Quick Takes: NBC’s Thursday blues

Every now and then a number leaps out.

Friday morning it was the size of NBC’s Thursday night audience. On a night that NBC owned for decades, the network averaged fewer than 5 million viewers. To put it into some context, more people watched the season finale of MTV’s “Jersey Shore” than what NBC averaged for the evening. The CW was only 1.5 million viewers behind NBC.

It’s not like the network was in rerun mode. It had new episodes of its critical darlings “Community,” “30 Rock” and “The Office.”

Thursday is hardly NBC’s only trouble spot, but it is jarring, even given all the well-publicized attention the network’s problems have gotten over the last few years, to see how far NBC has fallen on a night that was once home to legendary hits such as “Friends,” “Seinfeld, “ER,” “The Cosby Show,” “Cheers” and “Hill Street Blues.”

—Joe Flint

Spain acquires Bruegel work

Spain’s Culture Ministry said Friday it had bought a previously unknown masterpiece by 16th century Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder discovered recently by the Prado Museum in Madrid.

A statement on the ministry’s website said the Prado’s board of trustees had agreed to purchase “The Wine of Saint Martin’s Day” for $9.8 million. The signed work was owned by private collectors.

The Prado announced last month that the painting was a Bruegel after months of study and restoration. Dated between 1565 and 1568, the work depicts a crowd scrambling madly to get a sample of the year’s first vintage from a barrel.

—Associated Press

CBS gambles big on new shows

No. 1-ranked CBS has taken an almost unheard-of step in network TV, giving full-season orders to its entire lineup of five new fall shows.

“ Hawaii Five-0,” “Blue Bloods” and “The Defenders,” along with the sitcoms “$#*! My Dad Says” and “Mike & Molly,” got the thumbs-up from network executives.

The move came after CBS won the first month of the season in all key demographics for the first time since the advent of Nielsen “people meters” in 1987.

Paradoxically, this has been overall a tough season so far for new shows. None of the new series from any network, CBS included, has cracked the top 10 either among total viewers or the advertiser-friendly demographic of adults ages 18 to 49, according to the Nielsen Co.

— Scott Collins

No ‘Hangover 2’ for Mel Gibson

Just three days after word leaked out that Mel Gibson would enjoy a cameo in “ The Hangover 2” as a tattoo artist in Thailand, the actor was told his services will not be needed after members of the production rebelled.

In a statement released Thursday by Warner Bros. and producing partner Legendary Pictures, the backers of “Hangover 2” said that director Todd Phillips had decided that the “Braveheart” star wouldn’t be appearing in the sequel to last year’s comedy blockbuster.

“I thought Mel would have been great in the movie and I had the full backing of Jeff Robinov and his team,” Phillips said, referring to the Warner Bros. production chief. “But I realize filmmaking is a collaborative effort and this decision ultimately did not have the full support of my entire cast and crew.”

Gibson will be replaced by Liam Neeson, “pending clearance of cast and crew,” Alan Nierob, who serves as publicist for both actors, said Friday.

Gibson has been missing from the movies since audio recordings apparently capturing his threatening and racist rants against ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva surfaced last summer.

“Hangover 2” would have been the actor’s first movie since “The Beaver,” a Jodie Foster-directed comic drama that has been sitting on the shelf and has no announced release date.

—John Horn

Nimoy better after surgery

“Star Trek” icon Leonard Nimoy has undergone “emergency surgery for a minor, benign, abdominal condition” and was forced to postpone a scheduled appearance Saturday night at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, according to Michael Field, marketing director at the Cal State Long Beach venue.

Field said Friday that the 79-year-old actor and filmmaker is “recovering beautifully” and hopes to reschedule the event, billed as an intimate evening of reflection on “Star Trek” and his role as Spock.

—Geoff Boucher

Finally

Holding on: The CW has given full-season pickups to two freshman series, “Hellcats” and “Nikita,” and to “One Tree Hill,” currently in its eighth season.