Jurisdiction over reality and animation, one of the big demands standing in the way of the strike resolution is off the table, according to
The Associated Press:

Bargaining broke down Dec. 7 after the studios demanded that the union drop a half-dozen issues, including jurisdiction over reality and animation.

The guild agreed to withdraw those issues to “make absolutely clear our commitment to bringing a speedy conclusion to negotiations,” union executives Michael Winship and Patric Verrone said in an e-mail letter to members.

They do say that they are going to continue efforts to bring reality and animation under their umbrella, but that it’s basically no longer part of this negotiation. They also point out that they will not be picketing the Grammys.

The talks are resuming, and it looks like the WGA has heard the public outcry against them for not being at the negotiating table. If there was more word about The Oscars now that nominations were out, I would be more optimistic.

I’m glad to see that they’re starting to actually work towards a compromise, and now that the DGA deal has been settled maybe we’re nearing the end of the strike after all.

Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles got off to an amazing start. They took out their competition easily when they premiered on the 13th. But by the second half of the pilot, they’d lost half their audience. io9 says that trend continues:

Its first episode scored an amazing 18 million viewers, after a high-rated football game. The second episode dropped by nearly half, and last night’s outing dropped another 18 percent.

So the question is: were the premiere’s ratings unnaturally high because of their lead in and lack of real competition? Or was the show so unsatisfactory to so many people that they didn’t bother to watch after the first hour?

I suspected that the premiere’s ratings were high as people tuned in to affirm their fears that the show was going to be terrible. There’s always a large contingent of people looking for a franchise property like this to fail. They show up early on, point, shake their head, and disappear. Could that be the problem?

I actually have been watching the show on the Fox website, because I have a previous commitment on Monday nights. I’m curious if the number of people watching there is calculated and kept track of.

With it being the only real scripted show putting out new episodes right now, I don’t see the network dropping it any time soon. But Fox isn’t exactly known for their rational decisions in the face of low ratings.

NBC has decided the time has come to change the way television shows are created, by eliminating pilots. The New York Times reports:

Networks like NBC have long relied on big-budget pilot episodes of television series in an effort to attract advertiser support for the rest of the season. But Mr. Zucker said the pilots, the first episode of a show and whose production cost has shot up to $7 million for an hour from about $3 million three years ago, were a poor indicator of the future success of a series and many never move beyond the pilot stage.

I agree on the one hand, it makes some sense. They’re spending millions of dollars for something that never gets off the drawing board.

But at the same time, how can you evaluate a tv show and it’s worth if you don’t see it in action? What measurement are you going to use to determine if something is worth your investment? You can’t really tell how good or bad something is going to be from a script alone. Are we going to start relying on creators to make fancy PowerPoint presentations or something?

While the report, and NBC, treat this as just “another cost saving measure,” it occurs to me that this is a huge and fundamental change to television. Pilot season is in it’s death knells, so how are actors going to get hired on for parts? There are plenty of actors I know in hit shows who say they got the job just because they went to L.A. for pilot season and lucked into a project that got picked up.

The article doesn’t really say what NBC will be doing instead, and that worries me. Are they considering scripted tv to be dead, or dying?

In the era when TLC stopped being “The Learning Channel”, Trading Spaces was a huge hit show. It helped put TLC on the map to compete with the basic cable elite. When Paige Davis was fired a few years ago, TLC took the show in a “different direction”. That direction drastically changed the feeling of the show, and removed what made it a hit in the first place.

Now it appears that they have realized what was missing, and have brought back Davis for the new season. DailyBreeze.com has:

With her gone, the unpredictability that had been key to the show’s success devolved into chaos. Gone, too, was the cadre of designers whose personalities and reputations gave the show continuity and something for viewers to identify with. Rules were broken, budgets were padded, deadlines were ignored - it was anything goes, and ultimately that included viewers. Ask any fan, and you’ll hear “Trading Spaces” was at its best with Davis at the helm.

I agree. The host-less show was a nightmare to watch. Not having a consistent format really took much of the enjoyment out of the show. They seem to be staging things more often, trying to keep up with network reality shows. The designers were forced to be hosts as well as designers, and it just never worked.

The new season begins this Saturday on TLC.

via TvSquad.

As the new season gets closer, we inevitably get more and more information on what is coming up. IO9.com has some clips that were shown on Canadian TV show Hypaspace.

There are some spoilers in the videos, but not major. BSG has allot of pieces to pick up from the season 3 finale. It is a shame we still have 3 more months.

Check it out.

USA Today reports.

Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan residence, and police said drugs may have been a factor. He was 28.NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the Manhattan apartment believed to be his home. The housekeeper who went to let him know the masseuse had arrived found him dead at 3:26 p.m.  

I don’t know what to say! This is quite sad and shocking. The report that CNN was showing said that Ledger overdosed on OTC sleeping pills. This is just sad! He was just so young. He starred in not only The Brothers Grimm and Brokeback Mountain, but had a starring role in the short-lived tv series “Roar” and recently played the Joker in The Dark Knight. Our thoughts go out to his friends and family.

Yahoo! TV gives us this.

When told Tuesday morning that the performance had to be shortened, Freund said Starr tried to cut about a minute of the song’s 4 minute, 15 second length, down to 3 minutes and 30 seconds. However, according to Freund, producer Michael Gelman said it had to be less than 3 minutes. “We offered to cut back our chat time and asked them to fade or go to commercial. They were not willing to do that and Ringo was not willing to cut it further, so without a compromise we were not able to stay,” Freund said in a statement to The Associated Press. “Ringo left saying, `God bless and goodbye. We still love Regis.’”     

I understand Ringo’s feelings. Cutting down a song isn’t always that easy, especially a full minute, and especially when you have to sit and watch Regis and Kelly banter on and on about seemingly  uninteresting things.

A few months back, I caught the pilot episode on the new Terminator series on the net, and I felt that it was subpar. Now that the show is out, I am shocked to find out that my opinion seems to be irregular. All my friends are really digging it, and they can’t seem to figure out why I don’t like the pilot. So I’d figure that I’d share my reasons. 

• -No Arnold! I figure that we’ll probably won’t see Arnold in action films anymore, especially anything related to the Terminator, so this is the smallest blow, but Arnold really is a big part of the Terminator charm, and to me, his absence really shows.
•  -The Bad Terminator Wasn’t Too Smart- Now, I almost got in a fight with a co-worker over this one. He said “It’s just a machine!” yeah, but the Terminators are quite intelligent, greatly due to them being machines. They were killing machines, but they really knew how to find their targets. And the only reason they failed was if you were Kyle Reese or if you had another Terminator as your guardian. But this guy, he could have had John Conner, if he had only played it smart. He could have just walked up to him and shot him or rip his head off, but no! He goes ballistic, and completely misses his target, which he probably still should have been able to hit. And then there was the very cheesy “Class dismissed” line. 
• -The New Sarah Conner- She just wasn’t Sarah Conner. Linda Hamilton’s Sarah was such a strong character, especially in the second film. She was smart. She new Judgement Day was coming, and Sarah Conner would still have doubt whether or not they prevented it, and she still would have prepared herself for it. She’d take John and they would live off the grid, probably somewhere similar to where they went to in T2. And she certainly wouldn’t send John to school with the last name of her former lover. Now wonder Skynet found them! 
• -It Doesn’t Feel Like the Terminator- The Terminator films had a sense of impending darkness, at least, as far as the first two films go. I don’t know how to really describe it in words, but those films just had this dooming feeling to them. Almost as if Judgment Day was going to happen no matter what they do, no matter how much they quote the “There’s no fate” line.

Those are my biggest reasons, but I do believe part of my lack of enthusiasm is because I just really want to see the future wars, which is being put to film, but something tells me that McG will botch it.I do plan on giving it a few more chances. I don’t enjoy pilot episodes that often.

Danny Cohen of BBC Three today unveiled plans for the 2008 season. Part of the plan includes simulcasting shows on the Internet. SliceOfSciFi has the story.

At BBC Three we should be known for pioneering risk, and be obsessed with all things new – new talent, new programmes, and a new relationship between television and the internet.” Key changes, which will kick off in February, include plans to simulcast all programmes on the web, regular slots for user-generated content in prime-time, and the placing of interactive ideas at the heart of programmes.

There is no indication if the web content will be available to the non-British, but I doubt it. I never understood why the BBC didn’t offer their stations as premium channels (i.e. HBO). I’d pay a premium to get the real BBC on my DirecTV. Either way, it is a great step forward in Internet television.

It’s a long article that includes all of the BBC3 plans with several new shows planned.

Just speculation, but not without merit. With the WGA stike, the normal progression of show development is non-existent. When/if they come back from the strike, storylines may need adjusted. As Jenna Fischer explains in her blog, The Office may have that problem.

