prime-time hour into a Jay Leno talk-show slot five nights a week, some help from Chuck may equate to help for the network at large, at least on Mondays.

Once Chuck moves to 7 PM Mondays in January, Heroes will move back to its more-familiar 8 PM time slot, which may improve that show’s fortunes. One can only hope. Seriously, if it were not for NBC’s comedy block on Thursday nights, which is consistently good with Community, Parks and Recreation, The Office and 30 Rock, there’s not a single complete night of programming on NBC that is solid front-to-back. It’s enough to make a person who likes the few remaining good shows on the network turn to electronic cigarettes.

Still, long-term, the best chance for NBC as a whole is for Comcast to take over ownership, fire all the idiots currently in charge, and turn NBC back into a three prime-time hours of real programming network once again, instead of this bargain-basement approach taken by GE.

Chuck could see game-changing changes

Building up toward a season finale and preparing for a third season, Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak tease that the hit NBC spy-comedy, Chuck, could see a game-changing finale and set-up for an all-new direction next season. While they aren’t spilling the beans on the nature of this game-changing stunner, we do know that Jordana Brewster, who plays Chuck’s ex, is filming at least one new episode this season, though whether it’s the finale or not remains uncertain.

While it’s unlikely to involve anything as pedestrian as a new barcode scanner for BuyMore, or anything as wild as the kind of twists Lost regularly throws our way, we remain fans of Chuck and certainly interested to see how this all plays out.

Bush’s Deal deal

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.

Canucks get final two Chucks two days early

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.

Celebrity Apprentice won’t fly Air Paris

Early in the casting process, Donald Trump mentioned that his wish list for the celebrity version of his business-skills reality show, The Apprentice, would include Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie and Britney Spears. That’s a no, no and no for The Donald.

While a very small handful of the celebrities who have been confirmed for the shows are recognizable, most are a rung or two below Paris, Nicole and Britney. So, for the most part, make that “E-List” celebrities, at best. None of them are of the tabloid, booze, and platform shoes set.

Here’s the list:

  • Trace Adkins
  • Carol Alt
  • Stephen Baldwin
  • Nadia Comaneci
  • Tiffany Fallon
  • Jennie Finch
  • Nely Galan
  • Marilu Henner
  • Lennox Lewis
  • Piers Morgan
  • Omarosa
  • Tito Ortiz
  • Vincent Pastore
  • Gene Simmons

What’s sad is that world-class athlete Nadia Comaneci is, by now, far less familiar to most viewers than former Apprentice diva Omarosa. Such is the circle of life in Hollywood.

Journeyman all but canceled – Bionic Woman in limbo

I’m not sure if even Viewers for Quality Television can help out this time; without Heroes as a lead-in, the mildly sci-fi NBC drama Journeyman has been all but canceled; the network had until Tuesday, December 12, to pick the series up for the “back nine” episodes, but failed to do so, which releases the cast and crew.

Call it a back-door cancellation. Star Kevin McKidd may need a Raleigh personal injury lawyer to overcome the stiff-arm the network game the freshman series. All 13 initial episodes will air on NBC, so at least there’s that.

Chuck and Life have been picked up for the full season order, as previously reported here on HollywoodIdiocy.com. As for Bionic Woman, the show has lost Katie Sackoff, who played the pre-Jamie Summers Bionic Woman and proved more popular than the show’s lead actress. Bionic Woman’s future is ticking away faster than it can bleed Nielsens in the direction of Fox’s Kitchen Nightmares.

New Knight Rider will be bitter Iraq War vet?

Count on the new, unabashedly liberal head of NBC, Ben Silverman, to come up with this kind of claptrap; the concept of the newly remade Knight Rider series is that the new KITT is a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500KR (which I don’t mind) and will be driven by Justin Bruening of CBS’ Cold Case. The kicker is that Bruening’s character will be, and I quote from TVWeek.com, “Mike Tracer (Bruening), a 23-year-old ex-Army Ranger, whom Sarah hasn’t seen since he left home at 18. Having served in Iraq, Mike is now jaded and lost and initially resistant.”

The new KITT might need some truck accessories, given that it will have a normal mode, a high-speed attack mode and a driverless remote mode, perhaps a nod to this past summer’s Transformers movie. Yet the new KITT is the least of the problems here.

Injecting politics into the escapist fun that any new Knight Rider series ought to be will prove to be a poor choice, especially considering that the troop surge is working. And what’s with getting Arrested Development’s Will Arnatt as the voice of KITT? That’s a diseased choice. If NBC really wanted a cool voice for the new KITT – since the original voice, Magnum P.I.’s John Hillerman, is no longer available at age 74, apparently – they could have gone for many better choices.

Like who? Oh, how about Hugh Laurie? Sure, he’s tied to House but Hillerman was tied to Magnum PI when the original Knight Rider debuted. And the “but they’re on different networks” objection doesn’t work, either; Magnum PI had Hillerman on CBS, while Knight Rider was on NBC originally.

If Laurie can’t be signed, how about his old Brit-com partner, Stephen Frye? Or perhaps thrill videogame fans by casting voice actor David Hayter, of Metal Gear Solid fame? I’d even settle for The Office (UK version)/Extras actor Ricky Gervais. Or Christopher Eccleston of Doctor Who and Heroes fame? Or even David Tennant, the current Doctor?

All of these would be worlds better than Arnatt. Looks like Knight Rider will be headed toward the same “blew it big-time” path that last year’s Studio 60 and this year’s Bionic Woman have traveled.

New Office spinoff?

Perhaps the writers strike isn’t going to be the big deal some are anticipating.

Word on the street is that Ben Silverman and NBC are interested in developing a spin-off of The Office, which could potentially air next season. No word on casting, although industry buzz says it’ll be an all-new cast, not some lame Jim and Pam-based deal.

Now, I’m a fan of The Office, but I do think overkill can destroy not only the spinoff, but the original.

The US version of The Office is already a spinoff of a much more brilliant BBC version of the show, penned by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who are currently laboring on a third season of Extras, from the sound of things.

The US version nearly bombed due to overblown US portrayals, and it was only in the second season, when the comedy style became a bit more restrained and subtle that the show began to catch on with US audiences.

But another version of The Office? Definitely overkill.

Sure, it would be an all-new cast. Yes, I understand that series cast members like Steve Carell and company are becoming hot properties and maintaining the cast may quickly become too spendy in the long term.

Yet, is the answer really a substandard spin-off?

Already, names being cast about to headline a second Office are the likes of Ed O’Neill, Mike Myers and Jim Carrey.

First, I doubt Carrey would do it, that Myers would be good at it, or that O’Neill would be well-suited to the role. Better to go with Carell’s Comedy Central pal, Stephen Colbert and capture lightning in a bottle for a second time. The only real question is whether he’d be willing to walk away from a guaranteed hit like The Colbert Report to live in the shadow of comparison that’s sure to hang over any second Office series.

In the end, it would be better to just pony up to the current cast on renewal, set an end-date for the series, and write with that in mind. Which means it’s more likely that before long, NBC’s sitcom lineup will look like CBS’s CSI line-up:

Mondays: The Office: Birmingham
Tuesdays: The Office: Ames
Wednesdays: The Office: Portland
Thursdays: The Office
Fridays: My Name Is The Office