August 7th: Fall is Looming Around the Corner

So I can't really think of anything that important to talk about in todays column, but instead of just "booking" it in and writing nothing, I will instead show you my troublesome fall television schedule. I'll post each day and time, and what I have on it. After that I will go into detail why some shows are on it and some won't. Oh and I will also throw the network and premier date, for fellow fans who are wondering when its on.

Monday: 8 PM: Gossip Girl (9/1 on CW), Chuck (9/29 on NBC)
~Right off the bat I have a conflict, with my two favorite new shows of last season. Needless to say some taping will be done although I don't really know which. I have four weeks, however, before I need to worry about it because of CW's early start dates.
9 PM: Heroes (9/22 on NBC)
~I wasn't a big fan of season 2, but with a full season to turn it around I am not completely ruling out a return to form by the creator Kring. Otherwise, this may be the last year I am watching Heroes.
Tuesday: 8 PM: 90210 (9/2 on CW), House (9/16 on Fox)
~Welcome to either the best day of television or the worst day of television depending on how you look at it. I mean, I have five shows on Tuesday alone, more than the rest of the week combined. Ah well, 90210 is a promising teen soap (specially sense I started watching the original) and you know exactly what your getting with House. I'll probably tape House, because I am used to watching it later.
9 PM: Fringe (9/9 on Fox), Greek (8/26 on ABCFamily)
~A very weird hour of television. Fringe is the new cult tv show developed by Abrams, and while I am not the biggest fan of all his work (Alias was vastly overrated, Six Degrees was horrible) it has alot of promise, plus a strong cast. Likely I will just tape two straight hours of Fox with House and Fringe and watch it on a later, much emptier day.
10 PM: Shield (9/2 on FX)
~This is by far my most anticipated show of the fall season (no offense to Chuck and GG). Seven years into the making, The Shield is reaching the end of its run, and there are so many expectations how it will all come to a close. Its been a rollercoaster ride that has gotten better as its gone along (the first few season weren't superb), and I expect it will be an adrenaline rush till the final minute.
Wednesday: NOTHING
~Wow, I remember when I loved Wednesday television, but that is over. Ah well, maybe this will become the first of my multiple tape nights.
Thursday: 8 PM: Survivor (9/18 on CBS)
~There is a big hole here, based upon the fact that with all the taping I am doing earlier in the week I don't really care to put the effort into taping 30 Rock so I decided to just let it go to the wayside. Comedies are just not worth it for me. Here is really the only staple of my fall schedule, as I have watched Survivor since middle school and I am not about to stop now.
Friday, Saturday, Sunday:NOTHING
~No comment here, besides FNL I haven't had a show on any of these days sense freshman year.

So there you go, my fall television schedule. Now it gets interesting post January, when Dollhouse comes on Monday at 8 (hopefully that changes), 24 at 9 on Mondays, and FNL on Fridays overloading my television schedule even more. And that doesn't include the most important show of all in Lost, but there is no date and time for that show yet.

Quick Notes:
~Not to much big news. Lost begins taping in 12 days are they are looking to add both a female and male character to the show as major reoccurring characters with an option to become regulars in the sixth season (which has become a very consistent strategy for Lost creators of late)

~Mad Men has done well in the ratings the past two weeks, as AMC has put a lot of money in advertising a show about advertising. Also, it is to be expected that more people are watching the show based on the accolades it received with its Emmy Nominations.

July 31st: DVR and Secondary Sources

Well, I am back from my big vacation to Rochester and that means the third edition of my weekly column is here. Basically, it was a quiet few weeks in television, although Comic-con brought in some excitement for fans of Lost, Dexter, X-Files movie, Heroes and shows of that nature, but overall you could here the crickets in the industry. So I guess I'll spend this weeks column talking about something we have all heard about recently, but haven't spent too much time discussing. DVR and secondary TV watching sources.

While loyal cult followings are great, what TV shows really need to survive are ratings. If you have low Nielson ratings, it is likely your show is going to be canceled. However, the only thing included in the Nielson ratings is initial live viewing numbers. There are numbers that keep track of DVR recordings, but they aren't used as a major tool in the industry. What is interesting is some canceled shows like Jericho and Moonlight did better than hits like CSI in DVR recordings, but it didn't matter. However, in some ways this is actually sensible. Non-cable television is solely supported through advertisements. If someone DVR's a show, they are likely fast forwarding through commercials, meaning that advertisers aren't getting what they are paying for. It sucks that this is how the system has to work, but if no one is making money when you watch a show like Moonlight, why would they care that you watch it.

