We had a look at ABC's Life On Mars yesterday and seeing as that's pretty much its only new drama show, we'll be hearing nothing more from it for now.

So it's time to have a gander at CBS's new Fall shows: The Eleventh Hour, The Ex-List, Harper's Island, Project Gary, The Mentalist and Worst Week. Observant Brits (and Israelis) will notice a couple of remakes in there…

Continue reading "CBS's Fall 2008 shows"

Read other posts about: Jericho, Moonlight

Doctor Who

• Torchwood to have a one-off Radio 4 special episode written by Joe Lidster [free registration required]
• It's Saturday 5th April. It's 6.20pm. It's time for Doctor Who

Film

• Simon Pegg talks about Star Trek and the new Spaced, as well as the Spaced Region 1 DVDs (commentaries with Matt Stone, Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith and Diablo Cody)
• James Cromwell and Ellen Burstyn to play George W Bush's parents, Scrubs' Elizabeth Banks to play Laura Bush (?) in the forthcoming W
• Tobey Maguire to produce comic-book adaptation Afterburn
• GI Joe to be an origins piece?
• X-Files 2 talk from Chris Carter
• Old Twilight Zone episode to be turned into movie

Theatre

• Rowan Atkinson to play Fagin in Oliver!

British TV

• Living's bought up Private Practice
• Channel 4's Spring and Summer line-up
• Heston Blumenthal takes Gordon Ramsay's idea and runs with it: let's fix Little Chef for Channel 4

US TV

• Four join the cast of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, including BSG's Tahmoh Penikett
• The other ending of Jericho
• 24's Elisha Cuthbert to star in the NY-LON remake
• Trailer for The Wire's creators' Generation Kill
• ABC greenlights some more pilots

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Read other posts about: 24, Battlestar Galactica, Gordon Ramsay, Jericho, Scrubs, Star Trek, The Wire, Torchwood

So it's all over. It was cancelled; it was renewed after a peanut-based fight back; now Jericho's been cancelled again, after a second season of just seven episodes.

Was all that effort worth it? Has this last mini-season left Jericho a better show than it was at the end of its first season?

On the whole, I'd say yes.

Continue reading "Season finale: Jericho"

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Doctor Who

• Tom Baker would do cameo if 'asked nicely'
• Trailers for the fourth series
• RTD defends Catherine Tate

Film

• Tin Tin to be played by Thomas Sangster?
• Supernatural's Jared Padalecki to star in Friday the 13th remake?
• Stan Winston to work on Terminator 4
• James Gandolfini joins cast of The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3 remake
• Shekhar Kapur to complete Anthony Minghella's last movie
• Hugh Jackman and Eli Stone creator collaborate on comic, movie
• Fans may not like Indy 4
• Quantum of Solace featurette

Technology

• iPlayer to use Blinkx to search for video

British TV

• ITV abandons latest Ant and Dec project
• Famous Five to return, but animated
• Planning for a Tucker movie?
• Five Life rebranding as Fiver

US TV

• Highlights of the Buffy-fest
• Kelly Preston to guest-star on Medium for four episodes
• Bones going overseas
• Joss Whedon considering Buffy alumni for Dollhouse
• Prison Break gets a fourth season
• CBS picks up two new comedy pilots
• David Cross to star in his own co-written HBO pilot
• Fox cancels The Return of Jezebel James after three episodes
• CBS cancels Jericho - again - while Canterbury's Law gets a scheduling downgrade
• Jerry O'Connell to appear in Samantha Who?
• Michael Cassidy cast in How To Teach Filthy Rich Girls
• Smith's Amy Smart cast as lead in Glenn Gordon Caron's Meant to Be, while The Wonder Years' Fred Savage is to play a Single White Millionaire
• 90210's Jennie Garth to play My Best Friend's Girl
• HBO orders pilots for Suburban Shootout remake and Darren Star's Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl
• Will Sasso and Frederico Dordei join Fox's Spaced remake
• David Eick working on pilot based on PD James' Chldren Of Men
• Jane Seymour to play a TV host who solves mysteries for Hallmark pilot
• Sarah Connor viral marketing for a second season?

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Read other posts about: James Bond, Jericho, Prison Break, Supernatural

Doctor Who

• BBC4 to air Verity Lambert tribute night

Film

• Who won which Oscars
• Odeon bans Rambo
• X-Files 2 talk from cast and crew
• There will be a Bourne 4
• Tom Cruise cameo for Star Trek?
• Iron Man to link up with The Avengers

Comics

• Mr T to feature in a graphic novel

British TV

• Moving Wallpaper spared from cancellation
• Longest ever commission for Taggart, just as Rebus is cancelled

US TV

• Rufus Sewell to take Patrick Stewart's role in Jerry Buckheimer remake of Eleventh Hour
• BBC America buys Primeval [free registration required]
• Six more episodes for Lipstick Jungle
• Three more episodes for Women's Murder Club
• Previews of the next Lost
• Jericho producers looking for a new home for the show

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Read other posts about: Jason Bourne, Jericho, Lost, Primeval, Star Trek

Film

• Plot for Toy Story 3 revealed?
• Roland Emmerich to end the world in 2012?
• David Fincher to direct Black Hole, based on Charles Burns' graphic novel
• WB to make live action Akira movies
• Garth Ennis' The Boys picked up by Colombia
• All the studios are now lined up behind Blu-ray
• Trailer for Neil Gaiman's Coraline
• New trailer for 10,000BC

