A tip of the spinning merry-go-round hat to TV's Chucko the Clown, born Charles Runyon, who died Saturday at the age of 86. Back in the middle of the 20th century, he hosted birthday parties each weekday for the little boys and girls of greater Los Angeles.
Although I honor all hosts of local children's shows as heroes of a lost world of real community television, I can't make any particular claims for Chucko's artistry. I don't fully recollect him; I was tiny then. But he lasted eight years on KABC and one on KTTV, so he must have delighted more children than he scared, or delighted children more than he scared them. (He looks capable and comfortable in this clip.)
Still, photos show the character I do recall -- a straight-ahead Ringling Bros.-style white-faced, red-mouthed, star-eyed circus-poster clown. He looked like an expensive French pastry. And I can sing the first line of his theme song.
Indeed, some of my clearest early memories are attached to that show, not so much because I watched it but because I was on it, as a birthday-party guest. I remember as if it were yesterday, except from a lower vantage, standing backstage before the show, surprised by the unpainted, unfinished, bare-wood backsides of the scenery. It was my first brush with unreality, a lesson in illusion, or possibly laziness. In any case it made a lasting impression.
In the course of the program, I threw a plastic chip into a basket, held by Chucko himself, and won ... a sandwich. Afterward, all the other kids were given sandwiches too, so I had two sandwiches. That was another lesson in, what? Disappointment? Victory turning to sandwich-flavored dust in one's mouth?
It has been a bad year for TV clowns: Larry Harmon, who industrialized and franchised but did not create Bozo the Clown, died in July, the last local Bozo show (airing in Chicago) having folded its tent in 2001. Even Ronald McDonald, though he keeps up the charity work, has been retired from selling hamburgers over the air.
The clowns have not all gone away; the circus still comes to town. But within the mass culture, they have become quaint and marginal, and within the world of children's television they have lost their once mighty power to Muppet monsters and cartoon sea creatures. At the same time, their brand has been degraded by horror movies, serial killers and "The Simpsons." (Check out this "Evil Clown Generator.") This only underscores what might have been true all along, that there is something as disquieting as there is delightful about a grown-up with a painted face.
In its 15th and final season, NBC’s “ER” isn’t the fearsome competitor it once was. But on Thursday it looked tough enough against two new rivals, both Americanized versions of British cop dramas.
The 10 p.m. premieres of ABC’s “Life on Mars” –- an adaptation of the BBC cult hit about a time-traveling detective –- and CBS’ “Eleventh Hour” –- a sci-fi investigations drama imported from ITV –- tied with 11.6 million total viewers apiece, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. “ER” was third with 9.3 million.
But here’s the surprise: The aging “ER” narrowly won among the crucial demographic of adults ages 18 to 49 (3.9 rating/10 share versus 3.8/10 for “Mars”), suggesting that the ABC series faces a tough climb in luring those all-important young viewers. The fact that “Mars” –- ABC’s only new scripted series this fall -- fought to a draw with “Eleventh Hour” probably also means that the two similarly themed shows are cannibalizing each other’s audience at that hour.
Meanwhile, NBC’s new sitcom “Kath & Kim” –- an update on the Australian comedy –- won a distant second place in its time slot (3.2/9; 7.5 million viewers overall), while NBC’s premiere of “Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday” was a surprisingly competitive No. 3 in a rough 9:30 time period (5.0/12; 10.6 million overall).
CBS easily won the night in both viewers and young adults, thanks to the strength of “Survivor: Gabon” (13.3 million) and the ninth-season premiere of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (23 million).
In last weekend’s New York Times Magazine, former Times TV critic, now Sunday magazine columnist, Virginia Heffernan theorized that actor Jon Hamm might not yet be up to the task of conveying the complexity of the character of Don Draper, and, consequently, he may not be able to fascinate the audience and hold the show together the way James Gandolfini did in “The Sopranos” (or Michael Chiklis does in “The Shield”). Specifically, she says, “If the show is to mature and last, Hamm will have to risk being hated,” rather than looking sometimes as if he doesn’t want to be this newer, more odious version of Don Draper.
But is that what the writers of the show want –- an antihero in the vein of Tony Soprano or Vic Mackey? I don’t know one way or the other, and I’ve struggled this season to decide whether Hamm is faltering as an actor, Don as a character is underwritten or if all of this is intentional and perfectly executed and will contribute ingeniously to the development of the character and the show.
