ABC Promises Uninterrupted Blocks of 'Lost'
It's a plight that "Lost" fans know all too well -- You tune in on a Wednesday night praying for a new episode only to find a random repeat from nearly a season earlier, or else a lengthy and unexpected clip show. ABC is hoping to eliminate that experience.
Following a format somewhat resembling FOX's successful treatment of "24," ABC revealed its new fall schedule on Tuesday (May 16), vowing to dramatically reduce "Lost" repeats. The plan calls for "Lost" to begin the season in its standard Wednesday 9 p.m. ET time slot, but just when the show would typically move into a rerun cycle in the winter, ABC has an alternative up its sleeve.
"We really wanted to just say to the audience, 'Listen, it's going to be on for this block here and then we'll bring it back and it will run straight through,'" explains ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson. "So yes, the plan is that 'Lost' will come on in the fall in the first or second week of the season, run for seven episodes and then 'Day Break' will launch into that period and 'Lost' will come back in January or early February and run straight through for the remainder for the season."
That way, instead of wondering why Shannon and Boone suddenly seem to be alive again and why the castaways are still scratching their heads over the contents of the mysterious hatch, viewers can follow Taye Diggs as he relives the same day over and over again trying to avoid being framed for murder.
"I think it's the best role he's ever played," McPherson says of Diggs and his "Day Break" character. "He just explodes off the screen and really is a TV star. I think that like 'Lost,' it's a challenging area, but we really feel like in the drama world that's what we do well and we want to take those chances."
McPherson wouldn't rule out the possibility that "Lost" repeats might still air in different time periods, including the 8 p.m. hour before fresh content. He also refused to leak any information on new cast members.
"There are no new people at this point," he hedges. "All the cast are returning except the people we shot on 'Lost.'"
Although convention wisdom holds that a schedule loaded with new programming and low on repeats is an expensive schedule, McPherson urges pundits not to cry for either ABC or "Lost."
"It's an extremely profitable show for everyone," McPherson reassures the masses. "There's DVDs that'll be out, there's the dotcom, there's going to be a lot of content... The thing to keep in mind is that it won't be three-on/one-off/two-on/one-off. There will be no break in the aired episodes. Much like '24,' you will be able to come into that experience and stay with it week after week after week."
McPherson explains that it's all just part of a changing television landscape in a medium which is offering viewers more options than ever before.
"It's a more expensive schedule, but I think the audience is more demanding right now," he says. "I think that the audience has so much choice, is so sophisticated, is so demanding now that we have to work into our schedule more and more original programming and I think that giving the audience what they want is something we're charged with doing."
Not much is shaken up in No. 1 CBS' schedule
NEW YORK — CBS, bringing six freshman shows back for second seasons, will add just one new comedy and three dramas to a fall schedule that is far more stable than those of major competitors.
The network, which presents the fall lineup to advertisers Wednesday, will finish its fourth consecutive season as No. 1 among total viewers, thanks to a lineup long on procedural crime dramas, including three versions of CSI.
After Threshold failed last fall, CBS will try to broaden its palette with another sci-fi-tinged thriller and legal and medical dramas.
CBS' Sunday movie — the last network movie slot and a staple since 1986 — is canceled, making room for two dramas. Without a Trace, which regularly beats ER on Thursdays, could move to Sunday nights at 9, which would allow CBS to launch new shows behind that series, The Unit and CSI.
Returning freshman shows are The Unit, Criminal Minds, How I Met Your Mother, Close to Home and Ghost Whisperer, and midseason comedy The New Adventures of Old Christine will return to its Monday 9:30 p.m. ET/PT slot.
Comedies Courting Alex and Out of Practice are goners. (Practice co-creator Joe Keenan, a former Frasier producer, may move to Desperate Housewives.)
