The satellite provider has decided not to order a second season of Passions from NBC U for its original programming service The 101. It’ll continue to air on the channel through August. Next month, though, it’ll be cut back even more, airing just three days a week instead of four.
Variety points out that the show could still survive, either online or on Oxygen, the new female-oriented cable net in the NBC universe.
The winter Television Critics Association press tour, slated for next month in Los Angeles, has been canceled due to the ongoing WGA strike. No surprise here; TCA organizers said previously the event would likely be canceled if the strike lasted through this week.
With last week’s talks breaking down on Friday and no date set for the two sides to return to the table, there would appear to be no end in sight.
Steven Long Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle are riding high on the success of this week’s Tin Man miniseries. SCI FI Wire interviewed the TV veterans, who created The Pretender in the mid-’90s. After four seasons as part of the Saturday night “Thrillogy” (remember when networks programmed Saturday nights?), the series was canceled by NBC; two subsequent TNT telefilms failed to answer more questions than they created with regard to the serial’s complex storylines.
But now, the creators are attempting to bring the show back in a digital medium, hopefully with star Michael T. Weiss on board. It’ll be interesting to see how this develops and whether viewers finally get some answers and closure about The Centre after all these years.
Showtime series may be called up to the big leagues if the strike drags on, CBS chief Les Moonves said in a speech today. (CBS and Showtime are corporate cousins.) Dexter would likely be first up, “because it would work well with the network’s popular dark crime procedurals,” according to this TV Week article.
Given the strong year Showtime and Dexter have had, this is potentially big news. I can’t recall a premium cable show getting poached during its original run by a major network; this may be a first (…if it even happens).
And if CBS is stealing borrowing some of Showtime’s most critically acclaimed programming (Dexter), surely it’s not too much to ask that ShoToo bask in some of CBS’ most critically reviled reality programming (Big Brother After Dark). Right?
Dust off your Chenbot yoga mat: Big Brother is back, though a bit later than I predicted yesterday (hey, I was close)! A ninth edition of the reality-show-in-a-box kicks off Tuesday, February 12 at 9p/8c on CBS.
The other two weekly installments are slated for Wednesdays and Sundays at 8p/7c.
NO WORD YET ON… | …whether this means the return of Big Brother After Dark, but I’m keeping my eyes peeled.
I think Dexter is a fantastic show, but I find most of the characters who aren’t Dexter to be varying shades of irritating. We’ve been promised that one of them will die between now and the Dec. 16 season finale. This has kept me on the edge of my seat, gathering quite the wish list of characters who could be snuffed out.
But last night I had an epiphany. Maybe everyone but Dexter should die, and Dexter and Weeds can move to the same town next season! It’d be a great amalgamation of two superb shows. I can dream; in the meantime, what’s going to happen to Doakes? It looks to be a crazy couple of episodes.
My suspicion is that The Amazing Race will hand off to Big Brother 9 come January. The Futon Critic anticipates that the Race finale will air on Sunday, January 20, freeing up CBS’ post-60 Minutes Sunday slot for Brother’s traditional three-nights-a-week schedule.
Therefore, I’m predicting that the new season of Big Brother could begin as early as Thursday, January 24, carrying on through February sweeps as well as the typically rerun-laden months of March and April. Thoughts? Counter-theories?
View more by category: Big Brother: After Dark (279), CBS (77), ShoToo (71), Big Brother (56), Weeds (53), NBC (41), Grey's Anatomy (41), ABC (35), Internet (34), Elsewhere (29). Or by month: November 2009. Or visit the Complete Archive.