We’ve seen much more of Don Draper this season, but we are even more in the dark about who he is, what he wants, what he’s afraid of, what his secrets are. Don seems to share traits with two now-archetypal characters from the literature of the 1950s and early 1960s: Tom Rath of Sloan Wilson’s “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit” and Frank Wheeler of Richard Yates’ “Revolutionary Road.” In going about his unfulfilling daily post-war life, Tom Rath employs a nihilistic mantra that he created when jumping from planes in the war: “It doesn’t really matter. Here goes nothing. It will be interesting to see what happens.” Such a philosophy has seemed to govern Don’s choices this season, from agreeing to drive with Bobbie Barrett to the shore to moving into a hotel without much of a fight. Don bears little resemblance to the Tom Rath in the final third of the novel, when everything turns out unbelievably well. I think we can assume this isn’t where “Mad Men” is headed.
Frank Wheeler, meanwhile, harbors an inflated perception of himself and believes that he’s a different sort of person from his neighbors in the suburbs. He believes he was once a sort of bohemian; he thinks he and his wife will move to France. He drinks too much and has affairs. In the end, his choices result in terrible consequences, and he becomes a shell of his former self, nearly an automaton. Ring any bells?
These novels allow us inside the minds of Tom and Frank –- because they’re novels and can do that. In television, of course, we have to infer what’s going on in the minds of the characters from their dialogue and actions, and I still cannot determine whether the opacity of Don Draper is intentional on the part of the writers, represents a failure on the part of Jon Hamm or is working on some other level that I am too foolish to absorb at this time.
After a season premiere packed with faux shocks -- Derek proposes marriage! Rose is carrying Derek’s baby! Derek dies! –– last night’s “Grey’s Anatomy” wisely focused on the realities of life at Seattle Grace, where changes worth making take time and the things that are broken are not so easily fixed.
The episode began with Meredith, true to form, trying to wiggle her way out of a relationship -- though this time it was with her therapist (the always fab Amy Madigan). She’s back together with Derek, she’s happy (or at least as happy as Meredith is capable of being), so she must be cured, right? Derek is similarly deluded: He thinks now that he’s moved in with Meredith, she’ll do the mature thing and ask Izzie and Alex to, you know, move out. “That was your life,” he told her, after whipping out the tape measure in Izzie’s room, which he envisioned as his home office, and turning on the full force of his McDreamyness. “This is our life. And I’m excited about building our life together.”
But building a life with a commitment-phobe, as he was reminded yet again, requires baby steps. Was there ever really any doubt that Meredith would choose, at least for now, to keep her roommates around? Probably not. But I liked how even her cancer patient called her out on it. I also liked how the possibility of getting kicked to the curb affected Alex and Izzie. He, naturally, played the jerk card and rebuffed her offer to move into an apartment together even though his only other option seemed to be living out of his car. But he also appeared to realize by the end of the episode that he has legitimate feelings for his fellow resident. Your new Grey’s Show Tracker, for one, hopes Shonda Rhimes is planning to develop an Alex-Izzie romance for real this time -- for many reasons, not the least of which is that Denny Duquette should never, ever be resurrected in a flashback/dream sequence/whatever again. Don’t get me wrong: Denny was a good man. And he was most certainly a fan fave. But he died, and he deserves to rest in peace.
As anyone within shouting distance of David Letterman knows, two weeks ago Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain ditched the "Late Show" host in order, the senator said, to help fix the financial crisis.
This week, the New York Post reported that the two former friends could have an on-air make-up session next week, when McCain is in New York to debate Barack Obama for the last time.
But in tonight's "Late Show," Letterman once again spouted off about the feud. And in the process of scornfully recounting it -- "war hero," "economy," "rush back to Washington," "spent the night in New York," "Katie Couric," yadda, yadda -- he revealed details about the negotiations to bring McCain back that ... well, it's hard to imagine that the McCain campaign will like this.