The King of Queens returns for a ninth season. But it will not air until January at the earliest and is expected to be paired with new comedy Rules of Engagement, about a single guy, his engaged friends and a married couple. How I Met YourMother is expected to fill King's Monday 8 p.m. ET/PT slot, followed by new comedy The Class, about a group of third-grade classmates reunited as adults. Class will mark Friends' co-creator David Crane's TV return. Jason Ritter (Joan of Arcadia) stars.
Like NBC and ABC, CBS is putting an emphasis on dramas as the networks continue to struggle to develop hit comedies.
New fall dramas: Shark, starring James Woods as a celebrity defense lawyer who becomes an L.A. prosecutor; Jericho, about the aftermath of a nuclear mushroom cloud in a Kansas town; and Smith, about career criminals plotting heists and starring Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen and Simon Baker.
Midseason dramas include Waterfront, starring Joe Pantoliano as a corrupt mayor of Providence, and 3 Lbs., about a gifted brain surgeon, starring Stanley Tucci in a retooled version of a series rejected last spring with Dylan McDermott.
Pixar Fought Disney To Protect Its "Children," Says Lasseter
John Lasseter, the co-founder and creative leader of Pixar, has acknowledged that he worried endlessly during the protracted negotiations with Disney about the possibility that Disney would produce sequels to the original Pixar films like Toy Story and Monsters, Inc. if a deal extending their relationship wasn't concluded.
In an interview with Fortune magazine, Lasseter said, "It would have been easier just to walk away, but Steve [Jobs] stayed in there for me, because I loved these characters that we have created. They're like family, like children.
And if we didn't get a deal, Disney would own our children. Who knew what they would do? These were the people that put out Cinderella II. We believe that the only reason to do a sequel is if you have a great story, period. It's not 'Let's just keep cranking it out.'"
Lasseter said that he and Jobs decided to wait until Michael Eisner left as CEO of the studio before resuming negotiations with Disney, and that he received a phone call from Robert Iger on the day he was named to succeed Eisner. "And that said a lot to us, because he was serious about wanting to make a deal with us to keep distributing our films. He understood that the biggest issue for us wasn't money, but to have control of our characters."
When he heard that Disney wanted to take over Pixar, Lasseter recalled, "at first I was very nervous." However, he added, Jobs reassured him, saying, "Get to know Bob Iger. That's all I can say. He's a good man."
Record labels sue XM over portable device
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The recording industry on Tuesday sued XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., alleging its Inno device that can store music infringes on copyrights and transforms a passive radio experience into the equivalent of a digital download service like iTunes.
A spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America, comprising major labels such as Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group Corp., EMI Group Plc and Sony BMG, said the suit was filed on Tuesday in New York federal court.
The suit accuses XM Satellite of "massive wholesale infringement," and seeks $150,000 in damages for every song copied by XM customers using the devices, which went on sale earlier this month. XM, with more than 6.5 million subscribers, said it plays 160,000 different songs every month.
"...Because XM makes available vast catalogues of music in every genre, XM subscribers will have little need ever again to buy legitimate copies of plaintiffs' sound recordings," the lawsuit says referring to the hand held "Inno" device.
The suit says that XM has touted its service's advantages over the iPod and cites XM's advertising literature that says "It's not a Pod. It's the mothership."
XM said the Inno, which is manufactured by Pioneer Corp., are legal devices that allow consumers to listen to and record radio just as the law has allowed for decades.
While the labels are asserting the device has transformed radio broadcasts into a download service, XM said the device does not allow consumers to transfer recorded content. XM also said that content recorded from radio broadcasts like XM's is not on demand, in contrast to the content people buy from online music stores like Apple Computer Inc.'s popular iTunes service.
XM said it will vigorously defend this lawsuit on behalf of consumers and also called the lawsuit a bargaining tactic.
The company's shares, which rose 4 percent to close at $17.63 on Nasdaq, were down 1.3 percent at $17.40 in after hours trading.
The labels are currently in talks with XM and its rival Sirius Satellite Radio, to renegotiate digital royalty contracts for broadcasts.