I want to get back to work. I hope we can make at least another few episodes before the season is over. It’s going to be a little crazy because as many of you know Angela Kinsey is pregnant! And boy is she showing! She has the cutest baby bump on the planet. I’m not sure how they will handle this on the show. It’s hard to hide. Angela is so tiny she’s all bump. Seriously, her arms and legs are still regular size but her belly is huge. Last month, she stepped on my scale in the bathroom and she said, “Oh my God! Jenna! I’m at 101 pounds! I’ve never weighed over 100 pounds!” I said, “Get out of my house.” Ha! The whole thing has been such a blast.

I’m not sure how I would feel having Angela pregnant on the show. Usually, bringing a baby into a show that doesn’t already have children is a disaster. The pregnancy is usually funny, but the baby never seems to fit in. But in this case it may work. Since it is an office show, we would get the pregnancy and not much of the the baby. Not much of the home life of anyone, except Micheal, is ever shown.

Then again, maybe Angela will be off at a training seminar for the rest of the season.

I admit I stopped watching The 4400 after the 2nd season, but I was still set aback when they killed the show without giving it a proper finale. They’ve announced the DVD set for the 4th and final season. TVShowsOnDVD.com has the announcement and box art (right).

The 4400 - Season 4 aired on USA Network this past June through September, and in December show runner Scott Peters announced that it was to be the final season of the series (to make it truly final, TheFutonCritic.com reports, the studio was selling off the wardrobe, the props, and even the sets!). But fans will be able to enjoy the last 13 episodes of the program’s run, with Paramount Home Entertainment’s May 6th DVD release.

I will eventually pick up seasons 3 and 4 to catch up with the series. There is no information on extras or commentaries on the DVD. Hopefully, there will be some extra information for the fans that wraps up the series.

The latest re-imagining of a foreign series for North America, Kath & Kim, has been fully cast and ready to begin filming once the WGA strike is resolved. TVGuide has the latest news on the new cast member:

At last! NBC has found the daughter to Molly Shannon’s mother for its much-delayed comedy, Kath & Kim (based on the hit Aussie series of the same name). And the winner is… Selma Blair!

It’s a mother-daughter comedy centering around the relationship between Shannon and Blair. Molly Shannon has the ability to be genius (Pushing Daisies) and horrible (Superstar). Selma Blair is a wonderful actress, but I’ve never been fond of her comic performances. This show is at least on my radar.

A man who likes to wander the scrap heap found a one of a kind piece of television memorabilia: a 9″ mold for making Stargates. He writes about it on the Make blog

Both sides of a mold made specifically to crank out weensy little StarGates about 9″ across. Personally, I’d always thought Richard Dean Anderson was taller than that, but whatever…

This is the kind of thing I would love to stumble across, even though I wouldn’t know the first thing about using them. The author’s idea? Make giant Stargate shaped ice-cubes. That would be the hit of any of my parties.

What would you do if you had your own miniature Stargate?

io9 has some great first look pictures of Black Canary’s appearance on Smallville:

Black Canary, one of DC Comics’ coolest heroines, is appearing for the first time in an upcoming episode of Smallville. And it looks as though someone decided to give her a weird Heath Ledger-inspired eye-smudge and a horrible update to her costume, with giant lapels. The only thing they kept was the silly fishnet tights.

I have to say I completely agree. Smallville has done some interesting things, and I have to say I enjoy new imaginings of old characters. But Black Canary is one of my favorites, and I’m rather afraid of what they’re doing. A conservative talk show host? When I heard that rumor I assumed it was too crazy to be true.

There are plenty of pictures under the link for you to check out and see what you think of the new costume and the strange black face make-up.

I’ve been a Prison Break apologist for awhile now. The outlandish situations, and semi-formulaic episodes have always provided for intense entertainment. They always managed to keep the intensity with each episode. But I feel that may be changing.

In the last 2 weeks, I’ve come to realize that Prison Break may be “jumping the shark”. Even though back in season 1 the creators announced the formula of ‘break out of prison’ for season 1, ‘on the run’ for season 2, and ‘back in prison’ for season 3, it seems as if this season is being made up as they go along. It’s hard to believe that Michael can have such magic ideas only spending a few weeks in a Sona, when he prepared so much for the original escape in season 1. Each week, ideas are born and defeated, and we end up where we left off.

All last season, I forgave Wentworth Miller leaving his long sleeve shirt on while sweating, and other characters were going shirtless from the heat. Putting on the tattoos is a long, laborious process, and he doesn’t want to go through that for every episode. But last week, he was in “the box”. A place where prisoners die from heat exhaustion…and he left the shirt on! That took me out of the show completely.

Is Prison Break broke?