Here are excerpts of Letterman's remarks that we bring to you exclusively. And, FYI, when he mentions "that big-headed kid," he means MSNBC's Keith Olbermann:
"So now, in an attempt to save his campaign, they’re talking about coming back. You see what I’m saying? So we said, 'Sure, we would love you to come back.' And even on the phone, he said, 'I’ll bring…Sarah.' But they’re being squirrely. Politicians can be squirrely. Because we have a date picked. We do this show every afternoon at 5:30. He wants to do the show at 5. So one –- we have no guarantee he’s going to show up, period. And we’ve kind of already rearranged our schedule on his behalf to save the economy, right? By getting that big-headed kid in here to talk about the politics. You know what I’m driving at? I just don’t know if we can trust him. And by the way, I don’t need to remind you that the road to the White House runs right through here."
The full transcript of Letterman's rant is after the jump.
Never mind "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," the most welcome Comedy Central program this election season just might be "South Park."
The series has been on a roll for the past four/five seasons, and whether turning an alien invasion into an examination of immigration, or leprechauns into targets of terrorism, "South Park" has been presenting relatively reasoned examinations of cultural issues.
Until, perhaps, last night. "South Park" has missed out on skewering this summer's pop-culture events, and last night, the episode was on the attack. As dark and twisted as "The Dark Knight"was, "South Park" was just as aggressively over the top.
Returning with new episodes as part of its 12th season, "South Park" didn't level its aim at presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain (fingers are crossed for such an episode to be forthcoming). Instead, the series had Hollywood heavyweights George Lucas and Steven Spielberg directly in sights.
Oh, there was also a paranoid Cartman convinced that China's Olympic opening ceremony telegraphed an attack on the United States, but Cartman's mockery of Chinese stereotypes was almost an afterthought after Matt Stone and Trey Parker completely dismantled the worldwide hit "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."
"We all saw it happen," says the handicapped Jimmy, discussing "The Crystal Skull" as if it's a personal tragedy. "Do you remember that scene with Indiana in the refrigerator? It didn't make any sense, Stan."
From there, an excited Stan sits down to watch the latest film in a dream sequence/nightmare, but soon has to warn Indiana Jones that Spielberg and Lucas are nearby. And then in a series of film parodies, Indy's pants come off.
The opening titles of "Dexter" set the tone perfectly for the Showtime series: the scenes of the eponymous killer getting ready to face the day reference both the violent and the mundane and the quirky music only adds to the winking creepiness. A handful of parodies of the credits have been filmed but lately I've enjoyed "Dessler," Dan Schanler's Jewish take on the intro. I admit that I don't get all the references (not being one of the God's chosen people) but the parody is clever and well-made. And who doesn't like borscht?
Lauren Brie, she of the near-clear blue eyes, was sent home while curvalicious Sheena was given a stay of execution. I say that because it's pretty clear that we're most likely looking at a Marjorie and McKey showdown.
Initially, I thought Lauren Brie would be a front-runner until the end. Those eyes! She was born with those naturally gorgeous yet mode-freaky eyes. Throw in a too-big forehead and, Miss Tyra said it right, you've got the perfect "alienesque" features that work for high fashion.
It's just too bad she didn't understand what the judges meant by telling her she needed to show more personality. "I'm a good person. I have lots of friends at home," she whimpered after the ax dropped. Not what they meant sweetie. As the photographer put it: "She even fell [down] like a mannequin." Ouch.
But that brings me to the challenge -- a great one! -- in which the girls had to act out classic moments from awards shows. The most hilarious, of course, was Marjorie's: a woman who needed to pee but was having a difficult time doing that in her evening gown. It feels very much like something Tyra would dream up and it didn't get much better than seeing Marjorie squat and squirm around and even flush the toilet during her shoot. Love her, and her "Hunchback of Notre Dame" look. McKey and Samantha also get great shots. No drama there.
Elina, the resident control freak, finally let loose. She had a good cry with Jay Manuel, but simply crying in front of the camera didn't seem to work out for her. It looked like she really did get lost in her head when the tears started to flow but the acting -- her scene: she won didn't deserve an award -- was forgotten. No worries, her photo was still tops. Girl was born fierce. Ditto Sheena, but she didn't bring it last night. She probably won't be a real contender in the end.
Here's what I really didn't get: Analeigh and Joslyn. Analeigh's photo looked like something I'd see in a Seventeen an add for lipstick. She goes for a concave shoulder and they give her a pass? And girl needs to close her mouth during her shoots. I know the exasperated look she achieved was appropriate for her scene -- as an irritated red-carpet reporter -- but it wasn't interesting to look at or very pretty. She wound up looking like a cartoon character. I don't get it. Joslyn wasn't quite as bad, and she's one of my favorite personalities on the show, but she looked sleepy in her photo. It really seems like her personality is sailing her through this competition.
