Media Scribbler

One of the best uses of modern statistics and polling has done is in bringing things out of test screenings and focus groups to let them know women hate one character or think another is too stereotypical, et. al.
But by the power of the Internet (and a great little webcasting platform called Seesmic) a producer of the show “Heroes” to find out one thing — how many people watch his show on the Web through Hulu or P2P shares, downloaded them from iTunes or simply TiVo it. He also wants to know what you like about that method you like.
Where …read more

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Alan Ball’s time at HBO won’t be “Six Feet Under” anytime soon, as network execs announced Wednesday that they have ordered a second season of his new vampiric drama, “True Blood”.
Even though the show took a little time to gain critical traction, the premiere episode netted about 4 million viewers total. But the second episode of the show about futuristic Southern vampires who feast upon synthetic blood picked up 26 percent more viewers than the first, which was enough to qualify it as a success for the net.
The series, which is based on a series of …read more

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The latest project by fandom fave Joss Whedon, “Dollhouse”, has halted production for a second time.
Fox Television execs told TelevisionWeek that the show, which stopped production last Thursday, will resume production on Sept. 25. The official reason given for the work stoppage was that Whedon simply wants the show to be better and that he was so preoccupied with directing two of the first three shows that he wasn’t able to focus on scripts. They also insist that the show won’t miss its scheduled January premiere date.
“We have tremendous confidence in Joss and his team, and we wholeheartedly supported his …read more

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It seems like there’s not enough reasons why “24” is still off the air. If it’s not a writer’s strike, then the main star is sent to prison. But now the writers seem to have run out of things to write about, apparently.
The exec-producer of “24″, Howard Gordon, told EW.com Monday that the show shut down production after Episode 18 of their seventh season because he was not happy with the scripts for the rest of the season.
“We had a couple of scripts that we weren’t happy with,” Gordon said to EW.com. “We just couldn’t get this direction to work, …read more

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Actor Alec Baldwin, who has made it clear over the past season that he’d rather be let out of his contract with NBC for “30 Rock” than spend another season racking up more critical accolades and award nominations, had some sharp words for the network’s execs in a recent “New Yorker” profile.

“If the show does succeed, it’ll be something of a fucking miracle, because NBC hasn’t done a fucking thing to help this show at all. This show is the red-headed stepchild in the lineup. They’ve gone out of their way to wring the last drops out of ‘My …read more

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Uber-producer Aaron Sorkin made his name by building a fictitious White House administration. Then he moved on to helming a show about fictitious television ensemble. Even though the “fiction” of “Studio 60 on the Sunset Script” was debatable, it still took liberties and made the characters do things that even the original “Saturday Night Players” would’ve shied away from.
Now he’s taking on a non-fictional project, and has even taken the step of being a part of what he’s creating on a personal level. He’s gotten a Facebook, and will probably be friended by at least a couple thousand people within …read more

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Last night showed what hot showrunners Joss Whedon and Lorne Richards did on their WGA strike-ations. Today comes another story about using your time as a hot commodity wisely — from an interview Aaron Sorkin on GQ’s blog, via Nikke Finke’s “Deadline Hollywood Daily”.
Sorkin, who actually benefitted from the situation initially as his play “The Farnsworth Invention” previewed on Broadway, said to Finke, “For three and a half weeks I was in the unique position of being on strike and being struck against (by Broadway stagehands) at the same time.”
Once done with that distraction, Sorkin said he attended a …read more

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Take a minute and try to think of who the best-paid TV actors on current shows are. Then come back and see if you were anywhere in the ballpark.

According to TV Guide’s latest issue (on stands Thursday) Two and a Half Men’s Charlie Sheen is the highest-paid comedy star in prime-time, earning $825,000 per episode, including what he makes as part-owner of the series. Guess that gives us some insight into Denise Richards‘ possible motivations in that non-relationship.
CSI’s William Petersen is tops amongst network drama actors, earning $600,000 per episode, while Law & Order: SVU’s Mariska Hargitay rakes in $400,000 …read more

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Do you really, really love “American Idol” as it is? Then this might be bad news, because the man who steered the reality competition into the behemoth it’s become for Fox has left the building.
Nigel Lythgoe, the showrunner of AI and “So You Think You Can Dance?“, has told TelevisionWeek that he plans to spend the summer concentrating on a new version of the latter in South Africa.
“My summer will be taken up by travels to South Africa, Australia and Canada to work on local versions of (‘SYTYCD’),” Lythgoe said to TelevisionWeek. “I will step back from my day-to-day producing …read more

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The man who managed to squeeze a few successful incarnations out of “Law & Order” is may land another show on NBC before long. TV Week is reporting that the Peacock has ordered a Dick Wolf pilot for “Lost and Found“, centered on a character described as “a slightly quirky female homicide detective who uses outside-the-box techniques to identify John and Jane Does”.This is quite different from “Law and Order” et al, where cops-on-the-street were less than half of the show. If anything, it sounds more like an plotline David Simon would be pursuing. Which makes it sound interesting to …read more

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