Morning Links: 2/9/12

Welcome to the Morning Links. Each weekday, I’ll provide you with some interesting television-related news items culled from the various TV websites I frequent on a regular basis with a slight bit of commentary attached. Pretty straightforward – no fuss, no muss. Onto the links:

*Without question, the biggest television news to break Wednesday was the announcement that House will end its eight-year run on Fox at the end of this season according to The Hollywood Reporter. To this, I say, “Thank Christ.” I mean, no offense to House fans out there but I’ve never understood how people could shovel a show so formulaic down their throats for eight years and then fawn over it like it was one of television’s best dramas. Reality check – it wasn’t and I for one am glad to finally see it go. (Can you tell I never really liked House?)

*This is disappointing. ABC’s The River attracted only modest ratings for its two-hour premiere outing on Tuesday night. I’ve been hearing really good things for months about The River and I respected how it differed in presentation from almost everything else currently on the air. Of course, that’s probably what doomed it because the masses don’t want different (see the popularity of the show in the first link of this post). Hopefully the ratings don’t drop off too much in The River’s second time out next week but it doesn’t look like a long lifespan is in the cards for the show. Pity. (Via EW)

*PETA’s apparently up the ass of HBO and the producers of their new drama Luck (cheap plug: look for my review of the pilot to post later this morning) after two horses have had to be euthanized after breaking their legs during filming of the show’s first season. PETA has never been the most subtle organization – and are often strident in their approaches – so here’s hoping that Luck’s producers are able to rectify the situation immediately because after bowing to less-than-stellar numbers (though it did earn a quick second-season renewal) the show really doesn’t need any more bad press. (Via The AV Club)

*Little more brief than my posts tend to be – though I promise I’m working on that – but Danger Guerrero’s recap of Tuesday’s episode of Justified, “The Devil You Know,” over at Warming Glow is almost as badass as the show itself was. My own review should post by the end of the week.

*Syfy has renewed its hit adaptation of the British series Being Human for a third season following an uptick in ratings for its currently airing sophomore year. I caught close to half of the first season last year before falling behind and, I must admit, I’m not a huge fan of Syfy’s original programming but this one wasn’t that bad at all. Glad to see that people are finding it and that it’s become a good performer for the network.

*The Nielsen Ratings System is totally fucked up, y’all. But you probably already knew that.

Morning Links: 2/7/12

Welcome to the Morning Links. Each weekday, I’ll provide you with some interesting television-related news items culled from the various TV websites I frequent on a regular basis with a slight bit of commentary attached. Pretty straightforward – no fuss, no muss. Let’s get to it:

*According to EW’s James Hibberd, Super Bowl XLVI (even though the end result sucked a big one) became the most-watched television program in history by attracting 111.3 million viewers on Sunday night, good for an INSANE 40.5 rating in the coveted 18-49 demographic. The fact that four of the top five most-viewed television programs of all-time are the last four Super Bowls is incontrovertible proof that football is king in the United States. As it damn well should be. It also boosted the second-season premiere of The Voice to the biggest non-sports rating (37.6 million and a 16.3 rating among 18-49 year-olds) in six years. Again… football = king.

*So M.I.A. flipped off the camera during her appearance with Madonna at halftime of the Super Bowl on Sunday night. I’d like to think that middle finger was directed straight at the Parents Television Council because those fascists deserve a big one being waved right in their collective faces. Danger Guerrero over at Warming Glow has a much more eloquent take than mine on the subject. Seriously – go read it.

*Will Ferrell did an ad for his pro-bono Old Milwaukee ad campaign that for some reason only aired in Nebraska during the Super Bowl. Because of course he did. (Via The AV Club)

*According to TVLine, ABC Family has picked up a new series from Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino that stars Broadway mainstay Sutton Foster (Flight Of The Conchords) as a Las Vegas showgirl who gets married and moves to the small town that her new husband grew up in. Yeah… I realize it doesn’t sound like the most exciting premise in the world but Sherman-Palladino created Gilmore Girls and if anyone tries to say anything negative about Gilmore Girls I swear I will end you.

