As we approach Fall Sweeps, the fall season is full ramped up and ready to go, with a slew of renewals and suspensions, new ratings giants, old favorites continuing to fade out, and the World Series finally ending so we can go back to our regularly scheduled programming.
In ratings news, the headline for Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday was "World Series dominates ratings." The World Series hit a 5 year high this year with viewers, ranging from 16 to 22 million viewers a game. In Tuesday ratings news, V, which faced a large number of hurdles in getting on the air, debuted to huge numbers. While not able to beat TV ratings goliath NCIS (19.4 million viewers), the ABC science fiction had a healthy 13.9 viewers and won the ever important 18-49 age range for viewers.
Sadly enough for me, a repeat of Bones on Friday night at 9pm brought in 4 million viewers, far more than Dollhouse (which was taken out of the lineup during sweeps) has brought in all season. Alas, it's not looking good for one of my favorite shows, which is a shame because this season has continued to soar creatively and with plot development. This may prove that Dollhouse would be better suited for a network like SyFy, which may not have the higher viewers of network, but does have the target audience for the show.
Project Runway is down to its final three: Althea, Carol Hannah, and Irina. Most interesting about this trio is that they are all women—a Project Runway first. Less interesting about this trio is, well, everything. This whole season feels lacking, and I'm not sure what to peg that on. The talents are talented. The designers are highly skilled. The challenges are difficult. But there's something about the dynamic of the individuals so far this season that has left me lacking in terms of caring. There are no hugely dynamic characters, and while ridiculously talented Irina has been editted to seem like the uber-bitch on set, you just don't feel it. She's there to win. She isn't Season 2's antagonistic Santino Rice or Season 1's dislikable Wendy Pepper. She's just a woman who doesn't care what you think and it shows in how dedicated she is to her work. Carol Hannah, much like Season 3's Uli Herzner, makes beautiful dresses. Always beautiful dresses. Who cares? Althea has more spunk, Irina has the polish, and it'll be interesting to see those two collections... but I wouldn't guess it will be interesting enough to save this lackluster season.
In what could be the best news all year for NBC, The Hollywood Reporter reports that J.J. Abrams may direct the pilot of the upcoming husband/wife spy thriller Undercover. Abrams, who has a tendency to start off projects before quickly moving on to others, last directed a pilot years ago with a little show that we call LOST. With Abrams working his magic on this show, hopefully it will be able to start off with the kind of huge premiere only Abrams can bring, giving NBC a second chance at life.
In less-amazing-but-still-promising NBC news, Variety reports that Don Cheadle's Crescendo production company has signed a first-look deal with NBC. John Hlavin, who did FX's The Shield, will be making Boston P.D. to air on NBC. "The idea was to create a police procedural with a family drama at its heart," said Hlavin. Crescendo currently has its hands in a variety of pots right now, so to speak, with shows being developed also for ABC, TNT and FX. These shows range from comedies to dramas to thrillers. Don Cheadle can do no wrong.
NBC's Trauma was recently cancelled, but they may be able to finish their current season. I can confirm that the set has not been struck and the cast/crew are still active on set, but it remains to be seen when they're going to air the rest of the 13 episodes. Additionally, CBS recently announced that it will be cutting Numbers from 22 episodes to 16.
Following in the success of NCIS, NCIS: LA has seen healthy ratings (around 15 million a week) and has just been picked up by USA. Yes, you read correctly. In the first half of its first season, NCIS: LA has already been picked up for syndication. I guess if it works, work it.
As first reported back in June, Lifetime and A&E networks will merge. The first setbacks of this move were felt last week when 100 people, mostly in marketing and PR, were laid off from the network. Expect more layoffs as the two companies continue to be absorbed into one another. Am I the only person who is a bit miffed about this union? A&E has riveting, original, unique programming and, with the exception of Project Runway, Lifetime is very much the opposite. Hopefully A&E will rub off on Lifetime and not the other way around.
And that's it for this week, join me next week when TV is back to normal, the Bronx has stopped rocking, Glee returns, and sweeps really pick up before the upcoming midseason break in a few weeks (already!?).
