Since The Odd Couple will be on hiatus for the next two weeks because of the NCAA Basketball Tournament airing on CBS, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at the show’s social media presence. As now more than ever, social media presence is an integral part of a television show’s success, it appears that The Odd Couple is taking full advantage of all that twitter has to offer. For example, as a nice tie-in with CBS’s NCAA coverage, the stars of The Odd Couple have filled out NCAA brackets and the show’s twitter feed is encouraging viewers to see how their brackets measure up with those of the stars, Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon. Additionally, the stars have been live tweeting and the show has been posting photos of the different cast members tweeting for both the east and west coast feeds. They even suggested a drinking game, consisting of everyone taking a drink every time that Matthew Perry wears a blue shirt that matches his eyes! So far, they have 3,263 followers, which is a drop in the ocean, compared to ABC’s rival new spring 2015 sitcom, Fresh Off The Boat, which has 16,700 followers. Therefore, The Odd Couple has a way to go before being the number 1 new comedy on Twitter.
Tag Archives: CBS
The Dovekeepers – Publicity
Publicity for the CBS miniseries The Dovekeepers has been ramped up in recent weeks. The most prominent of the promotions campaign is that the 30 second ad has begun running on CBS in primetime. CBS has also been releasing a number of promotional videos on it’s website as well as on YouTube, including set tours with each major cast member. There have also been segment appearances on shows like Entertainment Tonight and print articles in TV Guide magazine and CBS Watch magazine.
The more interesting of the promotions has been the digital and social media campaign. The Dovekeepers has been getting decent exposure on the CBS Television website, with features on the front page. It also has a Facebook, and Twitter, on which they conducted an “Ask the Author” livetweeting session with author Alice Hoffman under the hashtag #TheDovekeepersAskAlice. More unconventionally the show also has a Pinterest account, on which CBS is releasing the sketches for wardrobe, jewelry and set design as well as promotional stills. Whether or not this promotion will boost the ratings for the broadcast is yet to be seen. The Dovekeepers airs on CBS March 31 and April 1.
Odd Couple Update #5
After losing some of its initial audience in its second week, The Odd Couple rebounded after its third airing. The new CBS Thursday night sitcom won its 8:30 pm time slot on March 5, 2015 and according to Variety, it came within one tenth of a percentage point of its series premiere rating (on February 19th). It still looks like CBS’ hammock approach is working; while it is not scoring the numbers that its time slot predecessor, The Big Bang Theory is achieving, The Odd Couple is growing in viewership week-to-week and is benefiting from the lead-in. It will be interesting to see the numbers for The Odd Couple’s fourth showing, which will be on March 12th. Following the March 12th broadcast, The Odd Couple will be on hiatus for two weeks while CBS broadcasts NCAA Basketball. It will also be important to track whether or not the two week disruption will affect its aforementioned audience growth.
The Dovekeepers – The Production Team
The creative minds behind The Dovekeepers are the dynamic husband and wife team Mark Burnett and Roma Downey. Both Downey and Burnett have done extensive work prior to this miniseries on their own terms. Roma Downey is an Emmy award-nominates actress with prominent roles in television shows like Touched By An Angel, and Burnett is one of the most prominent reality tv producers both in the US and internationally with hits such as Shark Tank, The Voice, and The Apprentice.
As much success they’ve had separately they are an even more dynamic team together. Burnett and Downey were the creative minds between the epic miniseries The Bible, Burnett’s first scripted work, which has garnered more than 100 million views cumulatively. In addition to The Dovekeepers, the pair has produced another 12-week miniseries, a sequel to The Bible titled AD: The BIble Continues to air on NBC starting Easter Sunday. Looking to the future, Burnett and Downey are also producing a big screen remake of Ben-Hur, another religious historical adaptation to add to their growing list.
The Odd Couple: Critical Reaction
In last week’s blog post, I took a look at the ratings for the February 19th premiere of The Odd Couple. This week, I’m examining the critical reaction. At this point, it’s anybody’s guess, as the critics were mixed. However, many of them added that regardless of the quality of the show, The Odd Couple has a 50/50 shot of being renewed for a second season. As a fan of the original version of The Odd Couple, I find the new version to be lacking the original spark that made the Tony Randall-Jack Klugman incarnation so entertaining and successful.
In his review, Entertainment Weekly writer Jeff Jensen eloquently hit upon the problem with the revamped version of The Odd Couple, “There is a kind of bad show that might be the saddest kind of bad show. It’s the show that strands talented actors known for being funny on a sitcom that isn’t funny at all. The Odd Couple has Matthew Perry, Thomas Lennon, Yvette Nicole Brown, Dave Foley and more. You’d never know that they’re perfectly capable of making you laugh if you hadn’t seen their previous work, because their current show is, again, not funny.”
In the end, only time and the numbers will give us certainty on The Odd Couple’s future, but with a general overall feeling that it is just mediocre fare, it looks like it won’t be joining its CBS predecessors, The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men as a runaway hit.
The Dovekeepers – Introduction
The Dovekeepers is an original four hour miniseries for CBS produced by husband and wife team Mark Burnett and Roma Downey. The gripping tale details the lives of three women, Shirah (Cote De Pablo), Yael (Rachel Broshanan) and Aziza (Kathryn Prescott) whose stories and lives are tightly wound together through the siege of Masada in 70 AD. The series was based on a novel by the same title by Alice Hoffman, which was originally released in 2011. During the CBS winter TCA event producer Roma Downey said “At its heart, ‘Dovekeepers’ is a love story…there is tragedy, of course, but at its heartbeat, there is beauty and hope.” The series will air in a two night event March 31 and April 1 on CBS at 9pm following it’s juggernaut, NCIS.
