Watch The CW or it could be gone next year
I know, I know — a lot of you are shrugging and saying “so?”
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that if ratings don’t improve for the last place network, buzz is that The CW could actually vanish next year. Ratings in the 18-49 demographic are down 28%, and the ratings for the May sweeps are down 22%. I guess Gossip Girl just isn’t enough to prop up an entire network, and they just lost Friday Night Smackdown, not to mention that Smallville, Supernatural, and Reaper are probably going into their last seasons.
This isn’t a total surprise, of course. When they got rid of UPN and The WB, people didn’t give much hope to this new CW network. Though I think most of the lack of enthusiasm was the awful name, the lame logo and the bad choice of color.
Maybe Hulu or AOL should start a network in its place, along with The CW’s CBS and Warner Brothers. Imagine a TV network filled with reruns of classic shows and short-lived shows. Sort of a pumped up Trio. Hey, TV Land keeps getting further and further away from their original format, and they don’t have the same shows in their vault as CBS and Warner Brothers do.
Lost producer goes to the Fringe
It looks like one of the executive producers of Lost is moving to another network. Fox has tapped Jeff Pinker to run Fringe, their new high profile sci-fi police drama from J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.
Fringe will be produced by Warner Brothers with Pinkner serving as executive producers and showrunner. Pinkner and J.J. Abrams have a history of working together since Abrams’ previous ABC show Alias.
The new project centers on an FBI agent who teams up with a guy and his scientist father to confront unexplained phenomena. I can see why Fox went for this show. It’s the J.J. Abrams version of The X-Files.
The series’ premise also has a little bit of Eleventh Hour mixed in, which is a British series that Jerry Bruckheimer is importing and adapting for the U.S. to be broadcast on CBS. It feels like all the networks are copying each other’s shows. Isn’t there any originality in television anymore? I know. Silly question.
Is Christine joining Scrubs on ABC?
In a TV Guide exclusive, Michael Ausiello reports that The New Adventures of Old Christine could be moving to ABC if CBS doesn’t give it a third season pick up. The way I see it, this is great news for ABC. They seem to do great at one-hour dramedies — Ugly Betty, Pushing Daisies, Desperate Housewives — but just swing and miss when developing good sitcoms. Only Samantha Who has been a winner this year; its most recent effort, Miss/Guided, has left me cold.
So, with on the heels of the Scrubs swipe, there’s word that ABC has been in talks with Warner Brothers, which produces Christine, to bring keep it in production if CBS lets it go. It would seem the worst possible timing for CBS to dump the show when it just posted its best ratings. In an ad on Cynopsis, WB touted Christine’s success, noting that the season finale (which featured a brief guest bit by Seinfeld co-star Jason Alexander) delivered its best performance in two years with adults 18-49. It also declares that its a Top 5 sitcom, ahead of 30 Rock, Scrubs, ’Til Death, My Name is Earl and Back to You. …Well, sure, when you put it like that!
And yet, CBS has remained on the fence about the show, perhaps waiting to see if the April 14th return of The Rules of Engagement, the Patrick Warburton-David Spade sitcom, outpaces Christine in the Nielsens. The fact that Christine is an Emmy-winner for Julia (Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy, 2006) apparently doesn’t carry much weight.
If it was up to me, I’d keep Christine and let Rules go. The former is smarter, sharper and on the rise, while the latter has only Warburton to recommend it.
Warner Brothers set to join Hulu
Online video site Hulu is already one of the best places to find full length episodes of network TV shows. And it looks like Hulu could be adding to its content library soon. Warner Brothers president Bruce Rosenblum says a deal with Hulu is “imminent.” Right now, all of the content available on Hulu comes from NBC and FOX News Corp.
At first glance, that means that you might be able to find WB-produced shows that air on the CW network on Hulu. But Warner Brothers also produces TV programs that air on other networks, such as NBC’s ER. The studio also produces movies, and while the movie section of Hulu isn’t as fleshed out as the TV section, we might soon see a few more feature length films on the site.
Hulu is still in private beta, but the service recently expanded its beta by allowing current users to send out 10 invitations to their friends. So if you’ve got a friend with an account, now might be a good time to start bugging him or her incessantly. Or you could wait a few weeks. There’s a chance Hulu will emerge from its invitation-only beta test in March.
[via NewTeeVee]