By Jeff Rosz | May 16th, 2013  USA Network is hard at work preparing for a retool as Modern Family repeats will soon dominate its schedule. They got the rights maybe a year ago, and ever since then, the topic of discussion was how they might become a comedy player as they are best known for their often-hokey dramas (don’t worry, more of those are coming.) One of the suggestions was to buy the now-cancelled former partner of the sitcom, Happy Endings. While that is still up for discussion, USA has planned some originals of their own which they are sharing today.
NEW YORK – May 16, 2013 – USA Network today greenlit its first original half-hour comedies, with series orders forSIRENS from Denis Leary (“Rescue Me”) and Bob Fisher (“Wedding Crashers”) and PLAYING HOUSE from Jessica St. Clair (“Bridesmaids,” “Best Friends Forever”) and Lennon Parham (“Best Friends Forever,” “Accidentally On Purpose”). The network also picked up a new comedy pilot, LOVE IS DEAD. The new series will debut in the first quarter of 2014, and will be strong complements to Modern Family, the award-winning and top-rated comedy, which premieres on USA Tuesday, September 24 at 8/7c. The announcement was made in conjunction with USA’s Upfront (#USAupfront), which is being held today at Pier 36 in New York. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 16th, 2013  With Burn Notice coming to a close, USA Network will be moving hard to ensure their top basic cable network status does not subside. There are eight original drama programs being mentioned today with official synopsis’ revealed in the official press release that follows.
NEW YORK – May 16, 2013 – Continuing to build on the network’s strength of signature original series, USA announced today a powerful new drama slate of upcoming development from high-profile auspices and homegrown series producers. The network also announced that it will start production on HORIZON, a period genre project from Executive Producer Gale Anne Hurd (“Walking Dead”). USA’s newest original series GRACELAND, from White Collar creator Jeff Eastin, will kick off the network’s summer slate of original dramas, featuring SUITS, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs and Necessary Roughness. The announcement was made in conjunction with USA’s Upfront (#USAupfront), which is being held today at Pier 36 in New York and emceed by the cast of SUITS. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 16th, 2013  In case anyone cares anymore, here is the CW schedule for next year. It is riddled with returning programs, but there are a few newbies in the form of The Originals, The Tomorrow People, and Reign. This suggests they may not even be trying anymore as ratings remain in the basement, but it gets attention nonetheless because of its broadcast roots. What some of you may be noticing here is Nikita is off the schedule. That is because it has been cancelled with an ordered six-episode run to provide closure. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 16th, 2013  Slowly but surely, Amazon Prime is quietly becoming an attractive alternative (or supplement depending on how you look at it) to Netflix. While today’s news does not exactly drive that point forward, the e-tailers grasp of more exclusive rights reasserts a continued commitment to such strategies. The programs coming to Prime include Grimm, Covert Affairs (USA,) Hannibal, and Defiance (Syfy.) Arguably, it is Grimm that is the draw here as it has quietly established itself as a Friday mainstay over the past two years over at NBC, becoming the network’s most consistent performer. Read on for the full press release.
