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American Idol Faces Lawsuit

Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Music, Prime Time, Reality, FOX, American Idol, Gossip

American IdolCould there be trouble brewing behind the scenes of the world’s biggest singing stage? The American Federation of Musicians has filed a lawsuit against producers. The damages sought by the union is currently unspecified.

The suit claims that American Idol Productions Inc. and Tick Tock Productions Inc. (a subsidiary) violated a bargaining agreement by underpaying musicians. According to the terms of the contract, musicians receive royalties for re-runs.

Since 2007, however, the soundtrack for past episodes was cut out and new musicians hired to record new music for episodes of American Idol Rewind. The musicians’ union was not informed of this decision.

So, far the powers-that-be at American Idol have offered no comment on the suit.

Read More | MSNBC

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The Funniest Shows on Cable

Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Comedy, Prime Time, Reality, Cable, MTV

Reno 911Need a cure for the rerun blues? Forget about network and don’t worry about repeats - if you’ve never seen the show, it’s not a rerun to you. Get acquainted with some of the shows you may not even know about…and in some cases, you might wonder how you ever got along without them.

TV offers plenty of diversion, and sure a lot of shows get repeated. But in the middle of a while studios scramble to find anything to put on the tube, those obscure (and hilarious) cable shows may just become the saving grace of evening TV watching. Check out four relatively obscure, yet hysterical, cable shows and find out just how fun reruns can be.

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Read More | TV Guide

Christmas Day TV

Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Animation, Comedy, Daytime, Kids, Prime Time, Reality, Specials, ABC, Cable, CBS, MTV, NBC, TNT-HD, Family Guy, The Hills

Screenshot: Miracle on 34th StreetLooking for a distraction from the holiday season? Want to check out that new HD TV Santa left under the tree? Or, do you just want to put something on the tube to undercut happy holiday melodrama? Use Christmas Day TV to give you an escape when holiday pressure has you looking for the nearest exit.

will offer fanciful diversion for the kids with the starting at 10 am. Later in the afternoon, the network will offer NBA action while gets sporty with golf. will show the in the afternoon. On cable, will showcase holiday movies including and . At 6 in the evening, Disney’s will offer CGI delight.

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Read More | TV Guide

Late Night Repeats for Writer-less Talk Shows

Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Daytime, Late Night, Talk Shows, ABC, Cable, NBC, Syndication, General Hospital, Saturday Night Live, News

SNL Amy PoehlerIf the Writers Guild of America strikes on Monday as scheduled, you can expect a slate of late-night reruns to put you to bed.  Assuming a last-minute Sunday mediation session doesn’t prevent the 12,000 WGA members from walking out, daily productions ranging from to will immediately go into repeats.  So much for November sweeps.

The impact will not necessarily be limited to evening fare; daytime chatfests like may be affected as well.  Fortunately like my fave, , have stockpiled scripts that should leave them immune for months to come.

Tonight’s with Brian Williams could also be the last production for some time.  But given SNL’s lame tendency to air repeats anyway, who’d even notice?

Read More | Hollywood Reporter

TV Halloween Thrills

Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Prime Time, Reality, Sci-Fi/Horror, Specials, ABC, Bravo, Cable, CBS, FOX, The CW, America's Next Top Model

Halloween ghostHalloween may be coming at mid-week this year, but that’s no reason to miss out on the thrills, the chills, and the frills of the season. What’s on the TV agenda for the big night? Some networks (FOX) are showing re-runs, while others (ESPN) are ignoring the holiday completely. Where can you tune in to get the best Hallow’s Eve TV?

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Read More | TV Guide

CBS’ ‘Numb3rs’ Helps Friday Ratings Race

Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Comedy, Drama, Prime Time, Sci-Fi/Horror, ABC, CBS, NBC, Ratings

CBS easily won an evening that saw a large number of reruns.  A victory night not come so easily next week when two more ABC shows (, ) begin.

8pm
Numb3rs

  • Up against a repeat of (4.3 million), improved up on last week’s premiere and won the hour with 8.7 million viewers (2.4/8 in the 18-49 demo).