*Cougar Town finally returns for its third season a week from tonight at 8:30 on ABC. Creator Bill Lawrence has taken the unusual step of releasing a trailer that shows much of the upcoming season’s goings-on as a way of enticing people who may not have sampled the show before. Believe it or not, despite its horrendous title, it’s actually one of the funniest shows on television. Do yourself a favor and check out the trailer. You’ll see what I’m talking about. (Via Hitfix)

*Hitfix’s Alan Sepinwall has an interview with the Teresa Rebeck, the creator of NBC’s latest big hope, Smash. I admit that shows like Smash aren’t usually my bag and NBC’s incessant pimping of the show over the past month has been off-putting but there are a lot of people – including Sepinwall – who I have a lot of respect for who’ve said that it’s actually a pretty good show so I plan on at least checking out the pilot on Hulu later in the week.

*This doesn’t come as a complete surprise, but HBO announced that Paz de la Huerta will not return for the upcoming third season of Boardwalk Empire. It’s not like her Lucy Danziger character will be missed but, I think I speak for everyone when I ask, “Where’s all the gratuitous nudity going to come from now?”

 

Morning Links: 2/1/12

Welcome to the Morning Links. Each weekday, I’ll provide you with some interesting television-related news items culled from the various TV websites I frequent on a regular basis with a slight bit of commentary attached. Pretty straightforward – no fuss, no muss. New day, new month. Let’s get to it:

*In today’s bit of good news, Hitfix’s Alan Sepinwall reports that HBO has renewed their Michael Mann/David Milch collaboration Luck for a second season following its debut outing on Sunday night. Granted, its premiere ratings weren’t the best, but the show’s really damned good and HBO has a history of renewing its series after their debut outings regardless of what their ratings are. Plus, since Milch’s last series, the inscrutable John From Cincinnati was the rare HBO series not to earn a second season, this was almost a fait accompli as I’m sure they want to stay in the David Milch business and didn’t want to risk his ire again. I’ll have a review of Luck up later this week but a quick preview: it’s a very impressive – if challenging – debut for the show.

*Since Tuesday night is Justified night, why not spend the morning after reading two Justified-centric interviews (after reading my review of episode one and two, which will be posted later today, of the third season, of course). Todd VanDerWerff of The AV Club sits down with Boyd Crowder himself, Walton Goggins, to discuss the evolution of the Boyd character as well as reminiscing on his days on another top-shelf FX drama, The Shield. Meanwhile, Danger Guerrero over at Warming Glow (an honest to God hero of mine – the guy’s a Phillies fan, TV fanatic, and possessor of one of the best Twitter feeds in the world) interviews one of Justified’s writers, Jon Worley.

*If Kristen Bell is going to be absolutely adorable on a talk show, you’re damn right I’m gonna link to it. Or if she’s on a talk show at all, really. Here’s her appearance from earlier this week on The Ellen Show via The Hollywood Reporter where she recounts the surprise she received for her birthday (from her boyfriend Dax Shepard, who’s my mortal enemy).

*Speaking of adorable, The AV Club reports that Natalie Portman is developing a series for CBS based on a Judith Krantz novel. Seeing as this is not only Judith Krantz material but a CBS series, NATALIE PORTMAN STARS IN IT OR GTFO.

*The UFC’s second outing on Fox Saturday night did decent ratings for what turned out to be a boring card. I love MMA and I know good fight cards and you, Saturday night’s card, turned out to be very, very bad. I feel sad if that was some people’s introduction to MMA because I promise you, the quality of fights on Saturday night was not representative of a majority of the UFC’s events. But at least Michael Bisping lost.

*From The Hollywood Reporter, The CW picked up three pilots on Tuesday, including one that’s a collaboration between JJ Abrams and One Tree Hill creator Mark Schwahn. Seeing as it’s coming from those two, I can guarantee you that I will watch the hell out of that show against my will. One of the others is also described as a “time travel musical.” Uh… yeah, good luck with that one, CW.

*Again from The Hollywood Reporter, ABC also picked up a handful of pilots and since all of them look like varying degrees of garbage, I’ll have no more to say on the subject.

*On the subject of The CW, via The AV Club they’ve cast the lead of their Green Arrow adaptation with this guy from The Vampire Diaries and Hung. <shrugs>

*A bunch of people got axed from The X Factor but we don’t care, right? Right.

*Finally, RIP Mr. Pitt. Hopefully your accidental Hitler mustache doesn’t hurt you in the afterlife.