TV Programming

by Jasmine Alston, Erika Bertu, Christopher Bruce, Haoqin Gu

Entertainment News

–Network Shows

1. FOX new show Terra Nova

From executive producers Steven Spielberg, Peter Chernin, René Echevarria and Brannon Braga comes an epic family adventure 85 million years in the making.

TERRA NOVA follows an ordinary family on an incredible journey back in time to prehistoric Earth as a small part of a daring experiment to save the human race. In the year 2149, the world is dying. The planet is overdeveloped and overcrowded, with the majority of plant and animal life extinct. The future of mankind is in jeopardy, and its only hope for survival is in the distant past.

http://www.fox.com/terranova/

2. “The Walking Dead” start seasons off a big bang

The premiere also drew 4.2 million viewers in the 25-54 demographic, TVLine reports, another record for a basic cable series.

AMC also reported Monday that the zombie drama went on to boost its total viewership to 11 million viewers for the night’s three airings of the 90-minute episode.

This eclipsed the year-ago audience for the series, which emerged as a surprise hit by averaging 5.2 million viewers weekly during that first season.

Based on the popular comic book of the same name, “The Walking Dead” depicts the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse confronted by a group of survivors outside Atlanta. Its cast includes Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal and Sarah Wayne Callies.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-20121589-10391698.html

3. NBC has given freshman fairy tale procedural Grimm a full-season order.

“We are very pleased to be making a full-season commitment for ‘Grimm,’” NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt said in announcing the news Monday. “This series is turning the traditional procedural drama on its head and is attracting a loyal following for us on Friday nights. We love where it’s going creatively and we’re excited to deliver more episodes to our audience.”
The fairy tale drama debuted Sunday to ABC’s strongest ratings in the 18-49 demographic in nearly three years of regular programming.

In addition, the network will test the fantasy starring David Giuntoli, Bitsie Tulloch, Silas Weir Mitchell, Sasha Roiz, Reggie Lee and Russell Hornsby on Thursday, Dec. 8 at 10 p.m.

http://www.tv.com/news/nbc-orders-a-full-season-of-grimm-27227/

4.’Once Upon A Time’ No Fantasy In Ratings Department

A big surprise this season for ABC continues to be the performance of its new fantasy-drama “Once Upon A Time” — even as it goes up against late season NFL games.
Next to NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” the ABC 8 p.m. show still put up a Nielsen preliminary 3.4 rating/8, down 11% from its most recent original episodes. But “Once Upon a Times” remained the best scripted show of the last Sunday in November.
On the downside, ABC ran its initial Hallmark Hall of Fame movie “Have a Little Faith” from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., earning a weak 1.1 rating/2 among 18-49 viewers. All that meant a 1.8/4 average for ABC on Sunday night — only good for fourth place.

5. CBS: As Usual,” Supernatural” rating mean it’s likely to be renewed.

“Every year that I’ve written these Renew / Cancel posts it seems like I need to devote one post a year to reassuring supernatural fans that the ratings indicate their show is certain to be renewed. In the past, when the CW was lead by Dawn Ostroff it was always entitled something like “Dawn Ostroff Can’t Cancel supernatural Even If She Wanted To”.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/11/15/cw-as-usual-supernatural-ratings-mean-its-likely-to-be-renewed/110565/

The new CW chief, Mark Pedowitz is not the pageview magnet that Dawn was, but he’s not going to cancel supernatural either because of the ratings. If members of the cast or crew decide to call it quits the show can still end this season, and I don’t pretend to attempt to predict that, but fans need not worry about the show’s ratings.