'Scrubs' Is Done at NBC
NEW YORK -- NBC confirmed on Wednesday that "Scrubs" will end its seven-season run on the network in May. Which doesn't necessarily mean the show is going away for good.
It's widely expected that "Scrubs" will end up on ABC next season, given that it's produced by the network's Disney brother ABC Studios and network entertainment chief Stephen McPherson helped develop the show back when he ran the studio. Recent reports have said a deal with ABC is near completion; ABC will announce its schedule in mid-May, during the traditional upfront week.
NBC boss Ben Silverman managed to get in a diss of ABC in noting that following its season finale in May, "Scrubs" will be a free agent. "If they can go 1-for-21, good for them," Silverman said, referring to ABC's less-than-stellar recent record at developing comedy hits.
Spinoff of "The Office" highlights new NBC shows
NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - NBC will launch a spinoff of its popular workplace comedy "The Office" following the broadcast of the National Football League's Super Bowl championship next February, the network said on Wednesday.
The announcement came as NBC unveiled its upcoming programming lineup, including plans to bring back the acclaimed hospital drama "ER," which launched the career of movie star George Clooney, for a 15th and final season next fall.
Another returning show is the low-rated but critically acclaimed series "Friday Night Lights," a drama centered on football in a small Texas town that will be back next winter.
Among new shows set to debut next season in a prime-time schedule heavy on fantasy and action fare is a remake of the 1980s hit "Knight Rider," a series titled "Merlin" and a modern warrior drama called "Kings," inspired by the themes in David and Goliath.
Other highlights include new dramas "The Philanthropist," about a renegade billionaire who uses his wealth to help people, and "My Worst Enemy," starring Christian Slater as a suburban dad who lives a secret life as a spy.
NBC Entertainment Co-Chairman Ben Silverman, hired last year to help the network recover from a long ratings slump, said we wanted to bring "inspirational, heroic, escapist" drama to the schedule.
"We've watched a lot of dark stuff not work -- and we've learned from that," he said.
NBC, majority-owned by General Electric Co, took the wraps off its programming plans six weeks ahead of the other major broadcast networks, saying it wanted to give advertisers time to plan long-term campaigns and build their marketing around the programs.
In all, the major TV networks will sign about $9 billion worth of advertising deals in the coming weeks, as they unveil their new schedules after a miserable 2007-2008 season. Prime-time ratings are down about 12 percent from a year ago.
NBC UNDER PRESSURE
NBC, struggling since favorites "Friends" and "Frasier" ended their runs four years ago, is facing particularly intense pressure to rebound. It could again finish the season last in the ratings race behind Fox, ABC and CBS, and its poor performance in recent years has given rise to talk that GE may consider selling NBC Universal.
In one notable programming move for next season, NBC said it would air four half-hour editions of the late-night sketch comedy series "Saturday Night Live" in prime time on Thursdays, with plans to schedule at least some of them the same weeks as U.S. presidential debates.
But the long-rumored spinoff of "The Office," the comedy starring Steve Carell as a cluelessly offensive boss at a Pennsylvania paper company, drew the most attention from journalists and advertisers gathered in New York for NBC's "upfront" presentation of its new shows.
In a bid to give the spinoff the widest possible exposure, the new series will premiere back-to-back with an episode of the parent show following NBC's coverage of the Super Bowl, which ranks as the most watched U.S. telecast every year.
However, executives offered no information about the casting or premise of the new series, other than to say it is from the same creative team as the original NBC show.
Indeed, details about all the new shows announced by NBC were extremely sketchy given that the network lacked any promotional trailers or pilots to showcase them.
"We've got so many terrific plans already in place, there was no reason to wait," said Marc Graboff, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment.
Since NBC announced its schedule before competitors, however, there could be changes in coming weeks and months.
"We always obviously have to react to the three-dimensional chess game we're playing," Silverman said. "Clearly, if something happens that requires us to make an adjustment, we'll make that adjustment."
Walt Disney Co's ABC, News Corp's Fox and CBS Corp's CBS will unveil their lineups in May, the traditional month of the upfronts, when negotiations between networks and advertisers hit full stride.
Jimmy Kimmel marks milestone show
LOS ANGELES - Ben Affleck might be history. Jimmy Kimmel is trying for video magic with someone else to mark the 1,000th episode of his late-night talk show Thursday.
"This morning I woke up with Richard Simmons in my bedroom for something we're preparing for the show. I don't want to give too many details, but suffice it to say that Sam Elliot and Richard Simmons were hovering over me," Kimmel told The Associated Press earlier this week.