The Odd Couple 3: The Premiere Part 1: A look at the Early Numbers
The CBS revamp of the 1970s classic sitcom The Odd Couple premiered last night and its newest incarnation came in more with a whimper than with a bang. Sandwiched between CBS hits, The Big Bang Theory and the series finale of Two and a Half Men, it did well ratings wise, but the viewership is sure to drop off as the weeks go by. Looking at the preliminary Nielsen numbers, CBS dominated and so did The Odd Couple which served as a hammock for CBS’ 8-10 pm comedy lineup. Looking at the key 18-49 demographic, the night started off with The Big Bang Theory which notched a 4.4 rating with a 15 share and had 17.4 million viewers. At 8:30 the premiere of The Odd Couple garnered a 3.1 rating, a 10 share and 13.57 million viewers. Sitcom night on CBS ended at 9 pm with the hour-long season finale of Two and a Half Men, which got a 3.1 rating, a 9 share and had 13.20 million viewers. The ratings for CBS slipped further with Thursday night’s concluding show, Elementary, which aired at 10pm and received a 1.5 rating, a 5 share and had 8.05 million viewers. On the whole, CBS won the night with 12.206 million viewers; its closest competitor, ABC had 8.813 million viewers. Critical reviews have been mixed and it will be interesting to see if the numbers for The Odd Couple will hold up and if it’s time slot will keep it on the air long enough to connect with viewers.
Welcome to “Battle Creek”
On Sunday, March 1st CBS will launch Battle Creek the 10pm EST time slot as a mid-season replacement for CBS rating stalwart CSI. The show boasts an impressive stable of talent, starring Josh Duhamel (Transformers) as the flashy new FBI agent playing foil to the incumbent police detective played by Dean Winters (30 Rock) in Battle Creek, Michigan. The ensemble is rounded out by Kal Penn (Harold and Kumar) and Oscar nominee Janet McTeer.
After laying dormant for over a decade, Vince Gilligan’s “Battle Creek is finally getting its shot with CBS.
The creative pedigree of the show is even more star-studded than the cast, with Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul creator, Vince Gilligan, and House creator, David Shore giving the hour-long black comedy at least a fighting chance to gain traction in a time slot with limited competition outside of ABC’s Revenge. Sony will produce.
Source: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-ca-tv-preview-battle-creek-20150104-story.html
The Odd Couple: The Story Behind the Theme
With less than one week to go until the premiere of the revamped version of The Odd Couple, there is one big question that is on everyone’s mind: Are they keeping the original theme song? Fortunately, or unfortunately, there is a two part answer. While the new CBS revamp (premiering Thursday, February 19th at 8:30 on CBS/WTVH), will retain the classic and oh-so-catchy Neal Hefti theme music, The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that it will have a (new) New Orleans blues-jazz arrangement. In his February 12, 2015 article, Dave Walker writes in The Times Picayune that trombonist Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews’ updated version of the Hefti theme is “a slinky trombone driven take on the Hefti tune.”
The new sixty second version is available online and after listening to it, while it does maintain the Hefti theme, it loses the big band sound that the original version had. However, it does have a more modern sound, which may appeal to younger viewers, but I am still partial to the original version of the iconic theme. Therefore, I guess we will just have to wait until next Thursday to see if the new version of The Odd Couple and its new theme are accepted by the 2015 TV audience and critics.
Have a listen to the new arrangement of the theme:
https://soundcloud.com/nola-sound/trombone-shorty-theme-from-the-odd-couple
The Odd Couple: Countdown to Premiere
Although The Odd Couple won’t be airing until February 19th, there is still buzz about it and it is getting coverage in the entertainment media. As I count down the days to see whether this new incarnation of the beloved 1970s is a hit or a miss, it’ll be interesting to compare The Odd Couple then and now. The original Odd Couple, based upon the hit Neil Simon play, premiered on ABC in 1970 and ran for five seasons. It was produced by Garry Marshall and starred Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. There are similarities between the show’s incarnations. Although the show has new producers, Matthew Perry, Eric Tannenbaum, Kim Tannenbaum, Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly, Garry Marshall is returning as a consultant. There are also similarities in casting; they are relying on casting one star name with a large Q rating and an actor who has worked steadily but may not have solid name recognition. For example, Tony Randall (Felix Unger in the original) was a movie star and had widespread name recognition at the time of his casting in the original series. His co-star Jack Klugman (Oscar Madison) had worked steadily on Broadway and in television, but was not widely known.
In the new series, Matthew Perry is well-known for his role on the sitcom Friends, while his co-star Thomas Lennon has been a familiar face on television in such shows as Reno 9-1-1 and Sean Saves The World, he may not have wide name recognition (as pointed out in a January USA Today article). However, unlike their predecessors, Klugman and Randall had not been involved in high profile flops. Both Perry and Lennon have had their share of primetime failures since appearing on the successful programs that gave them their big break. Perry has had several failures, including NBC’s short-lived Go On (2012-2013) and Lennon flopped just last season with NBC’s Sean Saves the World (2013-2014). Therefore, with recent flops under their belt, it will be interesting if Matthew Perry, in particular, can excise the Friends curse with this revitalized favorite.