What did everyone else think? Should Sheena's less-than-stellar photo have sent her packing? Is Marjorie only my favorite? Someone care to defend our little figure skating Analeigh?
When the characters of "Friday Night Lights" fight, the tension isn't just in the argument between two people. Underscoring nearly every battle in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, is the struggle against some seemingly unmovable force. Whether the threats are real or not, politics, class and race have a way of interfering.
A decision from a principal to divert some money from academics to athletics ends up in the mayor's office, a fancy dinner becomes a statement of power from the ruling class, and a boy's need to take care of his grandmother could set him up for the same fate as his father, who's off to war without a return date.
Watching Tim Gunn visit "Project Runway" finalists at home is one of the most fun parts of the show's finale episodes. I still remember Season 1 winner Jay McCarroll greeting Gunn with, well, a gun, and it only gets better from there. It was cool to see Korto Momolu drum and Jerell's fascinating baby pictures, but nothing could top Leanne Marshall sticking Tim on the back of a bicycle built for two (with a helmet!). I thought it was worth noting that of the four remaining contestants, only Kenley Collins didn't have friends and family to introduce to him after she showed him her collection and wedding gown.
However, maybe it's because I myself am going to be wearing a wedding gown in just a few days, but something softened in me tonight. I felt myself loving the formerly hated Kenley's work and, well, not-hating the chick's personality. Every girl divides the wedding gowns she likes into two categories: the ones I would actually wear and the ones I would wear if I lived in another dimension. Those in the "Sex and the City" movie were clearly from that other dimension (and Jerell Scott 's gown seemed to be heading down that route, but in a more amateurish, over-the-top way). Kenley's and Leanne's gowns both were couture and fanciful but still somewhat wearable. However, to me Leanne's gown looked kind of like a turbine, and I couldn't fault Kenley's for looking like Alexander McQueen's design when I hadn't seen that design myself. I could see where Korto was going with her gown: I loved the color, fabric and pleating -- but it was just plain unflattering and that's death to a wedding gown.
This week's two-part installment of "The Biggest Loser" might as well have been subtitled Jillian vs. Shellay.
Guess who won?
Jillian took Shellay to the woodshed repeatedly for not working out hard enough, and committing that cardinal cardio sin -- hanging on the machine for some relief. Jillian screamed. She flared her nostrils. She nagged. She cursed. And she threatened in the way that only Jillian can: If you don't let go of the handles "I'll break all your fingers." "I don't care if your neck breaks in half." And "Let go of the treadmill or I'm going to knock you out." To which Shellay responded: "I'd feel a lot better if you did."
It was a nice try, but it still didn't get Shellay out of her workout.
The second match-up between Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama proved a strong draw with television viewers Tuesday night. More than 63 million people tuned in to watch the White House hopefuls debate in Nashville, a sizeable increase over the 52.4 million who watched their first forum on Sept. 26.
That makes Tuesday’s event the ninth-most watched presidential debate since Nielsen Media Research starting tracking the audience in 1960. But the presidential candidates still couldn’t match the interest level in their running mates, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Joe Biden, who garnered 69.9 million viewers for their sole debate on Oct. 2.
A dozen television networks have been airing the presidential debates live, and so far ABC seems to be the choice of most viewers. For the third debate in a row, the network had a bigger audience than their broadcast and cable counterparts, averaging 13.2 million viewers. ABC’s post-debate analysis -- anchored by Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos -- also was the biggest draw, with an average of 9.92 million viewers.
NBC placed second with its coverage of the 90-minute forum, garnering 10.86 million viewers, while CBS had 9.44 million.
Once again, the cable networks weren’t far behind. CNN had the biggest audience, averaging 9.23 million viewers, while Fox News followed with 8.77 million and MSNBC trailed with 3.77 million.
...or our best guess at who they'll be, based on last month's showing at Bryant Park.
It's no secret that this year -- and in years prior -- the finalists weren't the only ones who got to show off their collections on the finale runway. This year, the final six contestants were given the privilege. That means in addition to the four remaining, Suede and Joe also got to debut their work during Fashion Week. (Everyone's a winner on "Project Runway"!)