British TV

• Noel Fielding wants Gary Numan and Mick Jagger for the Mighty Boosh movie
• Black Entertainment Network to launch in the UK
• BBC to create iPlayer for iPhone and iPod touch

US TV

• ABC gives writers deadline of Wednesday for new projects
• The future looks bleak for Jericho
• More musical chairs at Law and Order
• Strike was good for Daily Show says Stewart
• Mythbusters to do more MacGyver episodes
• Jimmy Smits West Wing character was based on Barack Obama
• Bionic Woman almost definitely cancelled

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Read other posts about: Jericho, The West Wing

In the US: Tuesdays, 10pm ET/PT, CBS. Returns February 12th
In the UK: Hallmark, etc, when the time is right

Cast your mind back a while. Jericho was, for a while, one of the big hits of Fall 2006. An odd mix of right-wing lunacy and left-wing lunacy, it asked what would happen if nuclear bombs went off in almost every city in the US. Soap opera for survivalists, it turned out, with our noble survivors planning farming patterns, how to avoid nuclear fallout and how to shoot at anyone from a neighbouring town who moved – while deciding whether to leave their wives for the pregnant mistresses. All this was married with the tale of a cool black undercover CIA guy who knew that wacky people who thought the US should have attacked the USSR in 1962 were behind the bombs.

As I said - you get lunacy from both ends of the political spectrum in Jericho. But it was more entertaining than it sounds. Honest.

Then oops. After running non-stop all Fall, after the Christmas break, ratings fell off because everyone forgot it was on, and the show got cancelled at the end of the first season.

But you know what? If you send truckloads of peanuts to CBS TV executives, it turns out that they'll revive a show – for seven episodes at least. And in the vacuum left by the writers' strike, maybe it could get those stellar ratings back again when it airs next month.

Continue reading "Preview: Jericho 2x1-2x3"

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How does it look?

Doctor Who

• Big Finish to sell plays as MP3s from February 1st

Film

• A dodgy-quality version of the teaser trailer for Star Trek XI
• Ryan Gosling to be the next Jack Ryan?
• British industry falters because of US writers' strike
• Julie Benz talks about Rambo
• Photos from Prince Caspian
• Michelle Monaghan up for Wolverine role
• Site for 10,000BC launches

Radio

• Ken Branagh to play Cyrano de Bergerac on Radio 3

British TV

• A clip from Ashes to Ashes
• BBC should share the licence fee with other broadcasters
• Neighbours coming to Five from February 11th?
• Hugh F-W says good chickens aren't just for the rich
• Working Title wants to develop British programmes with the appeal of Lost and Heroes [free registration required]

US TV

• Lena Headey criticised for being too weedy to be Sarah Connor
• Gordon Ramsay gets chased by chef with knife in Kitchen Nightmares
• Sophia Myles explains the British invasion
• David Milch deals with 1970s police corruption
• Jericho has two endings
• Eidos developing Highlander game. Maybe that's why the bosses have quit

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Read other posts about: Ashes to Ashes, Gordon Ramsay, Jericho, Sex and the City, Star Trek

Doctor Who

• Billie Piper to be in Doctor Who movie, not series?

Film

• Val Kilmer to be a felon
• Serenity 2?
• Bradley Whitford and Neve Campbell to star in global warming mini-series
• Stephen Fry and Lily Allen to star in Jane Austen spoof?

Web TV

• Two new wildlife channels for Joost

British TV

• Sooty's up for sale
• Reunion planned for Grange Hill's 30th anniversary
• Ofcom launches public consultation on Sky's plans for not-FreeView
• Jericho's Lennie James joins C4 knife drama
• ITV to save The Prisoner remake
• Jonas Armstrong's been down the gym, apparently
• Peter Serafinowicz talks about his new show
• Dragon's Den is back on the 15th
• Tribute acts to vie for Las Vegas contract

US TV

• Studio 60's Steven Weber joins Brothers and Sisters
• FX commissions pilot for Tim Robbins' Possible Side Effects
• Ally Sheedy joins Kyle XY. Nice casting!
• More star cameos for 30 Rock
• Jericho's second season is completed
• The Daily Show's Lewis Black gets his own show
• Pushing Daisies gets good ratings

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Read other posts about: 30 Rock, Jericho, Kyle XY, Studio 60, The Prisoner, The West Wing

Doctor Who

• Murray Gold talks about how he ruins shows with his rubbish music
• Catherine Tate struggles with action scenes for some reason. Plus Freema only back for final three episodes?

Film

• First pics from Sex and the City movie

Music

• Sex Pistols plan live comeback

British TV

• Dave Gorman's radio show transfers to television
• Channel 4 HD to launch in December
• Ralf Little quits Two Pints because he's 'too old' at 27
• Paddington still prefers marmalade in his sandwiches

US TV

• Guess who's back on 24 [spoilers]
• Jerry Bruckheimer and CBS to remake crappy Patrick Stewart vehicle The Eleventh Hour
• Dan Rather sues CBS for $70 million
• Stephen Colbert sued for $65 million for allegedly stealing gags
• Shark's ex-wife recast and a new arrival in Jericho
• Anthony Horowitz is developing a project with Darren Star for Fox about an Albanian police officer who moves to the US
• Matthew Perry and Britney Spears to sitcom together?
• Tom Hanks and HBO planning Kennedy assassination mini-series

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Read other posts about: 24, Jericho, Sex and the City