What the industry does care for right now is itunes downloads, or online viewers on host sites. For example, Friday Night Lights aired each week on NBC.com, and NBC did recognize those viewers, because they were forced to watch the Cisco (or whatever sponsor at the time) ads without skipping. Itunes makes even more sense because you are paying a fixed fee to see the episode. A perfect example is Gossip Girl, which was one of the five most downloaded shows off itunes this year, despite having fledgling Nielson ratings. These download scores are a contributing factor for CW to use Gossip Girl as their main platform in the upcoming television season and to increase the episode total to an obscene 27 this upcoming year. Networks are making money off the internet as it is either a fix fee or from sponsors. However, the internet is still a new industry and it was a critical factor in the writers strikes, because the amount of money made through the internet goes directly to owners and not the writers. The new deal didn't overly remedy this, and don't be surprised if this continues to be a problem in the industry.

Quick Notes:

~Jimmy Smits (the star from NYPD Blue) seems to have a very intricate role in this upcoming season of Dexter. It is interesting how a show on Showtime can get such a major actor, but Dexter has been a hit and Michael C. Hall has become a great actor in his own right, so Jimmy Smits should fit right in.

~For my weekly Lost news, producers have said that Jin and Locke will have some role next season, but won't clarify whether they will be alive or dead. Also, they said that the flashbacks and flashforwards this season will be reinvented in a new and spectacular way that will fit the time aspects of the show. Lastly, Nestor Carbonell (who plays Richard Alpert) will have a big role in the upcoming season, although we don't yet know if it will be in a regular status.

~Lastly, the X-Files movie turned out to be a major flop in box numbers, something that surprised me. It did significantly worse than the first X-Files movie, and it wasn't too loved by the critics either. It did have to go against The Dark Knight though, which is definitely stiff competition.

July 17th: Emmy's Almost Get it Right

I have been a huge advocate for the destruction, or at least renovation, of the Emmy system. Each yeah, I wait eagerly to see the finalists, and each year I am extremely disappointed swearing off the Emmy's for good (until next year comes along at least). However, I must admit that this year the panelists actually got it nearly right. Now, don't get me wrong, there are some huge glaring omissions, but a lot of deserving shows also got noticed, so maybe we are moving in the right direction.

In my view the most important category is Best Drama and when I heard about the ten semifinalists I thought the perfect five would be Lost, Mad Men, Dexter, Wire, and Damages. Now, for some reason (likely a tie) there was actually six finalists chosen, but four of them were from my list. Only The Wire (an extremely deserving show) was snubbed, and was replaced by House (which had its moments in an off season) and Boston Legal (I have no comment how this makes it). I was never too worried about Mad Men not making it, but to see both Dexter and Lost make it completely surprised me, because neither of which are shows the Emmy panel usually supports. While Lost is the show I want to win it the most; Dexter and Mad Men definitely deserve it as both are extremely intriguing shows that don't fit the traditional mold. Also, congrats to both Damages and Mad Men for being the first basic cable show to be nominated in the lead drama category.

Of course, there are the acting awards, which usually take even more criticism than the show categories. I mean, its easy to understand the hate for the Emmy's because the defending lead actor in a drama is James Spader (not that he is a bad actor, but his work on Boston Legal is not near the best in the industry). The problem with acting nominations, however, has to do with the system. An actor nominates him or herself for the role and submits two episodes for the panel to view. A perfect example of the flaw can be seen in House this year, a show that I am a fan of. House, as a whole, had a decrease of quality this season, yet they produced two absolutely amazing episodes (the first and the last). By submitting those two episodes, the panel could consider Hugh Laurie the best actor, despite the rest of the season not being near as high quality. Boston Legal has been the beneficiary of this system for years, as they usually produce one to two Emmy worthy episodes, with the rest of the season being fairly weak. However, another finalist in Michael C. Hall (Dexter), was superb in ever episode of the season, so submitting only two does not give him a clear advantage. The system is flawed, and yet this year I am not nearly as upset. Last year, the panelists overlooked Hall's superb performance, and yet this year he got the nomination he dearly deserves (and he deserves to win too). Also, Michael Emerson (who portrays Ben on Lost) got the nomination for best supporting actor, something that he has to be considered the favorite to win, although he is going against two highly rated actors from Damages. In the end, however, the only area I am disappointed in is supporting actress, as both Rita from Dexter and Sun Paik from Lost deserved to be part of that list, and their omission makes that one category that I will not be paying too much attention to.

Quick Notes:

~The Miniseries John Adams earned the most nominations with 21, while Mad Men had the most for a television show with 17. This is the first Emmy's without perennial powerhouse Sopranos, and without it HBO laid a goose egg in the major drama areas, for the first time sense before Sopranos even existed.

~Defending champ 30 Rock makes the finals, however Terry O'Quinn (Locke) won't be defending his supporting actor nomination this season. Katharine Hiegel did not even put herself in the running to defend her supporting actress nomination, and of the five finalists for best drama last year, only Boston Legal and House return to the nominations this year.