9pm

  • With 8.3 million viewers, CBS’ (2.2/7 in 18-49) was the hour’s winner.
  • The critically-acclaimed (6.5 million, 2.2/7) gained 200,000 viewers from last season’s finale and tied in the key demos.
  • A rerun of drew 4.9 million; a second-showing of saw 3.3 million.

Click to continue reading CBS’ ‘Numb3rs’ Helps Friday Ratings Race

Read More | Variety

The TV Viewers’ Bill of Rights

Posted by David L. Williams Categories: Drama, Reality, Editorial, Features

TV Viewers Bill of Rights

Lots of people watch television.  That may seem like an obvious statement (especially to somebody reading a site called TV Envy), but I think we viewers tend to forget how strong of a lobby we are.  “Cane,” for example, had a little more than 11 million viewers for its first episode, a number that most newspapers called good but not great.  But if a movie had 11 million people go see it in one night, it would have grossed somewhere around $90 million dollars.

That’s $90 million dollars in one day.  That’s a big fat, Spiderman-Harry Potter-Transformin’ hit.

And yes, I know, movies aren’t TV.  TV is free (mostly), and you don’t have to leave your home to watch TV, but it’s still a pretty frickin’ big audience.  And that was just for one show, while there were two other broadcast networks (and hundreds of cable channels) competing against it.  And “Cane,” by the way, wasn’t even the most watched show in that time slow.  That was “Law & Order: SVU” (and more about that in a little bit.)

So … you would think that with such a big audience, such a mighty and powerful audience, the people who are making television would do what they can to not make us angry.  And they do, to some extent.  But they think “not making us angry” is the same as “not putting anything slightly controversial” on television, forgetting that all of us watched shows like “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City,” “Nip/Tuck,” and even “Seinfeld, which I’ll remind you had episodes that got humor out of killing George’s fiancée and a contest to see who could refrain the longest from self-pleasure.

Ignoring that, though, what they’ve done to make me and a lot of the television-watching population angry is treating us like we are stupid.  Here’s the thing, television networks: we’re really smart.  I know, I know, some of us still watch “Two and a Half Men” and “According to Jim,” but even more of us don’t.  We follow the intricate plots of “Lost,” we laugh at the cringe-inducing humor of “The Office,” we delight in the brilliant references, call-backs and jokes of 30 Rock, we even find a way to separate the good reality shows (The Amazing Race & Survivor) from the horrible ones (Pirate Master & The Bachelor).

In short, we’re smart.  We’re very smart and we’d like to be treated properly.  So I propose a TV Viewers’ Bill of Rights.  Bills of rights, be they for airline passengers, internet users, or consumers, are very popular these days. (Ironically, the actual, original Bill of Rights?  Not so popular right now.  Or enforced, really.)  Here goes…

Click to continue reading The TV Viewers’ Bill of Rights


‘Prison Break’ Premiere A Ratings Disappointment

Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Action, Daytime, Prime Time, FOX, Prison Break, Ratings

Prison Break Who says the third time’s a charm?

At 7.9 million viewers, Monday night’s premiere of was a ratings dud.  Season Three’s opener was down approximately 2 million as compared to last year.  Even reruns of and fared better in the same time slot last night.  Unfortunately, this slow start doesn’t bode well for the rest of Prison’s season.  Come next Monday, the inmates will be facing stiff competition from and a new episode of Mother.

But should the execs at Fox really be surprised by the low turnout?  I think it’s safe to say they underestimated the fans who wanted more than rehash.  This time it’s Lincoln trying to save Michael?  What a twist!  Half the cast is locked up in the same prison?  Convenient!  Pretty boy Michael Scofield hasn’t been turned into someone’s b**** in that hellish Panamanian prison? C’mon!!!!  Does anyone honestly believe he could survive with that steely glare alone?  I was already miffed when I heard Dr. Sara Tancredi would be absent from the show; last night’s lackluster episode has just compounded my disappointment.

Granted, this show has never been based on plausibility…but it was once based on creativity.  Just knowing the series could be extended for another two or three years is already tiring me out.  And since the writers are constrained by the show’s title—who will eventually end up in prison next?  Lincoln’s son?

Read More | E! Online

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