American Idol has become such a ratings juggernaut that it’s always a little surprising when something actually tops it. The Grammy Awards were able to do just that last week, thanks to the best ratings for the show since 2004. The other big event for the week was the return of Lost on ABC. It didn’t approach the Idol or Grammy numbers, but it did finish the week as the number one scripted show in the adult demo. Granted, it was the season premiere, but knocking off Grey’s, House, 2 ½ Men, and Big Bang Theory is always worth noting. On cable, the big surprise was probably the performance from USA’s White Collar and Psych. Both were well down from last week. Read the rest of this entry »

As I sat through another enjoyable episode of Burn Notice last night, the same question that rattles around my noggin during every other installment was beating its little fists of fury against the sides of my skull at a more feverish pace than usual.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THE END GAME TO THIS SHOW?!

Simple answer: Michael Westen finds out who toasted him and gets his vengeance, then either goes back to being a globetrotting international spy, or settles down in a nice two bedroom ranch house with the lovely Fiona. I’m cool with whichever outcome the scribes choose, but at some point they might want to display legitimate forward progress in the central storyline. If not, it’s soon going to lose its signature steam and die a slow, painful death, like another series I once adored, Nip/Tuck.

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There’s something scary going on in television that we haven’t seen in a very long time, if ever. I can define it in one word: stability. After years where viewers waited on their couch edges waiting to hear if their favorite shows have been renewed, we’re now getting a number of very early seasonal pickups for some popular shows.

Part of this, most likely, is to enable the networks to keep or grow the audience they already have for these programs. The other part — and this is purely speculation —  is they want to show their viewers that they aren’t the train wreck that NBC has become. Either way, the early renewals show us a partial picture of the 2010-11 season. And, so far, it looks pretty good.

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It was a bit of a slow week of television. Football on FOX sent all the other networks scrambling on Sunday. Then Obama took over all the channels on Wednesday. Add in an oddly quiet Thursday and we had three pretty weak nights of numbers. Not to worry though, there was still the occasional cause for celebration. To call the NFC Championship a success would be a terrible understatement. How terrible? How about it more than doubled the Idol numbers? In non-gridiron results, FOX took advantage of the quiet Thursday, garnering some very good results for Bones and Fringe. Castle managed to grow their numbers again. And Vampire Diaries tied for second in the demo! Read the rest of this entry »

The new psychopath in Michael Westen’s life revealed himself last night. His name is Mason Gilroy. So, what’s he like? Well, he’s a snappy dresser, drives a Maserati, thinks Americans are “sheep,” and travels everywhere with his own personal sniper. In other words, he’s the typical kind of foe Mikey is accustomed to jumping in the sack with, so to speak. Something tells me these two will get along swimmingly the remainder of season three. And by swimmingly, I mean they’ll try multiple times to kill one another.

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We love to over-think, don’t we? Over-analyze, debate, grind things down until there’s nothing left to pick over but the nubs. It’s in our nature. That’s exactly what we come here to do — get down and dirty with a topic on a platform that provides a voice to each and every one of us.

One topic in particular that’s been hot lately is NBC’s decision to book five nights of Leno at 10PM. Don’t stop reading now — I have nothing that I care to say about that. But the scheduling did initially make for a ton of discussion about how NBC was giving up the 10 o’clock hour, conceding it to CBS and ABC.

But now that a new player has bellied up to the hour, I haven’t heard a peep about it. How come? What about USA Network’s bold move into the primetime schedule? Read the rest of this entry »

The complete implosion of Heroes just never gets old. I’m fascinated by it, and the show found an all new low last week. Over the years we’ve seen plenty of shows fall from their once lofty heights. But to see one crash so fast, and in such a dramatic fashion, is a rare thing. On a brighter note, the week that was also brought a host of premieres, including 24, Human Target, White Collar, Burn Notice, and American Pickers. And if you want to see some really crazy numbers, click through and take a look at what iCarly did. Read the rest of this entry »