That in mind, let's handicap the race based on the collections that were shown. And let this be your spoiler alert: These are, in fact, the collections you'll see during the Oct. 15 finale.
LEANNE: The shoo-in
She's been the most consistent of the designers, often presenting the best constructed and architecturally interesting pieces. Her collection is full of stylish fanned pleats (above, as a dress and as a skirt topped by a slouchy shoulder collar top). As you can see, she is not, in fact, afraid of color (muted palettes, be damned).
Last night's episode ended with shots of the drugged out drama queen splayed on the floor, eyes unblinking, paramedics shoving a needle into her chest, accompanied by Naomi's oh-so-ironic words: "You are dead to me!"
Let's rewind. Naomi had taken the fall for her friend, snatching Adrianna's lipstick locket of coke at the very moment the school was hit with a drug bust. (Yes, cops, drug-sniffing dogs, locker searches -- the works.) Talk about your bad timing, huh? So Naomi goes down expecting Daddy, a rich lawyer, to bail her out. Of course, he bursts that bubble and Naomi tells Adrianna to be a good friend and fess up. She did give Adrianna her lucky necklace earlier. And it did help her score that role in the horror movie. (Also a big help: Annie's painful audition. Does Annie really have to stick with the whole aspiring actress thing? It doesn't do Shenae Grimes any favors.) But Adrianna's mama hits her with a little too many thanks -- thanks for landing a job that saved their house -- and boom! She's back on the stuff, going into arrest and leaving Naomi no choice but to leave that ill-timed message.
That was the good part. Sure, I need to see Naomi do a lot more than get screwed over week after week -- crying isn't her best look -- but that portion of last night's episode proved that maybe, just maybe, the new "90210" class can carry the show. And without resting on the old familiar faces. It was just the right amount of over-the-top craziness I'd expect from "Gossip Girl's" network neighbor. Make Adrianna (Jessica Lowndes) a regular already!
Also good: Tabitha. Even when she has to say lines like: "I want to swim naked. I like how it feels when the water glides off my ass.... I'm letting my freak flag fly and there's nothing you can do about it."
Less successful, however, was new "classmate" Kim (Jessica Lucas)...
The coach's wife and Dillon High's newest principal become the centerpiece of a town controversy in "Friday Night Light's" second episode of Season 3. The decision by Tami Taylor (Connie Britton) to reallocate money raised for athletics to academics, preferring new books to a new JumboTron, has the mayor of the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, on the attack early on in the episode.
It's not the only drama in the episode, which sees a former couple start to reconnect (no, not Jesse Plemons' Landry and Adrianne Palicki's Tyra) and brings a bit of good news back to Brian "Smash" Williams (Gaius Charles), but it's rightfully the one that dominates. Last season, "Friday Night Lights" got side-tracked early on by focusing too much on the personal and the melodramatic. See the much maligned self-defense murder plot, or the silly love affair between a teenager and his grandmother's caretaker.
But Season 3, which is airing now on DirecTV, and early 2009 on NBC, has brought the focus back to the larger, community-focused issues that made the source material -- the television series and film are inspired by a nonfiction book of the same name by H.G. Bissinger -- so irresistible to begin with.
And the academics vs. athletics issue is rooted in reality. Bissinger's book followed the Panthers of Permian High School in Odessa, Texas, and the debate still had the town talking in 2007, at least judging by the Associated Press story. The article quotes former Permian High football coach John Wilkins as saying the book "was one of those things that did bring to the public’s attention, 'Is there too much emphasis on athletics?’ I don’t know that anyone came to that definite conclusion.”
Probably not. Any SoCal resident who has spent some time on the USC campus knows that the academics vs. athletics discussion will persist as long as a team is successful. But if the fictional "Friday Night Lights" is following reality, it looks like the Panthers got the JumboTron:
Normally, I sort of dread the results show of “DWTS” –- I strongly prefer the action of the competition show to the filler of the results show. But, wow, after watching that presidential debate, I was as eager for the results show as I normally am for the arrival of my Us Weekly. (When there’s real gossip, that is. Not when it’s one of their “Diets of the stars!” issues.) I found the first presidential debate and lone vice-presidential debate engrossing, so I’m not sure why I was so bored with this one, but there you have it.
