USA Network has ordered three additional episodes of Psych, its freshman comedy drama about an amateur sleuth who tricks the police into believing he’s a psychic.
The pickup, which brings the total order for the show to 15 episodes, including the 90-minute pilot, bodes well for the future of the series. It stars James Roday as the sleuth and and Dule Hill as his best friend. Psych, whose premiere drew 6.1 million viewers, a record for a cable series debut this year, is expected to be picked up for a second season soon.
Since its July 7 premiere, Psych has retained most of its Monk lead-in. Season-to-date, Psych has averaged 3.9 million viewers compared with Monk’s 4 million. Both shows are expected to follow the split-season pattern of “Monk,” running through month’s end and then returning with fresh episodes in January.
Variety reports that FX has bought TV rights for X-Men: The Last Stand:
Hell-bent on bolstering its reputation as the most aggressive cable-network buyer of theatrical pics, FX has ponied up about $90 million to buy nine titles from 20th Century Fox, led by the blockbuster sequels “X-Men: The Last Stand” and “Ice Age: The Meltdown.”
FX recently engineered deals for exclusive cable TV rights to recent movies such as “Superman Returns,” “Click” and “Snakes on a Plane.”
Other titles in the 20th bundle include “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Big Momma’s House 2″ and “The Omen.” Most of the pics become available to FX in 2009 on a four-year license term. HBO gets the titles next year in the 18-month exclusive pay TV window.
FX will shell out 10%-12% of domestic box office for the 20th titles. Cabler license fee on “X-Men: Last Stand” has been capped at $24 million. (”Last Stand” has grossed $233 million in the U.S.)
Superman Returns director Bryan Singer has has signed a deal with ABC to develop three scripts for the network, one of which is guaranteed to go to a pilot, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Singer will develop the projects through his company, Bad Hat Harry Productions, and will executive-produce and direct the pilot.
This is the first formal television deal for Singer, who spearheaded the early development of SCI FI Channel’s critically praised original series Battlestar Galactica, executive-produced the channel’s miniseries The Triangle and directed and executive-produced the pilot for Fox’s medical drama House.
What sets Singer’s deal with ABC apart from other high-profile, three-for-one pacts is that it is not tied to a studio. This gives Singer the flexibility to develop with writers at any studio.
Elizabeth Mitchell has joined the cast of ABC’s hit drama Lost as a regular, says The Hollywood Reporter. Mitchell will play Juliet on the hit series from Touchstone TV and studio-based Bad Robot Productions.
Details about Mitchell’s character are being kept under wraps, but Juliet might be a new love interest for Jack (Matthew Fox). Mitchell is one of two regular players Lost has added for next season. Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro signed on to co-star on the series this week.
Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Group on Tuesday became the latest division of a major Hollywood studio to offer television shows, including the hit sitcom Friends, for sale on Apple Computer Inc’s iTunes Web site.
Warner Brothers put up a total of 113 episodes of Friends, sci-fi series Babylon 5, the animated classics The Jetsons and The Flintstones, as well as skits from MADtv and an unaired pilot called Aquaman by the writers of Smallville. Downloads cost $1.99 per episode, and can be viewed on a computer or video iPod.
Warner Brothers, owned by Time Warner Inc, said the move to iTunes was aimed at making its vast library of TV shows available across a wider array of viewing platforms. The studio is the latest to join the rush by content providers to generate revenue from their libraries as growth in DVD sales and television viewership stall.
Apple’s iTunes store now offers a total of more than 150 TV shows available for purchase from the Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS and MTV networks.
TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello is reporting that Rodrigo Santoro, best known to American audiences as the guy Laura Linney crushed on in Love Actually, is joining the cast of Lost this fall. The 30-year-old actor may not be a household name here in the States, but there apparently is no bigger movie star in Brazil than him.
Hell’s Kitchen and So You Think You Can Dance have increased viewership so much this season that Fox has already announced that both shows will return for another season.
I think Dance is a horrible show and I don’t watch it. I can’t imagine how this show draws and audience. Hell’s Kitchen is one of my favorite shows on television. Even though the cast isn’t as good as season one, I still find myself waiting in anticipation for every new episode.
ABC stuck with with its SF series Invasion until the very end, with hopes that it would eventually find an audience, but network president Stephen McPherson told SCI FI Wire that it eventually had to cut the series loose after a dramatic drop in audience.
Even with a lead-in like the hit show Lost, Invasion suffered a dramatic downturn in viewers, and ABC decided not to renew the alien mystery series, though it attracted about 10 million viewers a week. McPherson said in an interview at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Pasadena, Calif., last week that he is aware that some fans were angry about the decision to pull the heavily serialized drama before its storylines were wrapped up.
Continue reading ABC Claims It Stuck With Invasion Until The End
The American Family Association has convinced T-Mobile to pull its advertising from FX because of the adult-themed subjects covered in Rescue Me and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. According to AdAge, Don Wildmon and his supporters in the American Family Association “bombarded” T-Mobile and other advertisers with e-mails to complain about advertising on two programs that the organization does not support.
T-Mobile CEO Robert Dotson said the e-mails prompted him to actually watch the programming that they’re supporting through advertisements. In a letter to the AFA, Dotson says, “Candidly, some of the choices we have made are inconsistent with who we are and what we stand for.” Consequently, Dotson pulled all advertising from FX. So far this year, T-Mobile spent $1.2 million on advertising on FX and it is the network’s 21st largest advertiser.
Continue reading T-Mobile Pulls Advertising From F/X
Welcome to the Spoiler Roundup, the most comprehensive weekly spoiler wrapup on the internet. We scour the web for all the best spoilers on some of the most popular shows on the air. Catch it here every Wednesday at The TV Remote.
This week: 24, Battlestar Galactica, ER, Gilmore Girls, Lost, Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me and more. Now let’s get to the spoilers . . . (SPOILERS BELOW)
Continue reading The Spoiler Roundup 07.21.06