News Roundup: Early April Edition

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Renewals, Cancellations, & Scheduling:
Oprah's Master Class was renewed by OWN.

HBO has renewed Game of Thrones for a third season.

FOX renewed New Girl, Glee, and Raising Hope.

ABC is keeping General Hospital and extending Good Morning, America into an additional hour-long segment in the afternoons, beginning this summer. 

FOX is cutting back on COPS, mainly because they're filling Saturday nights with sports.

Sunday, April 15th brings back another season of True Life on MTV.

HBO's new comedy series, VEEP, begins Sunday, April 22nd at 10pm ET/PT.

A new season of Discovery's American Guns begins Wednesday, April 25th at 9pm ET/PT.

TLC's My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding will begin Sunday, April 29th at 10pm ET/PT.

Tuesday, May 8th begins The United Stats of America, a History program designed to teach you about America using numbers. Check it out at 10pm.

Food Network Star returns on Sunday, May 13th at 9pm ET/PT to Food Network.

The CW has The Catalina, a reality series about Miami hotel employees, premiering Tuesday, May 29th at 8pm ET/PT and Breaking Pointe, a reality series about a ballet company in Utah, premiering Thursday, May 31st at 8pm ET/PT.

On Wednesday, June 6th at 9pm ET/PT, Travel Channel will debut Adam Richman's Best Sandwich in America.

A&E will debut Cajun Justice on Thursday, June 7th at 10pm ET/PT. The series is about a police station in southern Louisiana.

True Blood returns to HBO on Sunday, June 10th at 9pm ET/PT.

HBO's The Newsroom will kick off its first season on Sunday, June 24th at 10pm ET/OT.

Showtime's Web Therapy will be back on July 2nd at 11pm and The Real L Word will return July 12th at 10pm.

On Friday, August 17th at 10pm ET/PT, Starz will premiere the second season of Boss.

BBCAmerica's first original drama, Copper, will premiere Sunday, August 19th at 9pm ET/PT. The 10-episode show will be about an 1860s cop in NYC.

Cast & Plot Updates:
James Denton will play a love interest for Joy on Hot in Cleveland.

Peri Gilpin (most known as Roz from Frasier) will play Ted Danson's wife on CSI.

Matt Laurer will remain with Today, making $25M each year.

Rosie O'Donnell and Dan Akyroyd will appear on Happily Divorced, albeit in separate episodes.

Shows in Development & Other Fun Stuff:
Netflix has added some new cartoons to their streaming: My Little Pony, GI Joe: Renegades, The Adventures of Chuck & Friends, and Transformers Prime. Later this year, JEM & the Holograms, Transformers: Generation 1, GI Joe: Real American Heroes, and Transformers: Beast Wars and Rescue Bots will also be added.

The Smash soundtrack will be available May 1st.

CMT has picked up Bounty Hunters (an animated series) and Trinity 911 (a reality show about hijinks in a small Texas police force).

Disney has ordered the family comedy pilot Bits & Pieces, where step-siblings will have to learn to get along.

Disney XD has ordered a live-action series called Crash & Bernstein, about a 14-year-old boy whose puppet comes to life. It should premiere this fall.

OWN has four new series coming: Elura and Michele Take Staten Island (BFFs who are former prosecutors tell people what to do), Iyanla Fix My Life (an author who believes in the power of acting on faith solces people's problems), Married to the Army: Alaska (military wives in Alaska, many of whom have husbands serving in Afghanistan), and Six Little McGhees (Ohio's first sextuplets and their family).

Discovery has four new series coming, including Top Engineer (pitting engineering teams against one another), One Car Too Far (drive to survive!), Mark Burnett's Alaska (yet another Alaska show), and Fast and Loud (restoring classic cars).

Matt Groening has finally announced that The Simpsons is set in Springfield, OREGON. [edit: nope. that was a misinterpretation.]

Bravo has green-lit a bunch of new projects. Silicon Valley is about some young folks in that area trying to become the next big thing. Life after Top Chef will look at the lives of some former contestants. Below Deck will look at the lives of those who work on yachts. Huh? will look at internet memes. Newlyweds: The First Year looks at the trials and tribulations of the first year of marriage of couples across the country.

TCA Winter 2012 - A Day with FOX, Part 2 of 2

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Picking up where I left off yesterday, TheTalkingBox was in Pasadena for an all-day press conference for FOX...

CR: FOX

After a Simpsons-themed lunch (complete with all sorts of tracks from "Mr. Plow" to the Kamp Krusty song), we started back up with Napoleon Dynamite, which brought a large crowd of producers and talent to the room. I've never been a fan of that movie, though I do enjoy seeing people dressed as the characters at parties, if that counts for anything. I don't know if there was a general lack of interest in the new show or if people were in a mini-coma from their Simpsons donuts, but the questions just weren't that good... I mean, when you're an animated character, it's cool to hear about who your animated inspirations might be, but I don't know that we needed to force a response from each person. On that note, Jon Heder (Napoleon) loves Otto and Jimbo Jones on The Simpsons, and Tina Majorina (Deb) always wanted to be part of Scooby Doo's gang. The best thing about the movie becoming an animated TV show? Ligers. You can't really do that in real life. One big change? LaFonda isn't on the show... yet. They wanted to be able to explore Kip's dating life a bit first. Something strange? Jon Heder and Jared Hess had a workshop to work on Napoleon's giggling... that involved tickling one another. The etymology of "Napoleon Dynamite" as a name? Jared Hess was doing his (Mormon) mission in Chicago and met an old Italian guy there who introduced himself as such. Hess wrote it down.