Whether the taped bit can top Kimmel's video duel with girlfriend Sarah Silverman remains to be seen. Kimmel himself marvels at the online popularity of the comic films, one in which Silverman and Matt Damon sing of their faux hot love affair and the other with Kimmel striking back by claiming a romance with Damon's pal Affleck.
Last time Kimmel checked, he said, 25 million people had viewed the videos online. "I guess this Internet is useful for something other than pornography," he said.
There's a chance Silverman might contribute to the 90-minute "Jimmy Kimmel Live" anniversary special, airing at 11:35 p.m. EDT Thursday on ABC (a half-hour ahead of its usual start time). Eva Longoria Parker and Kid Rock are among the scheduled guests.
"I'm aware there are plans being laid I'm not supposed to know about," Kimmel said. He has mixed feelings about a possible surprise, he said, "but it usually works out OK."
Kimmel recalled his early ambitions for the show.
"When I started, I said I won't stand up and do a monologue, I won't wear a tie. ... Most of that didn't work out," he said, and the show ended up reverting to "tried and true" conventions.
But he prides himself on bringing his own twists to the format, such as showcasing unexpected talent like the parking lot guard who has become a show staple.
"No one is too small to put on TV. If someone makes us all laugh around the office, then they'll make the audience laugh, too," he said.
The late-night scene is facing upheaval in 2009, when NBC has said Jay Leno will turn "Tonight" over to Conan O'Brien. There has been speculation that ABC might make a bid for Leno and fit him into its late-night lineup.
Does Kimmel ponder how that scenario might affect him?
"I try not to worry about it too much," he said. "It seems like every year something like that comes up. I used to obsess about it. ... But five years later, we're still here."
He attributes that to dedication, among other factors.
"We've been on long enough and proven that we can put a pretty good show on. That's pretty rare, when you look around. It takes a combination of things to be a talk show host — one is being a good host and committing your life to that completely."
No one is good enough to do the job just by breezing in, he said, pointing to Chevy Chase's short-lived 1993 talk show as a cautionary tale.
But if Kimmel finds himself hit by fallout from late-night's coming changes, he's ready.
"I'm planning to open a bait and tackle shop," he quipped.
Mariah Carey surpasses Elvis in No. 1s
LOS ANGELES - With her 18th chart-topper "Touch My Body," Mariah Carey has passed Elvis Presley for the most No. 1 singles on the Billboard singles chart, and is now second only to the Beatles. But while the diva was in full celebration mode after learning of her latest milestone, she was also quick to put her accomplishment in perspective.
"I really can never put myself in the category of people who have not only revolutionized music but also changed the world," Carey told The Associated Press on Tuesday via phone from London. "That's a completely different era and time ... I'm just feeling really happy and grateful."
Carey's single is the new No. 1 single on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart: The song also is No. 1 on the trade magazine's digital download chart thanks to a precedent-setting 286,000 downloads in its debut week. She had been tied with Presley with 17 No. 1 singles; the Beatles are the all-time leaders with 20. (Madonna also beat a Presley record this week, surpassing the King for the most top 10 hits with her 37th for her hit "4 Minutes.")
Carey said being in such company was gratifying not only because of her personal success, but what it meant for women and minorities.
"For me, in my mind the accomplishment is just that much sweeter," she said. "In terms of my ethnicity, always feeling like an outsider, always feeling different ... for me it's about saying, 'Thank you Lord, for giving me the faith to believe in myself when other people had written me off.'"
"Touch My Body" is the first single off of Carey's upcoming album "EMC2," due out April 16. It is the follow-up to her Grammy-winning disc "The Emancipation of Mimi," released in 2005, that year's best-selling album with five million copies sold; it marked a huge comeback for the multiplatinum superstar after personal and professional setbacks.
Like that album, Carey said "EMC2" continues her sense of freedom and rebirth: "It's like emancipation of Mariah Carey to the second power and beyond."
Carey, 38, said this is the most enjoyable point of her nearly two-decade old career, and that's her priority these days, not trying to set sales records or even making pop history.
"I've gone through enough of my life worrying about that kind if thing," said Carey.
"I want to encourage anyone else out there who feels like maybe they can't overcome an obstacle, I feel like I'm living proof ... never lose your faith," she added. "I'm seriously a grateful individual right now."
The Eagles to land in Moncton
Country-rock veterans the Eagles will headline the 2008 Magnetic Hill Music Festival in Moncton, organizers announced on Monday.
