News Archive:
Cancelled: The Unit, Sam Who, According to Jim.
More news of cancelled shows to emerge from the US includes The Unit and According to Jim (it made it this far because?).
Medium has been dropped by NBC but is still a possibility of heading to CBS. Maybe Patricia Arquette can forsee her fate?
FOX may also pick up My Name is Earl, which was also let go.
ABC cancelled Samantha Who, after the show couldn’t slash its budget deep enough to make a third-season pickup work.
Networks are currently revealing their Fall slates, which sees ABC offering a new two-hour comedy block on …
Renewals, axings and yet-to-be-determined
The Australian today has a feature article on renewals of US dramas, and how they impact with Aussie networks.
Here’s a round-up on some of the key titles:
Seven’s US line-up will continue to include Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy and Lost, which return for their sixth seasons.
Brothers and Sisters and Ugly Betty enter their fourth seasons, Private Practice its third and 30 Rock has been renewed, although it has not had as much success here as it in the US. And troubled sci-fi series Heroes will run for another season.
TEN will lose Life, …
Catch up with Cagney and Lacey
In the 1980s the two toughest female cops on the box were undoubtedly Cagney and Lacey.
Only Angie Dickinson in Policewoman had made such an impact before them.
Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly were a formidable duo on the screen together, playing two very different career women between 1982-1988. Christine Cagney was a single, career-minded woman, while Mary Beth Lacey was a married working mother.
“It wasn’t Lucy and Ethel, or Laverne and Shirley,” Sharon says. “It was actually two women working and talking about how they felt about what they did.”
And Tyne adds, …
ABC renews Housewives, Betty, Grey’s, Brothers & Sisters
America’s ABC has announced renewals for several key series: Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, Ugly Betty, Private Practice, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Wife Swap, Supernanny, Dancing with the Stars, The Bachelor and America’s Funniest Home Videos.
They join Lost, which is set to return for its final season as part of a three-season pickup in 2007.
Housewives creator Marc Cherry told the media and ABC he wanted a similar four-season renewal for his show, but ABC has opted to add on only another year to his current agreement.
Absent from the …
Grey’s to drop another character?
SPOILER: A season finale of Grey’s Anatomy in the US next month could be the end of the road for an original character.
George will be seen heading off to war as an Army medic.
But actor T. R. Knight has no idea if it means he is being written out of not.
Frustrated by a lack of airtime, Knight had asked to be released from his multiyear contract.
“T.R. doesn’t know whether George lives or dies,” a source told EW.com. “And, as a result, he doesn’t know whether or not he has to come …
Seven: post-Easter
When official ratings resume in the week of April 19 Seven will introduce several new shows.
No airdates have yet been released, but TV Tonight can confirm the shows in the first week back into ratings will include:
10 Years Younger in 10 Days. Sonia Kruger’s new lifestyle show premieres.
Russell Brand’s Ponderland. Brand’s UK comedy series kicks off with the episode “Family.”
Family Guy returns with “Road to Germany” episode 3 of the seventh series (see comments).
My Name is Earl resumes with “The Magic Hour” ep 1 of series 4.
As previously noted Heroes is …
US casting update
More US castings will see new roles for Jennifer Beals, Mary McDonnell, Chris Noth, Eric McCormack and Grant Show.
EW reports former Battlestar lead McDonnell is joining TNT’s The Closer for a multi-episode arc as a police captain who butts heads with Kyra Sedgwick. McDonnell’s alter ego, Capt. Christina Hatcher, runs the department’s Force Investigation Division and is slated to debut early into The Closer’s forthcoming fifth season in the US. McDonnell can currently be seen on Grey’s Anatomy in Australia.
In late April former L Word star Jennifer Beals begins a multi-episode …
Easter non-ratings update
Programming changes for the Easter non ratings period will see a mix of withheld, repeated and continuing shows on Channel Seven in the week of April 5th.
New episodes of Sunday Night, Infamous Assassinations, 24, Home and Away, Scrubs, 30 Rock, Eli Stone, Lost, Private Practice and Better Homes and Gardens are all confirmed. A new ep of Coastwatch will air at 8pm Sunday.
In place of new episodes there are repeats planned for Border Security, How I Met Your Mother, Boston Legal, RSPCA Animal Rescue, Find My Family and Criminal Minds. Bones …
Anatomy of Melissa George
Melissa George makes her Grey’s Anatomy debut on Seven this month in the episode “These Ties That Bind.”
George plays Sadie, one of ‘Meredith’s’ oldest friends and the newest intern at Seattle Grace.
Sadie’s character was originally planned to be a romantic foil for Erica Hahn and Callie Torres, but after Brooke Smith was let go by the show, she became a bisexual character.
In January it was announced she had left the series.
Her first episode will air March 19th at 8:30pm.
Anatomy of an exit
So are Katherine Heigl and T.R. Knight set to depart Grey’s Anatomy?
Yes and no.
Reports out of the US have ramped up since James Pickens Jr. (Dr. Richard Webber) told US Weekly that Heigl was leaving.
“Yes, she is.” And he continued, “Wherever Katherine goes, I wish her nothing but the best.”
Her pal in real life and on set, T. R. Knight is also tipped to exit.
“He’s going too,” Pickens told the magazine. “He just wanted to pursue other career paths.
Rumours of the two wanting out have been swirling for months. But Variety …
Ugly Betty close to renewal
US Network ABC is reportedly close to renewing Ugly Betty for a fourth season.
The last word on the series’ future left things very unclear when ABC announced that it was temporarily replacing the show with a comedy block.
Michael Ausiello reports, “The network is also said to be this close to giving early pickups to Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, America’s Funniest Home Videos, and The Bachelor.”
That would leave some question marks overother shows including Life on Mars and Samantha Who.
But an ABC spokesperson said it …
Returning: RPA. Gone: Kitchen Nightmares.
Just one day after his season return, Nine has dumped Gordon Ramsay.
From next week Kitchen Nightmares is replaced by the return of RPA.
Last night the show attracted just 515,000 viewers. In Brisbane where the show didn’t air CSI: New York took 144,000 viewers - a timeslot total of 649,000.
It was thumped by the premiere of Life on Mars with 1.14m and Grey’s Anatomy on 1.08m.
Both Ramsay and CSI: NY have been removed by Nine effective immediately.
Just 12 months ago Gordon Ramsay was a hero of Nine’s, but played as many as …