XM and the labels had also been in talks about the licensing of content for the digital portable player, but failed to reach agreement, according to sources familiar with the matter. The labels had pressed for licenses similar to those required for services like iTunes, the sources said.
Sirius earlier this spring came to an agreement with music labels over the ability to save songs to its S50 portable satellite receivers that double as MP3 players.
"XM Radio is the largest single payer of digital music broadcast royalties, and royalties paid by XM go to the music industry and benefit artists directly," the satellite radio company said.
"The music labels are trying to stifle innovation, limit consumer choice and roll back consumers' rights to record content for their personal use," XM added.
"It's a question of economic impact. Will these devices substitute for the purchase of a record? Everything is changing and the industry is petrified," said Jay Cooper, an entertainment lawyer.
Kidman engaged to country star
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman, ex-wife of actor Tom Cruise, is engaged to marry country music star Keith Urban, his spokesman said on Tuesday.
Confirmation of the engagement ends months of speculation about the couple, both of whom are 38 and were brought up in Australia.
They met in January 2005 at an awards dinner held by the Australian government in Los Angeles honoring the two of them, Urban spokesman Paul Freundlich told Reuters.
Freundlich said he had no further details about the couple's engagement or their wedding plans.
A spokeswoman for the actress added only, "I'll leave that confirmation to Paul. That's the old-fashioned, traditional way of announcing such things."
People magazine reported earlier that Kidman had revealed her engagement to the publication in an interview Monday while discussing a weekend gala event she hosted in New York, accompanied by Urban.
"He's actually my fiance," Kidman, an Academy Award winner for her role in the 2002 film "The Hours," was quoted as saying. "I wouldn't be bringing my boyfriend."
People said Kidman was photographed in November wearing a ring on her wedding finger while walking arm-in-arm with Urban in Boston.
Kidman, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Fund for Women, ended her 10-year marriage to Cruise in 2001. The couple have two adopted children.
Cruise's fiance, actress Katie Holmes, recently gave birth to their first child together, a daughter they named Suri.
Kidman was born in Hawaii but brought up in Australia. Urban, a singer and guitarist, was born in New Zealand and grew up in Australia. He won a Grammy in 2005 for best male country vocal performance on the song "You'll Think of Me."
ABC Moves 'Grey's Anatomy' in Fall Lineup
NEW YORK - ABC is moving its hottest show, "Grey's Anatomy," to Thursdays in the fall as part of an aggressive schedule that will bring at least 15 new series to the air next season.
Ted Danson, Taye Diggs, Calista Flockhart, Anne Heche, David Arquette and Rachel Griffiths are among the stars that will appear in new ABC series, the network announced Tuesday.
ABC has also left the newsmagazine "Primetime" off its fall schedule for the first time since its introduction in 1989. But ABC News said "Primetime" will remain in production for specials, limited-run series and perhaps as a replacement for a failed entertainment program.
ABC is the only one of the major networks to increase its ratings over last year on the strength of hits "Grey's Anatomy," "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost." But the rest of its schedule was weak, forcing the network to make an uncommonly large number of pilots.
Moving the medical soap "Grey's Anatomy" to 9 p.m. Thursdays sets up a battle with one of TV's most popular shows, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" on CBS, and NBC's most-touted new series, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip."
"There's a lot of history of big shows going up against one another and there's plenty of room for both," said Steve McPherson, ABC entertainment president.
ABC canceled "Commander in Chief," leaving Geena Davis as a one-year president, although a two-hour movie may be made with the same cast. "Invasion," "Hope & Faith," "Jake in Progress" and "Sons and Daughters" were among the other shows left off the schedule.
Flockhart and Griffiths star in "Brothers & Sisters," a drama about a maladjusted family. Danson is a self-help guru going through a midlife crisis in the comedy "Help Me Help You," Heche is a relationship counselor who moves to Alaska in the drama "Men in Trees" and Diggs is in "Day Break," a thriller that uses elements of the movie " Groundhog Day."