The Unit had a lot of potential, seeing as how it was created by The Shield’s Shawn Ryan. But, for me, it may be because it wasn’t on a cable network like FX that I lost interest in it early on. Not that it’s a bad show at all! In fact, it lasted a respectable four seasons on CBS.

The fourth and final season of The Unit was just released on DVD and is available in stores today, and so is a complete series gift set featuring all four seasons. Well, I’ve got good news for you: we’re giving away one copy of each to random commenters to this post (one recipient of each DVD set).

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With the majority of the season premieres in the rear view, business picks back up for DVD sets this week. Big network releases include How I Met Your Mother, CSI: NY, The Unit, Kings, Life On Mars, and a very delayed release for Day Break. From the archives you’ll find my pick of the week, the remastered 20th Anniversary Edition of Traffik, along with Patty Duke, Cagney & Lacey, and a sweet He-Man collection. There are also a host of Fan Favorites collections from classic comedies like Barney Miller, Sanford and Son, and I Dream of Jeannie. The full list is after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

The big news of the week was, of course, the upfronts. ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and The CW all unveiled their new lineups, and in doing so killed According to Jim, Cupid, Deal or No Deal, Everybody Hates Chris, The Game, Life, My Name Is Earl, Privileged, Reaper, Samantha Who?, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Without a Trace and The Unit.

• The CW moved Smallville to Fridays and is launching Twilight The Vampire Diaries in its slot. Also, Fox 1992 called and it wants its Wednesday lineup back.
• Fox is bringing SYTYCD to the fall to keep Idol’s timeslots warm until January, moving Fringe to take on CSI, and thinks a better Dollhouse lead-in is a couple of comedies; and one of them is ‘Til Death.
• CBS is spinning off NCIS: LA and bringing back Moonlight’s Alex O’Loughlin in a new medical show. They also stole Medium from NBC and are sticking it after Ghost Whisperer on Fridays.
• NBC has Jay Leno on… every night. More SNL Weekend Update on Thursdays, and timeslot-sharing shows, like Heroes Mondays at 8 in the fall, before making room for Chuck (YAY!) in January.
• ABC sticks with Scrubs, and a Wednesday with four new comedies and four old faces: Hank (Kelsey Grammer), The Middle (Patricia Heaton), Cougar Town (Courteney Cox Arquette) and Modern Family (Ed O’Neill).
• Even more not famous former Illinois governor Rod’s wife Patti Blagojevich is joining NBC’s I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here.
• Shawn Johnson made the Olympic DWTS championship alumni association a trio.
• Despite being canceled, Earl is twit-titioning to save its life, and TBS may be interested in saving it.
• Reaper is seeing if they can go syndicated to stay alive. And with Tyler Labine starring in the picked-up Sons of Tucson, if it works things could get interesting.
• Kara DioGuardi showed up “bikini girl” on American Idol by outsinging her and out-looking-hot-in-a-bikini-ing her.

The 2008-2009 television season is quickly coming to a close. Last week saw some 30 season/series finales hitting our screens. The resulting numbers were all over the place. Some shows took advantage of the situation, pulling out all the stops and hitting numbers they hadn’t seen in some time. Others held steady. And a few signed in with troubling drops.

I’ve mentioned before that these final numbers could hold sway as the networks prepare to release the fall schedules this week. That does still apply, although, after all the shenanigans over the weekend, with Dollhouse and Better Off Ted being renewed, just how much sway becomes a little more cloudy. Read the rest of this entry »

We’re on the verge of it now. Over the next two weeks all of our favorite shows are going to be ending, and some of those tough decisions will have to be made by the networks. These final few ratings numbers will play heavily in those decisions. With that in mind, the week brought good news for a couple of bubble shows (Castle, Lie To Me), and bad news for others (Better Off Ted, Cupid, The Unusuals, Dollhouse, Reaper, My Name Is Earl). Read the rest of this entry »

It was an odd week of television. The current sweeps period continues to cough up odd nights of repeats. This time, NBC took Monday off, to disastrous results. In not quite as disastrous news, the mid-season debuts continued, as ABC premiered Better Off Ted and NBC finally gave us all a look at Kings. On the happier end of the scale, the CBS Monday comedies were all up, the Idol reign of terror continued, and it sure looks like we won’t have to put up with The Chopping Block for much longer. Read the rest of this entry »

(2/15 – 2/21)

Ya know, it would be great if I could sit down to my beloved Model M keyboard and type about the fantastic ratings that Dollhouse was getting. 10 million viewers… a demo in the 4s… already picked up for the fall… Great, but probably not as interesting as the actual numbers are turning out to be. Despite CBS being in repeat mode Friday night, Dollhouse still suffered the expected week 2 decline. And those lower numbers make the whole situation all the more dramatic. They make the coming week feel very much like the one that just passed. The numbers really need to go up, the sooner the better. Elsewhere, good news for The Bachelor and Lost, bad news for Chuck and Heroes, and some puzzling results for the OG CSI. Read the rest of this entry »