SEATTLE—May 16, 2013—(NASDAQ:AMZN)—Amazon.com today announced an expanded content licensing agreement with NBCUniversal Cable & New Media Distribution that will bring a variety of popular programs to Prime Instant Video. Prime Instant Video offers more than 40,000 movies and TV episodes for Prime members to stream on Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Roku, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and Wii U, among other connected TVs and devices – all at no additional cost. To sign up for Amazon Prime, visit www.amazon.com/primeinstantvideo. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 16th, 2013  We have not seen Julie Bowen or any other cast member of Modern Family on the talk show circuit recently; however, that all changed last night. The Claire Dunphy-player was on Jimmy Fallon last night to promote the show’s fourth season finale which airs next Wednesday. Here is the footage. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 15th, 2013  For those who missed the spots playing on FX this past week, here is the complete trailer for The Bridge which makes its premiere this summer. The show stars Diane Kruger as she attempts to collaborate on a cross-border murder with a Mexican agent. Like The Killing over at AMC, the concept for this came from overseas. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 15th, 2013  Remember last year’s True Blood poster with the stakes. Well, here is another crazy on for you. The season kicks off and June 16th and for those who missed it, there is already a trailer out. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 15th, 2013  Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman are back in The Killing season three. So far, we have seen a few teasers for the show’s new season (which features a completely new story by the way,) but that has been a bit limited for our tastes. Thankfully, AMC released a 4-minute behind-the-scenes look at the show’s latest run which begins next month. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 15th, 2013  Ben Affleck is hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend and it promises to be one hell of an episode. Not only is Affleck hitting the five-timer’s mark, but the 90-minute show will signify goodbyes to Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, and Seth Meyers who are moving on to bigger and better things. Kanye West is the musical guest. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 15th, 2013  I wasted about 30 minutes of my day putting this together: a complete primetime lineup for broadcast television at the start of the Fall 2013 season. Missing is CW which I consider as negligible as a basic cable network. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 15th, 2013  Just moments ago, I posted something in regards to Turner Networks’ top channels going live stream in the near future. The group has been more than savvy when it came to reaching out to younger demos, but for whatever reason they chose not to allow paying subscribers access across multiple devices until now. The bigger story though (for those of us who place a higher weight on content than network strategy at least) is that TBS and TNT have revealed their forward programming slates. A point of emphasis is Frank Darabont’s new television show will finally make air at the end of this year under the title Lost Angels (formerly LA Noire.) If he sounds familiar, that is because he was the original fired showrunner from The Walking Dead. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 15th, 2013  This announcement is a bit over the top, but it is somewhat important nonetheless. You know those TV streaming apps through you cable provider that allow you to access maybe a third of all content over the net? Well, TBS and TNT are joining the fray as they revealed today they will stream on-air content live 24/7 across multiple platforms. To them, they are the first networks to do so which is kind of vague for our standards. Regardless of manipulative press statements (like the one that follows,) we are grateful to see they have caught up with the times. This is fairly a big deal for younger-skewing programming such as Family Guy and Big Bang Theory repeats as well as Conan. TNT runs a little more like CBS, so it is less important to see its inclusion.
TBS and TNT are about to become the first national entertainment networks in the industry to stream on-air content live across multiple platforms 24/7, including through the networks’ websites and a pair of newly created Watch TNT and Watch TBS apps. The announcement was made during TNT and TBS’s annual Upfront presentation today in New York. Live streaming is the latest phase in the rollout of TV Everywhere, the industry-wide initiative that gives subscribers to cable, satellite and telco video services access to more of their favorite shows across a wide range of digital platforms. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 15th, 2013  Last but not least, here is the full television lineup for CBS come Fall 2013. This follows reveals earlier in the week for ABC, NBC, and FOX. Interestingly enough, today’s announcement was a bit anticlimactic as we were warned months ago the schedule would look the same. That fooled me though because what I am seeing here is a revamped comedy lineup on Monday, and an expansion of Thursday’s turn at the genre much to the dismay of NBC who long had a monopoly on the date. Where is Mike & Molly? It appears the Melissa McCarthy sitcom is on backup duty which once belonged to the now cancelled Rules of Engagement. That is okay though because its leading lady has all sorts of more important work to do on the big screen. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 15th, 2013  Ken Jeong was on Jimmy Fallon last night doing more press for The Hangover Part III. The actor also found time to talk about the fifth season renewal of Community as well as his ‘photo shoot’ with Kate Upton. It was everything you would expect from a Ken Jeong appearance. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 14th, 2013  Check out the Robot Chicken couch gag from The Simpsons. There is not much else to say other than this is yet another classic parody that Fox’s long-running animated production churned out. Continue Reading
|
|
