Jimmy Kimmel to air primetime specials
The late night comedian will be appearing during your primetime schedule. Starting tomorrow, Jimmy Kimmel LIve will run special half-hour shows each night that ABC airs the basketball finals. Special guests include: David Beckham, Edward Norton, Charles Barkley, Liv Tyler, Adam Sandler, Eminem, Shaquille O’Neil, Magic Johnson and New Orleans Hornets guard and 2008 MVP contender Chris Paul, among others.
Out of the celebrities mentioned, I’m most interested to see Eminem. I haven’t seen the Real Slim Shady on TV in awhile. He’s always a good interview though — all that contrived hostility and testosterone in overdrive. Who are you looking forward to seeing? Or is Kimmel’s fabulousness enough to get you to tune in?
The schedule is after the jump.
Primetime Jimmy Kimmel Live specials:
Thursday, June 5 at 8:00 p.m., ET/CT
Sunday, June 8 at 8:00 p.m., ET/CT
Tuesday, June 10 at 8:00 p.m., ET/CT
Thursday, June 12 at 8:00 p.m., ET/CT
Sunday, June 15 at 8:00 p.m., ET/CT (If necessary)
Tuesday, June 17 at 8:00 p.m., ET/CT (If necessary)
Thursday, June 19 at 8:00 p.m., ET/CT (If necessary)
According to the press release, the shows will also include some of Kimmel’s signature comedy pieces: “a celebrity bowling match, a spelling bee, outrageous basketball tricks and a casino night in which Jimmy’s Aunt Chippy will attempt to win big at Blackjack for each and every audience member.”
Creator Hart Hanson talks about Bones
Despite the fact it is tossed around the FOX primetime schedule like a hot potato, Bones remains one of the most popular properties on the network. With its mix of mystery, mayhem, romance, humor, and scientifically big words, the show caters to a broad audience. Some of the success can be attributed to the stars of the show, who have a great on-screen chemistry.
The rest of the drama’s success can be placed upon the shoulders of creator Hart Hanson. Hart took the concept of the murder mystery and bent it to his own desires, focusing more on the interactions between the characters rather than the long-dead murder victims. With that, he turned a show that could have been another copy of CSI into something goofy and romantic in nature. Which means something fresh and unique in a world of cookie-cutter series.
With the season finale of Bones coming up on Monday, May 19th (8:00 PM), Hart took time to discuss the ending to the Gormogon saga, what was coming up for next season, and the never ending schedule changes. Highlights of the conversation can be found after the jump.
Gormogon: The season finale will be the end of the Gormogon arc. Hanson decided to end it so soon due to the complexity of the Gormogon character as well as the story. Rather than dragging the whole thing into a new season, he wanted to end it cleanly. There were a few more beats to the story, but they needed to be discarded due to the shortened strike season. Hanson said the culmination of the story is slightly different than what they had in mind, but would still be satisfying.
The Gormogon saga was a tip of the hat to the show’s fans: a little extra something to get them to come back week after week. When asked about the origins of Gormogon, Hart said the original idea was to have the serial killer tied into video games. From there, Hart wondered what type of killer would have such a complicated story behind him that he would store everything in a vault. Then, Hart speculated on how the Squints could be involved in the case. Well, Hodgins was the conspiracy freak, so that’s where the connections to the Masons and the Gormogon Society came in. The killer’s cannibalism was not an original part of the story. That came about from the first tease of the storyline, which featured a skull with teeth marks crashing through a windshield.
Scheduling: Hart is definitely cranky about the schedule changes on a lot of levels, In this upcoming season Bones and House are on separate nights (Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively). Hanson say they have a great pairing with House and he is not happy they are breaking up the team. He would rather be left in one time slot and be allowed to grow. Still, he is glad that the show’s audience is following him to every time slot that the show lands. This is the most likely reason why Bones is one of the few shows that came back from the strike and went up in viewers.
Season Four: Hart said that it was time to make a few changes to shake things up creatively. The after effects of the season finale will set up these changes as events that take place will touch some of the main characters. This will setup the influx of new blood coming into the lab.
The two-part season premiere will have Booth and Bones flying to London to solve a murder case. Hanson is just finishing up the script for these episodes and David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel will be flying out to the United Kingdom sometime in June.
Sweets and Zack: John Francis Daley will be returning next season as Dr. Lance Sweets — as long as he’s not Gormogon. As to whether or not Eric Millegan will be return to his role as Zack Addy in season 4, Hanson couldn’t really say. He did mention that viewers have not seen the last of Zack.
The Grave Digger: According to Hart, the Grave Digger is definitely coming back for the fourth season. Another victim of the strike, Grave Digger was put to the sidelines in favor of the Gormogon story. That was due to the complexity of Gormogon; the Grave Digger has a much simpler story behind it.
Bones as Romantic Comedy: From the very beginning Bones was going to be an amusing character-driven show, said Hanson. The reason? As the bodies they discovered were, many times, long deceased, there was no emotional connection to the murder victims, like there is in CSI or Law & Order. Thus, there had to be some emotional exchange somewhere in the show.
It didn’t become a Romantic Comedy until Boreanaz and Deschanel were hired. Only when he saw them together on-screen, and saw the connection they had, did Hart and his team decide to move towards the romantic comedy angle. According to Hart, David and Emily have that connection that people can’t write.