We all wanted to find out what would happen tonight since Misty May-Treanor became the first contestant in seven seasons to have to withdraw due to injury. The answer was that no one is going home this week, but we found out who would have gone home if Misty hadn't pulled out: Rocco DiSpirito and Karina. Everyone's scores from this week will be added to their scores next week, and that will determine who goes home then. And, yes, you heard me right: Cloris Leachman and Corky did not have the lowest combined judges'/viewers' scores. In their post-salvation interview with co-host Samantha Harris, Cloris veered off on some tangent about blue-eyed people vs. brown-eyed people, but, luckily, it did not devolve into eugenics.
The blogosphere erupted today with debate over a “Saturday Night Live” sketch that skewered President Bush, Democrats, homebuyers and subprime lenders for their roles in the mortgage meltdown.
As our colleague Peter Viles has documented on the L.A. Land blog, the furor wasn’t just over the provocative material but because the skit was mysteriously yanked off NBC’s website Monday. That fueled theories that the network was caving in to pressure from the well-connected Democrats parodied in the sketch.
As Viles wrote:
The skit, a parody of a C-SPAN news conference, ridiculed subprime borrowers, housing speculators and Herb and Marion Sandler, the real-life couple who built Golden West Financial into a subprime lending powerhouse and sold it to Wachovia before the subprime collapse. At one point in the skit, the Herb Sandler character says he made $24 billion off the subprime boom. Graphics then appear labeling the Sandlers as "People who should be shot."
The Sandlers are supporters of liberal causes such as the Center for American Progress and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Late today, a spokesman for the show said the sketch was temporarily removed because “upon review, we caught certain elements in the sketch that didn't meet our standards. We took it down and made some minor changes.”
In a previously scheduled interview this afternoon to discuss “Saturday Night Live’s” upcoming prime-time specials, executive producer Lorne Michaels explained that he was not aware that the Sandlers were real people when the sketch aired Saturday night.
“I, in a state of complete ignorance, thought they were characters in the piece,” he said. “I did not know they were real, up until somebody called me about it on Monday. And I went, what? Now, that’s entirely my fault. Entirely.
“When I spoke to them, I can assure you this: They are very, very real. I think they were angry, I think distraught, I think they were not expecting to turn on the television and see that. First of all, I pleaded incompetence, which is not a thing I do often, and the fact that I did not know they were real is 100% my responsibility.”
The bit was penned by veteran “SNL” writer Jim Downey, who writes a large share of the show’s political sketches. Downey had heard of the Sandlers and “felt that from what he read and what he was basing it on, he thought it was a fair hit,” Michaels said.
But after speaking to the couple, Michaels said he and other executives decided to take the sketch offline to edit out the most offensive lines. The chryon under the couple that referred to them as “people who should be shot” was removed, as was a reference their “corrupt activities.”
He noted that the Sandlers did not request the changes but that he felt it was an appropriate step to take.
“I understand the Sandlers’ complaint,” Michaels said. “I think it’s not insignificant to read ‘People who should be shot’ underneath your name.”
But he stressed that the line was clearly satire and not meant literally. Rather, Michaels said, the sketch was an effort to skewer those who profited during a time when so many Americans have lost money.
“There are people over the last 10 years who made a pile of money,” he said. “And to most people, particularly to our audience, those numbers seem astounding. So whether they did anything wrong -- and there is absolutely no evidence that they did -- they are winners at a time when there’s an enormous amount of public anger about anyone who won.”
Buoyed by “NCIS” as well as fall’s top new drama, CBS won last week’s prime-time race in both total viewers and the ad-friendly demographic of adults aged 18 to 49, in a period disrupted by Thursday’s vice presidential debate and a series of financial crises that diverted viewers’ attention.
CBS had six of the 10 most-watched shows, including “NCIS” (17.5 million viewers), the 41st season premiere of “60 Minutes” (16.6 million) and the fall season’s No. 1 new show to date, “The Mentalist” (15.5 million). Among young adults, the network drew strength from Monday’s comedy “Two and a Half Men” (4.7 rating/11 share in 18-49; 13.6 million viewers overall) and “CSI: Miami” (4.4/11; 14.3 million).
Overall, CBS led with an average of 11.1 million viewers, trailed by ABC (9.2 million), NBC (7.8 million) and Fox (6.5 million), according to figures published Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.
