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Posts tagged as “Money”

Reach

Yesterday was ABC day as Steve McPherson took the stage over at the TCA Press Tour.
It’s funny (but not really) to see how Steve seems to blame every failure and cancellation on Nielsen.
After heavily criticizing Nielsen, McPherson said about Dirty Sexy Money and Pushing Daisies being cancelled:

I really loved the shows. The producers delivered what they promised. For us it was a frustration that we couldn’t get a larger audience — or that Nielsen says we couldn’t get a larger audience.

Wait.
You’re saying that you had to cancel those shows based on a prediction taken from a system you don’t even believe in and publicly criticize?

Isn’t that the definition of hypocrisy?

In other news, Matthew Weiner finally signed that deal for Mad Men. The 10+ millions that were asked was kinda ridiculous given what we’re talking about here: a small cable channel and an indie studio on the brink of bankruptcy with a TV show having between 1 and 2 million viewers. Ultimately Weiner got a 2-year 7-digit contract with Lionsgate TV.
Not too shabby.

It's settled

As predicted, the cash machine triumphed in the end as Fox and WB reached a settlement for the Watchmen case.
Fox won’t co-own the money nor co-distribute it, but it will have a nifty “sizable cash payment” with a percentage on the film’s B.O. revenue.
As Nikki Finke loves to say over and over and over again: TOLDJA!

Now that that is settled, let’s move on.

NBC unveiled various announcements such as the premiere date of Amy Poheler’s show: April 9.
But still no name in sight.
I wonder how it’s gonna down in the TV Guide. “Tune in tonight for the thrilling premiere of NBC’s new hit show, The Untitled Daniels/Schur/Poehler Series.”
Also, no surprise, both The Office and 30 Rock have been renewed for another season.

In other news, TNT has ordered six additional scripts for Leverage.
New faces are joining SGU (which will actually premiere in the fall): Justin Louis, David Blue, Brian J. Smith and Jamil Walker Smith.
CBS has ordered the pilot for another comedy, Tick Tock, and FOX has greenlit two new dramas, Maggie Hill (a female heart surgeon suffering from schizophrenia) and Human Target (a security expert going undercover to protect targeted clients).

Oh, and a Jericho movie could be on its way.

Dammit

First, two unfortunate deaths today:
Patrick McGoohan from The Prisoner and Ricardo Montalban from Fantasy Island.
R.I.P.

Then:
Emily Blunt is rumored to play Black Widow in the next Iron Man.
But Samuel L. Jackson is supposedly out of the Nick Fury role for The Avengers movie.
After Don Cheadle replacing Terrence Howard, this is really some crappy news again. I don’t really care whose finances are too low to not pay a raise or ask for one, but just get Jackson on board and let’s do this.

Meanwhile Jason Bateman is going to try to talk some sense into his on-screen boy, Michael Cera, who doesn’t want to do the Arrested Development movie.
Come on.
Dude, if all the crew wants in, including Ron Howard, and every fans wants it, just do it.
I’m also happy with another possibility: the actual George Michael playing George Michael with no one mentioning that he is now a middle-aged gay man.

Steve Carell on the other hand has launched his own television division named Carousel Prods. Literally one second after its creation, Universal Media Studios inked a 3-year overall deal with the company.
Way to go.