Cr: Patrick Ecclesine/FOX

The Finder is a show that, in my opinion, has received VERY LITTLE publicity, considering that it premieres this Thursday. First of all, let's talk about how this (very quirky) show got its name. Oh, that's right. Nobody could come up with anything better. Failed ideas include Location, Location, Location, The Boy Wonder, Lost and Found, and, simply, Finder. Hats off to the journalist who asked why the title was so flat. Where did the idea for the show come from? Well, it was conceived to be a partner to Bones, which Hart Hanson (who appeared via Skype, due to motorcycle injuries preventing his attendance in person) is "very confident" will come to have an eighth season, which he'd "like very much to do." What's the show about? Well, George Stults (remember him from 7th Heaven?) plays Walter, an Iraq war vet living in the Florida Keys ("if you turn on the news, all the goofy people live in Florida - Geoff Stults). He is "a remarkable man with the extraordinary ability to help people find the unfindable." Walter believes that whether or not he's truly gifted doesn't matter, because he believes it. I'm gonna pass, what about you?

Cr: Andrew McLeod/FOX

FOX then took some time to have a panel about some of their returning comedies this spring, Breaking In, New Girl, and Raising Hope. Yes, that's right, the previously-cancelled Breaking In is back, adding Megan Mullally to the cast. This isn't the first time that she's joined a show late in the game (Party Down the movie, by the way, is currently being written), and she just had her first day shooting on Friday. Mullally joins the cast as a rule enforcer, as the company portrayed in the first season has been "bought out by a stuffy, multi-billion dollar, global corporation." Adding her character, Veronica Mann, was needed to create a foil for Oz, noted Adam F. Goldberg, Executive Producer. And, although the Raising Hope babies were not present this time, there were still a couple of references to them throughout the panel, the most amusing being that Greg Garcia (Executive Producer) said they'll ask the girls' parents about what they're doing that's funny, and then they'll write that into the show. I think that makes a lot of sense, but it's probably something that everybody does and we just don't hear about it, LoL. There were also a handful of questions for New Girl, but I'm not going to bother talking about them, other than to let you know someone actually asked what type of cereal Zooey (and sister Emily) Deschanel ate growing up.

Snack break! Bob's Burgers had a bunch of sliders and a couple of different types of fries, plus ice cream sundaes and mini-pies. I heard that there were onion rings, but they were gone by the time I got to the front of the line!

CR: Warwick Saint / FOX

The final panel of the day was for American Idol, which I almost didn't stay for. As you have probably realized, we don't talk much about American Idol here on TheTalkingBox, except during awards season, where it pops up rather frequently. Of course there were some questions regarding the judges' and host's personal lives, like how Jennifer Lopez balances work with being a mom. Ryan Seacrest reminded us that he was only 27 when he began working on American Idol. A few folks tried hard to find out what else the man's got going on, but he kept a zipped lip. Steven Tyler announced that the songs for Aerosmith's new album have already been written, but only about half have lyrics right now. The other pushed topic was The Voice as a direct competitor to American Idol, which none of the talent seemed to think was a true problem. Mike Darnell, President of Alternative Entertainment at FOX, said that American Idol "is the gold standard." Executive Producer Cecile Frot-Coutaz added that the marketplace is just so much more competitive now. When American Idol started, it was the only show of its kind. And, Randy Jackson reminded us that The Voice has contestants who have previously ha record deals. American Idol isn't really the "here's a second chance" show. So, if you want to give the eleventh season of the hit reality show a try, it premieres on Wednesday, January 18th and Thursday, January 19th.

...and that's a wrap, folks! Hope you enjoyed our recaps of the panels!  

More Cancellations & Renewals

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Michael J. Fox is going to be on The Good Wife again.

Tivo lost 112,000 subscribers last quarter, putting it at the same place it was in 2004.

Cartoon Network has canceled Unnatural History.

NBC cut Chase down to 18 episodes, which isn't good news for the series.

While Life Unexpected hasn't officially been canceled, the "Complete Series" on DVD is forthcoming...

CBS's The Bold and the Beautiful will go on for at least two more years. Similarly, The Young and the Resltess (also on CBS) got a 3-year renewal.

WOW! Dexter is getting renewed for a SIXTH season! I hadn't realized that show had been around for so long already. Although I attended a paper on the first two seasons in March 2009, and there have been two seasons since then, so I guess it makes sense, LoL.

If you want your kid to be seen on Raising Hope, check out how to audition your baby here.

The Simpsons is going to stop making fun of FOX. Which, I think, is smart... who bites the hand that feeds?

Discovery's new Sons of Guns will be about custom-made weapons and will premiere on Wednesday, January 12th at 10pm.

Another new show is going to be based on the geo-location social media game, Foursquare.

Steve Carrell, who is leaving The Office, is doing another office show, also on NBC, also a comedy. It's going to be shot with a single camera and it's based on truth.

Idina Menzel is starring in an hour-long musical drama on ABC. It's going to be mother-daughter-y like Gilmore Girls.

Netflix is trying to offer current episodes for streaming, too. This was Hulu's big pro, LoL.

On December 12th, Hot in Cleveland will be doing a behind-the-scenes special.