By Lisa de Moraes
Friday, November 14, 2008
NBC has whacked both its Christian-Slater-as-Walter-Mitty-2.0 drama, "My Own Worst Enemy," as well as its Brooke-Shields-couldn't-be-more-annoying-soap "Lipstick Jungle," which can only mean that it's time for NBC's programming chief, Ben "Teflon" Silverman, to get (a) a contract renewal or (b) a promotion.
Meanwhile, ABC isn't confirming that it has plowed under its struggling Wednesday forensic fairy tale, "Pushing Daisies," but the writers are being shopped around Hollywood by their agents, which is never a good sign.
And Fox may have ordered two more episodes of "Prison Break" so that the show can tie up the loose ends and call it a day.
It's that most wonderful time of the year when broadcast network shows that have reached the end of their first production cycle need to know whether they're getting more episodes.
Network suits have three options. They can (a) pick up more episodes, (b) cancel the show or (c) pay a fairly hefty fee to keep the stages and sets while they think about it.
NBC recently moved "Lipstick Jungle," a one-hour chick-cliche drama about three 30-something women -- a fashion designer, a fashion mag editor and a movie studio suit -- to death-by-time-slot Friday, where it -- died. Which is to say that the series, in which Shields played a movie producer, attracted only about 3 million viewers -- a fine CW network number.
This past Monday, only about 4 million people bothered to watch "My Own Worst Enemy," in which Slater played a suburban soccer dad who, much to his surprise, is also a secret agent. But what sealed this show's fate was getting beat by William Shatner for the first time among the 18-to-49-year-old viewers NBC sells to advertisers.
Neither NBC series is being pulled off the air. They will have long-ish death scenes, as NBC burns off their remaining episodes.
"Daisies," ABC's sweet, color-saturated fantasy about a hunky piemaker who can bring things back from the dead, may have been done in by Barack Obama. Last week's Tuesday election night coverage forced ABC to postpone that week's "Dancing With the Stars" finale until 8 p.m. Wednesday. It copped nearly 16 million viewers in the same slot where "Daisies" has struggled to hang on to its loyal audience of about 7 million.
"Prison Break" is down to about 5 million viewers. And besides, it's about these brothers who keep winding up in prison. How much more of that can we take?
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CBS newsmag "60 Minutes" has landed the first TV interview with President-elect Barack Obama.
Last weekend's program, featuring an interview with top Obama advisers David Axelrod, David Plouffe and Valerie Jarrett, soared in the ratings, attracting nearly 19 million people, to become the week's No. 1-ranked program for the first time since it profiled Michael Jackson nearly five years ago. This Sunday, Steve Kroft will talk to Obama himself and the future first lady, Michelle Obama.
"60 Minutes" last interviewed Obama on Sept. 21; Kroft also conducted that one. On that same broadcast, Scott Pelley chatted with Obama's GOP rival, Sen. John McCain.
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BET finally has named its new programming chief -- and there are two of them, sort of.
Loretha Jones has been named president of programming, while Stephen Hill has been promoted to president of programming. She'll be based in Los Angeles; he'll be based in New York.
Jones will be responsible for original programming, news, development, planning and acquisitions. Hill will oversee music programming and specials which, best we can tell, is what he was doing before he stepped in to oversee programming temporarily in mid-September, when BET parted company with its entertainment president of three years, Reginald Hudlin, by "mutual decision."
Jones was named executive vice president of MTV Films/Paramount Pictures in July 2007. (MTV and Paramount, like BET, are owned by Viacom.) Before that, she was senior VP of MTV Films/MTV Home Entertainment, overseeing TV and home video projects, from May 2005 to July '07. She co-produced Spike Lee's breakout flick "School Daze" (1988) after which she produced films with Robert Townsend in the early '90s, including "The Five Heartbeats" and "Meteor Man" as well as his WB sitcom "The Parent 'Hood."
Hill, who joined BET in 1999, had been executive vice president of music programming and talent. Before joining the cable network, he spent four years at MTV as director of music programming.
"I was overwhelmed with [Jones's] passion for the brand and her experience with branded product," BET chief executive Debra Lee told The TV Column.
"She understands the youth culture, if that's still the right word, and she understands music," said Lee, who's based in Washington.
This week, BET and Marvel Animation announced that Djimon Hounsou had been signed to provide the lead voice for its new animated series, "The Black Panther," which is scheduled to premiere next year. The series will be adapted directly from the first six issues of the Marvel comic written by Hudlin.
Meanwhile, BET's first-ever original scripted series, "Somebodies," is still waiting to hear whether it will get a second-season order. In its first season, "Somebodies" averaged about 600,000 viewers over its 10 episodes, fewer than the 618,000 viewers BET has been averaging in prime time this calendar year to date.
"We just haven't made a decision," Lee said. "We need to look at the budget for next year and figure out what our priorities are." Lee noted that on Tuesday, the third-season debut of "Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is" clocked about 2 million viewers, after which a preview of new series "Brothers to Brutha" hung on to about 1 million of them.
"I think ['Somebodies'] may have been too 'out there' for our audience," Lee said. "Our audience expected a normal sitcom with a laugh track. Critics loved it -- it was different, fresh, smart. Our audience just didn't get it. It was one of those shows you have to pay close attention to -- it had kind of a dry sense of humor."
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"Saturday Night Live" scoured the back halls of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and the Groundlings Theater to find two more skinny white chicks to replace the two skinny white chicks whose departure from the show has left a gaping Skinny White Chick Black Hole in the NBC late-night show's firmament.
The new SWCs hired to make regular fleeting appearances on the sketch comedy show are: Abby Elliott, a.k.a. daughter of Chris Elliott, and Michaela Watkins, a.k.a. That Chick Who's Been on "Old Christine" lately.
The hires became necessary when Tina Fey, who hasn't technically been a member of the show for some time now, took a vow not to make any more appearances as Sarah Palin, saying she needed to devote all her time to picking up more trophies for her struggling NBC prime-time sitcom "30 Rock." At about the same time, Amy Poehler left the show in a rush right before the presidential election to have her baby and begin work in earnest on her soon-to-be-struggling not-"The Office"-spinoff for NBC.
Elliott comes to "SNL" via the Upright Citizens Brigade -- the improv/sketch theater co-founded by Poehler. Elliott also spent time at the Groundlings Theater in Los Angeles, "SNL" said in its casting announcement.
Watkins, on the other hand, comes to the show from the mainstage Groundlings company where, "SNL" wants you to know, Will Ferrell, Phil Hartman, Laraine Newman and Kristen Wiig started.
In other late-night sketch-comedy news, Fox has killed "Mad TV" after discovering that we all thought it was gone already.
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