~I will not be posting next week (July 24th), however i will return to my regular weekly postings a week later, as I will be on a vacation in Rochester. However, please comment whether it be complaints about my opinions or errors, or just about who you would like to see win the Emmy's, who was snubbed, and all that good stuff.

July 10th: Summer Season Blues

First off, I'd like to welcome you all to another effort of mine to create a weekly blog. Basically, as many of you know, I love television. So before I talk about my issues of the week, I will give you a little of a background on what I know and what I don't know. Basically, I don't watch near the amount of tv I wish I could, but the genres I do seem to cover are dramas and teen soaps (like Gossip Girl or O.C when that was on). I am not a fan, however, of sex-filled dramas or procedurals, but shows that either cause you to think and absorb what you are viewing. As my avatar suggest, my favorite show is Lost, but I also have a following for many other hits like Heroes, 24, House, Shield and Dexter. When it comes to comedy, my fan-dom is a lot weaker. I do extremely enjoy Chuck, but most of my laughter comes from dramas with comedic elements (a good example of this would be Burn Notice). I don't have a huge liking for sitcoms or thirty minute comedies, although I will show respect for those that deserve it, even if I am not personally a fan. Lastly, I, like many tv fans, am very wary of the reality craze. While I don't hate it as much as the next person, there are way too many low quality gameshows or competitions stealing the air that a good scripted show deserves. For example, there is only one new scripted show on the major four networks this summer, and that is the weak and trivial Swingtown, a show not worth the airtime. However, I don't completely avoid reality shows, as I am a huge Survivor fan, and have spent a decent amount of time this summer growing fond of The Mole, once again. As some of you know, I am a graduate student currently, so I basically only watch the shows that I love, or have become accustomed to (like 24, its not very good anymore, but I watch it anyway). However, if there is big news about another show, like Boston Legal or Greys, I will still talk about it, because it is part of the industry. Anyway, my first topic will be brief and just about summer television in general this year.

To start off with, I feel desperately sorry for people without cable in the summer. During the regular tv season, viewers can do pretty good with ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC. This dies in the summer, when suddenly a show like Wipeout is a new hit. Summer tv is all about reality and what is the best bang for the buck. A perfect example of this is how Big Brother is consistently a summer show, because it brings in mediocre ratings for only a little cash. The Mole, a show I actually enjoy, is another example because they give up less than a million dollars in prize money, while making much more back in advertising. For the past three years we have only received one scripted new show each year on network tv, and two of them have failed and the third is failing. Both Windfall and Traveler premiered as new scripted tv, and while they each had a loyal following, tv analysts knew that if they were moved to the fall they would be ravaged by already hit shows. Swingtown is heading that exact same route, and if you are a fan I would be very wary for the coming months. However, there is the escape of cable television. Tonight Burn Notice returns for a second season and in a few weeks Mad Men will join them. The Closer has already returned with its high ratings, and Law and Order: Criminal Intent is coming up with new episodes after its move to USA. Cable is willing to put on summer scripted shows, because the competition is a lot weaker. The Closer is the biggest hit, ratings wise, and would likely survive in the fall season, but it wouldn't thrive. And if it wasn't for the strike pushing up FX dates, we would have The Shield, Rescue Me, and Damages all coming back this summer, making cable the place where it's at. So while network tv continues to go way down hill in the summer; TNT, AMC, ABC Family, USA, and FX (except this year) will pick up the slack. However, when it comes to hit dramas we forget about all these new emerging networks. When we check our television guide we only look at the four major stations, when completely original and risk taking shows are on cable. Many of the great summer shows are starting soon too, as only now are some of the biggest hits returning, and do yourself a favor and check out Mad Men. It is the most intelligent show out of a great summer crop of cable television.

Before I leave you just some quick notes:

*First some bad news for Street or Smash fans on FNL, as both have been demoted to only reoccurring characters. This actually makes sense for the show, because neither really fit into the storyline anymore, however the creators promise that there will be a satisfying conclusion to both characters.

*The only other major news of note is for Lost fans, as Michael Ausiello of EW reported earlier that Lost is in talks with John Terry and Alan Dale (Jacks dad and Penny's dad respectively) about reoccurring roles in their contract with an option to pick them up as sixth season regulars. Interesting development, but both characters have shown that they are greatly invested in the island.

*In non-cast related news, Battlestar Galactica will be making another prequel movie and Showtime is picking up a series about bug exterminators... Well, thats all I have for you this week and enjoy watching the few good shows you can find. Oh and a quick side note, I love comments, it makes me feel important, and I will respond quickly if there is a question involved.