As promised last week, we’re doing these little more often now.
Let’s kick off this installment with my famous “Chris Young’s Sure Sign of the Coming Apocalypse” award which this week goes to CBS. They announced that they are developing a new series called “Dorothy”. It is a current day medical drama with characters based on The Wizard Of Oz. If this was April and not August I would’ve thought that was a big April fools joke but apparently it’s serious.
By the way CBS/Showtime is still absent from Time Warner/BrightHouse cable systems over a contract dispute. Statistics on the bootlegging of CBS series Under the Dome and Showtime’s Dexter are up 34% from normal according to one sites report. Meanwhile customers of Time Warner in Wisconsin filed a class-action suit against them for dropping an NBC station over a contract dispute. Late last week the chairman of the FCC threatened to intervene in the CBS/TWC battle if they didn’t come to terms quickly. However it’s not clear what the FCC could do to intervene.
Meanwhile this Saturday Fox networks is shutting down its Speed network and replacing it with “Fox Sports 1” however it has still not reached contract agreements with DirecTV, Dish Network and Time Warner Cable they used to charge 23 cents per subscriber for Speed. They now want between 80 cents and eventually $1.50 in a few years into the contract.
From the “Sorry I Missed This” department… I mentioned that I lost almost a month worth of entertainment news when Google shut down its Google reader. Among the items I missed was that both Van Pelt and Rigsby are going to be written out of the show “The Mentalist”.
In the links below you can read
Matt’s Inside Line spoilers for August 8
Michael Ausiello spoilers for August 13
Character description of Ziva’s replacement and other post Ziva NCIS news
Postmortem interview with Jeffrey Dean Morgan about the series finale of Magic City and its cancellation
Not linked below but also of interest…
Singer Eydie Gorme was a Tonight Show regular with her husband Steve Lawrence has died at age 84
Karen Black starred in Five Easy Pieces, Easy Rider and Nashville has died of cancer at age 74. I remember her best in Hitchcock movie Family Plot.
Margaret Pellegrini one of the original Wizard of Oz munchkins has died at age 89. Only two of the original order 24 munchkins remain alive.
Sandra Oh announced this season will be her last on Grey’s Anatomy.
Amber Tamblyn has been cast as Charlie’s long-lost lesbian daughter on Two and a Half Men
Christian Camargo who played the Ice Truck Killer on Dexter has been cast as Dukes brother on Haven
Cheers reunion on CSI. John Ratzenberger will guest star opposite his old buddy Ted Danson
SyFy Channel has announced there will be a sequel to its cult hit Sharknado to be titled “Sharknado 2: The Second One”. So clever!
NBC has announced Jay Leno’s final night will be February 6, 2014 the day before Olympic coverage begins. Jimmy Fallon will presumably start immediately after the Olympics
Showtime has announced that since they are not making a wrapup movie for The Borgias they will instead release an e-book based on the script from the two-hour finale that never got produced. It will be titled “The Borgia Apocalypse”
NBC has ordered a pilot script for a futuristic show called Paradise where in the city of Las Vegas has been turned into a giant prison and a man falsely accused tries to escape.
Boy band heartthrob Nick Jonas will guest star on an episode of Hawaii 50
Alec Baldwin is in talks to host a show on MSNBC
Director Ang Lee’s next film will be a 3-D drama about the world of pro boxing in the 60s and 70s and will re-create the famous “Thrilla in Manila” Ali Frazier fight
A judge has ruled that descendents of Marvel Comic author Jack Kirby cannot revoke his rights to Marvel comics because it was work for hire. He worked on Avengers and X-Men
Game Show Network’s American Bible challenge has been renewed for third season. Jeff Foxworthy will continue as host.
Alcon Entertainment will make a TV movie based on the book “Chicken Soup for the Soul”
Mel Gibson and Antonio Banderas have been added to the cast of Expendables 3
The Republican National Committee has backed down on its threat to ban NBC over proposed Hillary Clinton docudrama
World War Z has earned over $500 million worldwide to become Brad Pitt’s biggest box office ever
Veteran TV actor Henry Polic, who played Jerry Silver on ABC’s Webster and voiced Dr. Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow on Batman: The Animated Series, has died. He was 68.
The network formally known as Versus now known as “NBC Sports Network” is undergoing another minor identity overhaul. Would be known as NBCSN and will adopt a new logo.
Hunger Games 2 will premiere in the UK November 11, worldwide November 22
Frank Darabont the original show winner of The Walking Dead will premiere his new 1940s crime drama Mob City on TNT December 4 to run six episodes.
After importing Lost Girl and Continuum from Canada SyFy Channel now turns to New Zealand for “The Almighty Johnsons” The series covers 4 ordinary boys who acquire the power of Norse Gods. 23 episodes will premiere in 2014.
This year’s Discovery Channel Shark Week was the highest-rated in its 26 years of existence
The cast of Duck Dynasty gets a 900% salary boost to $200,000 per episode and a multiyear extension
Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on Once, Mentalist, New Girl, Castle, H50, Bones, Haven, Teen Wolf & More
Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Mentalist, SVU, Grey’s, Parenthood, NCIS: LA, Revenge and More!
NCIS Exclusive: Meet Ziva’s Successor
‘Magic City’ star Jeffrey Dean Morgan on show’s ‘depressing’ cancellation, ‘fitting’ series ender