Bones/House Crossover: David Shore (House creator) and Hart have talked about a crossover between the two shows in the past. One idea, which was started via sources on the Internet, was to have Stephen Fry’s character of Dr. Gordon Wyatt jump over to Princeton-Plainsboro. This would have been wonderful, since Fry and House star Hugh Laurie teamed up on a number of series in the UK prior to their stints on these two procedurals.
Hanson doesn’t know if this will ever happen as Stephen’s schedule is quite full. Nevertheless, Shore is definitely interested in keeping the idea and Hart would be very interested in making Fry a full-time cast member on Bones. If not Fry, then there is definitely something intriguing in having House and Bones side-by-side on the same show.
The Return of Temperance’s Family: Ryan O’Neal and Loren Dean, who play Temperance’s father and brother, will be back next season. There are definitely plans for Ryan and that’s why they got him out of prison. According to Hart, every actor on Bones loves him wants to work him him. Hart added there there is something attractive in having Bones interacting with her family.
Booth’s Family: Yet another victim of the Writers Strike. Hart mentioned that meeting Seeley’s family is definitely on the planning board for the next season. His ideal setting would be James Garner portraying Seeley’s grandfather. Hanson wold also like to introduce Booth’s brother to the show, but they have yet to cast that role. And, like Brittney Spears on How I Met Your Mother, Hart is not adverse to a little stunt casting.
Daniel Goodman and other favorite guests: Hart was unhappy about the way that Dr. Daniel Goodman, head of the Jeffersonian, was unused, but he really needed someone else who had a better fit with the Squints. Hence, the reason that Cam joined the team. According to Hanson, Cam works better than Goodman.
Hart would love Jonathan Adams (the man who played Goodman) back when he is available. There is also a very initial plan to have some of the favorite actors from all seasons come back for an episode. The idea: an episode that occurs in an alternate reality where some of these characters live the life that many fans think they should be leading. I’ll give you two guesses on which characters they would most like to see different in that alternate reality.
Things I Hate About TV: Sunday sports running over into primetime
Let me start this rant by saying that I like sports. No, I love sports. I’m a fan. I get the DirecTV NBA package and the major league baseball games. I can talk to you for hours about stats and players and great games. That said, I hate the way Sunday sports programming drifts over into primetime. This happens primarily on CBS and Fox with the NFL games in the fall and winter, but the other networks have been guilty of staying with the game and then still insisting on showing the primetime schedule after the game is over — even if that means that an 8 o’clock show begins at 8:45 and your DVR gets all screwed up and you wind up with only 15 minutes of a show you wanted to see!
What I don’t get about the reasoning of the programmers is that they don’t use common sense. If a football game or golf tournament goes past 7 o’clock, why not trim the first show of your schedule? You can dump Andy Rooney and still show most of 60 Minutes. It’s not a perfect system, but if I have to choose between a complete 60 Minutes or seeing Cold Case at the scheduled time, I vote for the latter. Otherwise the 10 o’clock show doesn’t end till well past my bed time. (Gosh, I sound like such an old fart!)
The networks have to stay with sports now because of the most famous incident ever in the history of mucking up a sports broadcast. It was called the Heidi game. November 17, 1968. The New York Jets were playing the Oakland Raiders (when both teams were great, by the way — Joe Namath was the Jets’ QB). The game was being broadcast on NBC and the Jets were winning 32-29 with 65 seconds left on the clock. Thinking that there was no way the Raiders were going to come back to beat the Jets, NBC hastily switched from the game at 7 o’clock (EST) to begin broadcasting the special movie of the night, Heidi. Timex, who was sponsoring the special TV movie version of the Swiss children’s classic, were promised 7-9 p.m. and that’s what NBC delivered.
Sports fans were outraged, especially when the Raiders came back to score 14 points in nine seconds and won the game! What most people don’t recall is that NBC had second thoughts after switching off the game. They were inundated with calls from football fans, but it was too late and too complicated to reconnect the feed for the broadcast. Because of that infamous game, NFL contracts with the networks include a provision that all games be shown in a team’s market area to the conclusion, regardless of the score. There’ll never be another Heidi game.
The networks, however, can alter their primetime lineups — and that’s why I hate spillover Sunday sports. Tiger Woods is great to watch in the afternoon, but by the time dinner’s over, I want him in the clubhouse and my TV screen to return to regularly-scheduled primetime programming. Okay? Okay.
Martha snags Emeril
How’s this for a winning recipe? Domestic diva Martha Stewart has snagged superchef Emeril Lagasse for her empire. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. announced today the acquisition of Emeril’s franchise — all those cookbooks, kitchen products and TV shows in which he stars — for $45 million in cash and $5 million in stock at closing. That $50 million could swell by $20 million more if “if certain benchmarkets are achieved.”
Martha’s purchase, however, does not include Emeril’s Homebase, which includes the chef’s 11 stellar restaurants, including Emeril’s New Orleans and Delmonico’s Steakhouse in Las Vegas.
Financially, Martha Stewart Living asserts that “the deal will contribute immediately to our performance.” That adds up to $8 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Emeril’s joined the Food Network in 1993 and for most of his tenure, was considered the premiere star of the cable outlet. However, recently Food Network pulled the plug on Emeril Live, his live, late-night cooking show with music and audience interaction. The Essence of Emeril is reportedly still on the roster, but the possibility now exists that Emeril’s TV presence could pop up on Fine Living, where The Martha Stewart Show has a major presence in their primetime schedule. Fine Living and Food Network are sister networks in the Scripps Howard family.