 Yay! TV to look forward to this weekend! BBC America will begin airing the 2nd season of Torchwood on Saturday at 9pmEST. Something to be thankful to the strike for; several shows that probably wouldn’t have gotten much press are getting a look see. For instance, Yahoo has Saturday’s Torchwood listed as one of the weekly top ten to watch and TvGuide’s Matt Roush answers a fan’s question regarding the possibility of Torchwood moving from BBC America to SciFi (succinctly- it doesn’t look likely).

I am REALLY excited about season 2. See some second season pics (with James Marsters) here. Though I enjoyed the first season, I was really disappointed in the characters. I appreciated the need to differentiate *this* Torchwood from the other iterations seen on Doctor Who, however, I wanted the folks involved to be at least a little shiny, even if their offices are not.

If you’re familiar with the characters, I hope you’ll understand that I’m not a hater, however, I can’t stand Owen… ya know, I can’t stand any of them- with the exception of the weirdly underused Captain Jack. In one of the season’s really great offerings, Countrycide, I was morbidly hoping that one of the cast was going to meet an untimely end at the hands of the beastly cannibal antagonists.

My wish for season two is that each character in turn receives an opportunity to redeem him or herself from her blaise blechness.

So, for something new with the hope of exciting, tune into Torchwood’s second season premiere Saturday night at 9est on BBC America.

OhPleaseOhPleaseOhPLEASE let it be so. Accoring to TvWeek news contributor Sergio Ibarra,

Writers, Studios to Start Talking?
After last week’s deal between the Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers produced an agreement on how to split revenue from digital video, Daily Variety is reporting that communication is beginning between studios and the Writers Guild of America, which is on strike.

Ibarra also notes that informal negotiations could (probably?) start today. 

I desperately want this to tie up soon. Then we’ll be able to assess how bad the damage is to our favorite programs. Shows on the cusp may just go quietly into that good night. Maybe most shows will be able to wrap up their seasons during May sweeps. I’m hoping that summer run programs have enough time to get back on air by June and July (I think I might go bananas if I don’t get some summer The Closer and Eureka). Here’s to keeping our fingers crossed!

Next week starts a brand new season of Lost. It’s been 3/4 of a year since that last new episode, so us viewers are probably a little rusty on the facts. TVGuide.com is doing a daily update examining what we know about several main characters.

Managing editor Matt Mitovich here…. Our favorite castaways thus far have been on the island a few months, but for Lost fans, it’s been more than 260 days since Jack’s super-freaky flash-forward. As the Jan. 31 season premiere (finally) draws closer, TVGuide.com is offering daily profiles — “refreshers,” if you will — of the key players in ABC’s island-based odyssey.

So far they are covering Ben, Michael and Sun. The analysis is in-depth, and not spoilery. With a show such as Lost, the details appear to be an important part of enjoying the series. I know I needed to be reminded of a few things in reading these character profiles. How about you?

After serving 48 days in the Glendale City Jail for a DUI charge, including his birthday and Christmas, Kiefer Sutherland is going home on January 21st.

The LA Times spoke with Officer John Balian, who had this to say about Sutherland:

“He was very humble, never complained … he didn’t give us any problems at all.”

He was allowed to serve his sentence at the Glendale City Jail, rather than the overcrowded Los Angeles County Jail, on the condition that he would serve his full sentence - no time off for good behaviour, or early release due to overcrowding. This makes Sutherland one of the only stars to serve his entire sentence, unlike recent celeb inmates Michelle Rodriguez, Gary Collins and Paris Hilton. With the Writers’ Strike still in full swing, and the next season of 24 on hold indefinitely, we’ll just have to wait and see what’s next for Sutherland. Let’s hope it’s not more jail time.

If you haven’t heard, Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku have been planning a return to primetime with Dollhouse. Dollhouse follows a top-secret world of people programmed with different personalities, abilities and memories depending on their mission. CinemaBlend recently spoke to Eliza and she had this to say:

She went on to say that they’re just waiting for everyone to start playing nice again so that they can get back to working on it. I asked her if there was a goal premiere date for the series and her response was, “The goal is for people to start playing nice sooner rather than later.”

With regards to training for the role, she said “I definitely realize that my body in motion is my body how I like it. So I’ve been in a lot of motion and getting ready in a lot of ways. So when it comes, it’s going to be explosive.”

The indication that she is training for the role brings hope that it is still on track whenever the strike is resolved. Dollhouse is the perfect show for both Whedon and Dushku, and I’m really looking forward to the debut.

For more information about Dollhouse check Dollverse.