The Eagles agreed to the Aug. 2 concert at Moncton's Magnetic Hill Concert Centre because of Moncton's central location in the Maritimes, said show co-producer Donald K. Tarlton.
Halifax and Moncton have long been competing to bring the American group to the Maritimes.
John Fogerty, KT Tunstall and the Sam Roberts Band will also play at the summer festival.
The $109.50 tickets go on sale on April 11.
Outgoing Moncton Mayor Lorne Mitton said he is thrilled to have rolled in with the Stones in 2005 and will now fly out with the Eagles.
Last year's album Long Road out of Eden was the group's first full studio effort in 28 years and contained the Grammy-winning track How Long.
'Air Farce' ends its 15-year run
TORONTO - CBC-TV's long-running comedy show, "The Royal Canadian Air Farce," is ending its 15-year run, a mutual decision by the show's producers and the network.
Producers Don Ferguson and Roger Abbott, who also star on the beloved sketch comedy series, have informed the cast and crew that there will be a truncated, 10-episode season starting in the fall, with a final "Air Farce" farewell edition airing on New Year's Eve.
"All good things must come to an end," Ferguson said Tuesday. "Our last deal with the CBC was made after our 12th season and it was for three years, and the feeling was that would be long enough."
He added the new regime of CBC programming executives seemed to agree.
"It's all new people here since then ... there's a totally new regime, and what they want to do, and I agree with them completely, is they want to do their own thing," he said.
"The thing about TV time-slots is you can't make new ones. The only way you can get your hands on one is if somebody vacates. If they're going to come in and do their job, they don't want to feel they have to carry every predecessor's decision."
Other cast members of the show, in particular Luba Goy, are disappointed by the decision to call it quits, Ferguson added.
"She's upset; this has been her main gig forever and ever," Ferguson said.
"I have kind of mixed feelings about it. Thirty-five years is a long time, and if there's a chance we're ever going to do anything else in our lives besides this, we have to stop this first. But personally I feel bad for all the other people on the staff and the cast - none of them wanted to stop. So I am feeling kind of responsible in a sense."
Kirstine Layfield, CBC's head of network programming, paid tribute to the show on Tuesday, and added Canadians have likely not seen the last of the "Air Farce" crew.
"We remain in discussions with them about upcoming projects. It's too soon to say what's next, but we look forward to continuing to work with them," she said.
"We're paying special tribute to it this year as we bid it a fond farewell. 'Air Farce' has meant a lot to the CBC and its fans and we want to celebrate a great partnership unprecedented in television."
"Air Farce" debuted on CBC Radio in December 1973 and boasted more than 600 radio broadcasts over 20 years before making the leap to television in 1993. Its last radio broadcast was in 1997.
In 2007, it returned to a live format with "Air Farce Live."
The union representing Canadian actors bemoaned the end of the show's run, assailing the CBC for pulling the plug.
"We were hoping this was an April Fool's prank," Stephen Waddell, ACTRA's national executive director, said in a statement.
"'Air Farce' is one of the few remaining Canadian television programs that the CBC hasn't cancelled. We can only hope they will replace this pillar of Canadian programming with something equally as rooted in Canada's culture."
Throughout its run, the show has poked mostly gentle fun at politicians, journalists and other famous Canadians - everyone from Stephen Harper to Jean Chretien and George Stroumboulopoulos.
"Politicians are so mealy-mouthed, they would never admit if we'd angered them," Ferguson said. "We can be occasionally nasty but we're not mean-minded. We've never been sued or anything; it's not our style. We wanted our stuff to sting a little bit, but there's no real pleasure in personally attacking somebody."
Fans of the show were upset to learn the show was ending.
"Oh my God, say it isn't so - a Canadian institution gone?" Philip Elliott wrote on the Facebook group devoted to "Air Farce Live."
"CBC needs to be drawn and quartered for the way it's destroying its institution. Just as I'm introducing my American partner to Canadian culture, the best of it is being killed off. A sad day for all of us."
Other TV watchers welcomed the news, saying the show had long passed its prime.
Craig Lauzon, a cast member whose robotic impersonation of Harper is a hit with fans, says he's sad to see the show ending.
"It's my fifth year, so that's a pretty good run for anybody," he said. "But the younger members of the troupe wanted to keep going for sure. As an actor you always like to keep working, so I am disappointed on that front, because I am going to have to start looking for another job. But it's an honour to have been involved with 'Air Farce' at all."
The final show of this season of "Air Farce" airs on Friday night.