CBS continues to trickle out its new series orders, and the latest to be announced is the sitcom FRIENDS WITH BETTER LIVES, about friends who each envy the others, with a cast that includes James Van Der Beek, Brooklyn Decker (surprisingly funny last season on The League) and Whitney survivor Zoe Lister-Jones.  It’s written […]

  NBC’s formal Upfront presentation isn’t until tomorrow, but the network has already released both its Fall and Midseason 2013-14 schedules.  Let’s dig right in. FALL MONDAY:  8PM:     THE VOICE 10PM:  THE BLACKLIST Unsurprisingly, the showcase post-VOICE drama spot has gone to the network’s most-hyped new 1-hour, THE BLACKLIST with James Spader.  If this is […]

  Mothers Day made for a happy holiday at the multiplex. OPENINGS:  The Marketing department did its job extremely well, and THE GREAT GATSBY (Warners) overperformed to the tune of $51.1M for the weekend.  However, the 9% Saturday drop suggests the film may not hold up so well in the long-term.  The first sign will […]

  Perhaps the worst-kept secret in recent network history is one no longer, as NBC officially announced today that it will be fellow former Saturday Night Live Weekend Update host Seth Meyers who will take over from Jimmy Fallon at LATE NIGHT when the latter ascends to the deck of the Tonight Show.  Meyers will […]

  The latest CBS drama pick-up for 2013-14 comes a bit out of left field:  RECKLESS, a legal soap about an illicit romance between a defense attorney (Cam Gigandet) and a prosecutor (Anna Wood) against the background of a police sex scandal.  This doesn’t just sound like an ABC show, it sounds like a specific […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #19 of 2013 looks like $152 million for the top 12 films, about the same as the $151 million estimate yesterday.  Iron Man 3 picked up the pace with a very strong second Saturday (moving from an estimated $67.4 million second weekend yesterday to $72.5 million today), while […]

    OPENINGS:  THE GREAT GATSBY (Warners) opened about as well as Warners could have hoped with a $19.8M Friday (including Thursday night).  Mothers Day is traditionally a big ticketselling day, especially for female-skewing films, and that should cushion the weekend to perhaps $55M despite bad reviews and unimpressive exit poll results, although there’s still […]

  Last night was Battle of the Canceled Shows. CBS:  Even though UNDERCOVER BOSS was up a robust 0.4 to 1.6 as a lead-in, the last episode of VEGAS only managed to hold even at 0.9.  The season finale of BLUE BLOODS was down 0.2 to 1.1. FOX:  The season finale of KITCHEN NIGHTMARES, even […]