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Posts tagged as “Showtime”

Additions

While I was posting my little rant about the Weinstein Company’s “way out”, some new infos have been surfacing regarding TV stuff:

Damages‘ third season has added another regular to its table: Royal Pains‘ Campbell Scott.
Also, Greek‘s Jesse Williams (who will soon star in Cabin in the Woods) has just joined Grey’s Anatomy for a multi episode arc.

Dollhouse has added loads of great actors including kind of a Whedonverse reunion with Summer Glau and Alexis Denisof. Michael Hogan and Keith Carradine are also joining the cast.
Does the show have the best cast on TV right now or what?

And Superman Returns‘ Brandon Routh is joining Chuck for a substantial arc.

Speaking of, Josh Schwartz is teaming up again with another Chuck exec, Matt Miller, to write a multicamera sitcom script for CBS. The potential show would follow young newlyweds shortly after their honeymoon. The series is supposedely inspired by both Miller and Schwartz’s recent marriages.
I wonder how that will turn out.

After The L Word, here comes another letter-word Showtime series, The C Word.
The cable network has ordered to pilot a show that would star none other than Frasier/John Adams‘ Laura Linney. C Word, created by Darlene Hunt, will be a dark comedy about cancer. Linney will play “a suburban mom forced to deal with a cancer diagnosis”.
I’m intrigued.

And finally, some fantastic news for all Leverage fans out there.
The show has already been renewed for a third season (to be aired later next year).
Awesome.

Hanging on

FX is the network that just can’t let go.
Why am I saying that?
The cable network just announced they’re planning to order additional episodes to the 2010 18-episode season of Rescue Me.
Also, there’s this Nip/Tuck thing where the whole show, including its series finale, has been shot for months now and they’re holding on to it until 2011!
This is crazier than SciFi with Battlestar Galactica‘s fourth season.

Obviously, they don’t want to let their “hit” shows die.
I’m also including Damages in the lot, hence the use of quotation marks. Despite poor ratings the show will still have a third season earlier next year and no changes will be made to garner more interest.
Even FX prez John Landgraf declared:

I was plainly disappointed with the ratings last year. It’s a really demanding show. You’re either in or you’re out. That type of programming doesn’t suit the current programing environment. Viewers are more interested in dating than marriage.

They can’t seem to face the fact that AMC is their own little Showtime…

As for the various premiere dates, Sons of Anarchy returns on Sept. 8, Philly on the 17th, Nip/Tuck on Oct. 14, Archer later during the fall, Damages‘ third season in January, and Lawman (not Lawnman) in March.

Passing the buck

After being right for a day, it looks like I (and everyone else) is wrong.
Showtime has not picked up Tim Robbin’s pilot which he both wrote and directed (Possible Side Effects).

Rumors are flying around that the pass on Possible Side Effects is due to its subject matter (the pharmaceutical drug industry) and pharmaceutical corps are among the top advertisers over at another Viacom network: CBS.

So, ultimately, out of the 4 pilots ordered by Sho, none of them were picked up.
Cash thrown out the window?

Variety has a piece up discussing how the networks are trying to minimize the spendings by co-producing or buying international properties instead of investing in pilots that won’t ultimately be picked up.
Overall, a pretty interesting read which takes a look at why certain shows are currently on the bubble.

In other TV news, TNT meanwhile has canceled Trust Me.

As for the recent Dollhouse/13-episode matter, I’ll be talking about that in more detail very soon in my follow-up article to the Four Reasons why Dollhouse might be Renewed.