NBC and ABC battled for second place in the 18-49 category, but both networks suffered as some returning dramas performed at or near all-time lows, and each outlet plunged 22% in young adults compared with the same week last season. NBC’s “Heroes” is still a top 10 show (4.5/11; 9.5 million) but looks nothing like the era-defining hit it once seemed. On Wednesday, ABC watched the premieres of a trio of sophomore dramas crater: “Private Practice” (8.2 million), “Dirty Sexy Money” (7 million) and “Pushing Daisies” (6.3 million). On the bright side for ABC, “Dancing With the Stars” was the week’s most-watched program, with 18.9 million viewers. Fox drew some heat in the demo with “House” (5.4/15; 13 million) and “Fringe” (4.2/11; 9.9 million).
Every network was down in both viewers and young adults, but the presidential campaign and bad news on Wall Street likely altered normal viewing patterns. Thursday’s vice presidential debate between Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin drew a record 69.9 million viewers and occurred in prime time in much of the country.
On basic cable, ESPN’s Monday football match-up between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens was the week’s top draw, with 11.8 million total viewers.
No Brenda. No Kelly. No familiar "Beverly Hills 90210" faces to fall back on.
For the first time, the "90210" cast is entirely on its own. Tonight's episode will rests on the strength of the stories in progress, not to mention the talents of its young actors (best known, so far, for their weight -- or lack thereof). Here's what you can expect:
Newly single Naomi will table trying to reconcile her folks and instead refocus her efforts on helping pill-popping thespian Adrianna kick her drug habit. Would-be couple Annie and Ethan will get paired on a class project involving baby raising. And new couple Silver and Dixon will celebrate her half-birthday at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Meanwhile, grown-ups Harry and Debbie will get the news that Naomi's mom (Harry's former GF) has hired a private investigator to find their son, whom she gave up for adoption years ago. And Ryan, left behind by Kelly who is off to make a go of it with Dylan, will attempt some online dating.
Thoughts? Can the next generation shine on its own? Without the fanfare and inside-baseball references (Said Brenda: "I can almost still hear the chanting. 'Donna Martin graduates! Donna Martin graduates!'") that pleases old fans but can't possibly be doing much for new ones?
Will we finally see some personalities emerge? (Naomi's popular, spoiled bratty side could rise. Annie could overcome that nasty case of "cute." Navid -- remember him? -- could, I don't know, do something.)
And for gosh sakes, someone please give Tabitha more screen time.
After a presidential primary season packed with network-produced debates that used YouTube and other new media to involve viewers, the four debates being organized by the Commission on Presidential Debates this fall may seem rather old-fashioned by comparison.
To put it bluntly, “the presidential debates look like they’re happening in 1984,” said David Bohrman, Washington bureau chief for CNN, who produces the network’s political coverage. “This has been a year of really interesting innovation, not just at CNN but all across cable news. Then you get to the commission debates and it feels just very old and stale.”
So CNN has done its best to liven up the forums. If you tune in to the cable channel to watch tonight’s showdown between Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama, you’ll notice the screen doesn’t look the same as the feeds running on the other networks.
As the presidential candidates spar, a graphic on the bottom of the screen will chart the live reactions of a focus group of undecided voters in Columbus, Ohio. Squiggly lines representing men and women will rise and fall as the candidates speak, an instant reading of how the debate is playing with these voters.
This isn’t the first campaign in which CNN incorporated focus group reaction into its debate coverage. But in past years, it used the data only on a simulcast that aired on Headline News, an extra for political junkies.
This fall, executives decided to make the focus group results part of its coverage on the main network.
“I think television viewers these days are OK with a little bit of extra information,” Bohrman said. “It’s a way to intellectually push off and test some of your own beliefs. It’s a little bit like hearing the boos and cheers at a sporting event, a little context of what the crowd is thinking.”
Viewers watching the debates on high-definition get yet another feature: real-time scorecards from CNN’s team of analysts and reporters that gauge whether the candidates have effectively taken advantage of opportunities. The round charts line the left and right side of the screen, in the extra space provided by the wider HD picture.
Throughout the year, CNN has been experimenting with how to take advantage of the high-definition screen. Some of its new features fared better than others. The updated delegate counts the network ran during the primaries were effective; a noise meter that measured the din on the floor of the political conventions was deemed less so.
The idea for the scorecards “just popped into my head,” Bohrman said. The feature is an effort to show “in real time if there was any kind of consensus or discord of how the debate is being perceived by our team.”
“If you had these guys over at your house during a debate, wouldn’t you want to know?” he asked.
That said, Bohrman added that he wants “to be careful not to trivialize the debate and not to treat it like a sporting match.”
“I hope people are getting some value out of it,” he said. “It’s an interesting little extra bit of data. If you don’t want to watch it, you can turn the channel. It’s on every other network, looking exactly the same.”
As I posted in last night’s brief update, Misty May-Treanor suffered a major injury during rehearsals on Friday and is dropping out of competition. While practicing the jive, she ruptured her Achilles tendon, which I’ve heard is as painful as passing a kidney stone or delivering an 11-pound baby the old-fashioned way. She’s undergoing surgery today, and I hope that she makes a complete recovery. Co-hosts Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris (who was wearing a very lovely red dress and huge, sparkly necklace) did not reveal to us what this means for the rest of the season, but I’m going to go ahead and guess that it doesn’t mean one fewer week of the show. They promised to let us know tonight.
Speaking of tonight, ABC will be airing the presidential debate. If you’re on the East Coast, the show will air before the debate; on the West Coast, the debate will air first. There was no word on what happens in the middle of the country, so I would check your local listings to make sure you don’t settle onto the couch for your weekly panacea of recaps and filler (tonight: Jennifer Hudson, Kool and the Gang and the Rockettes) and instead find yourself listening to firmly delivered talking points. Remember: Happiness equals reality divided by expectations.
This week, the stars danced either the jive or the Viennese waltz.
The episode was titled "I am become death," and that wasn't an overstatement. A hero died, a villain died and a city died. So many futures, so little time, but some good things (in terms of moving the story forward) happened on the way to the destruction of the city of Costa Verde by a radioactive Sylar four years into the future. We'll get to that.
"A few adverse reactions to the serum ..." Mohinder's descent is not complete, but at least we got a glimpse of the slithery future that awaits if his transformation continues. But we already got that he was going off the deep end when he blew off a playful Maya. What guy would do that?
Spirit walking ... and a tortoise. Well, it looks as if Matt's desert sojourn will end soon. I bet he was listening to T.I.'s "Whatever You Like" on the headphones when his irises went white. Or not. Anyway, his chilling future vision of a life with Daphne, and the death of Daphne, should spur him to action. Yeah! Once his tortoise leads him speedily out of the desert, that is. And, wearing black in the desert would seem to be a little ... uncomfortable.
A tip of the spinning merry-go-round hat to TV's Chucko the Clown, born Charles Runyon, who died Saturday at the age of 86. Back in the middle of the 20th century, he hosted birthday parties each weekday for the little boys and girls of greater Los Angeles. 
In its 15th and final season, NBC’s “ER” isn’t the fearsome competitor it once was. But on Thursday it looked tough enough against two new rivals, both Americanized versions of British cop dramas. 
In last weekend’s New York Times Magazine, former Times TV critic, now Sunday magazine columnist, Virginia Heffernan 
After a season premiere packed with faux shocks -- Derek proposes marriage! Rose is carrying Derek’s baby! Derek dies! –– last night’s “Grey’s Anatomy” wisely focused on the realities of life at Seattle Grace, where changes worth making take time and the things that are broken are not so easily fixed.
Lauren Brie, she of the near-clear blue eyes, was sent home while curvalicious Sheena was given a stay of execution. I say that because it's pretty clear that we're most likely looking at a Marjorie and McKey showdown.
Watching Tim Gunn visit "Project Runway" finalists at home is one of the most fun parts of the show's finale episodes. I still remember Season 1 winner Jay McCarroll greeting Gunn with, well, a gun, and it only gets better from there. It was cool to see Korto Momolu drum and Jerell's fascinating baby pictures, but nothing could top Leanne Marshall sticking Tim on the back of a bicycle built for two (with a helmet!). I thought it was worth noting that of the four remaining contestants, only Kenley Collins didn't have friends and family to introduce to him after she showed him her collection and wedding gown.
The second match-up between Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama proved a strong draw with television viewers Tuesday night. More than 63 million people tuned in to watch the White House hopefuls debate in Nashville, a sizeable increase over the 52.4 million who watched their first forum on Sept. 26. 
