After two seasons, the jig is up.
An FX spokesperson confirms that The Riches will not be returning for a third season.
The Eddie Izzard-Minnie Driver con-artist drama had been in limbo since the conclusion of the second season last April. Word of the show’s axing started to leak out last week when costar Todd Stashwick announced on his MySpace page that “The Riches has been canceled.”
Reaction? Anyone?
The theme of today’s blind item: “Hindsight is 20/20.”
When a certain series you’re likely enjoying was casting its lead, the studio suits knew exactly who they wanted. The network suits, on the other hand, knew exactly who they didn’t want. And — what a coincidence! — they were one and the same.
Since the performer in question was just coming off a failed show, the network brass felt that this individual was a star with no star power. But the studio stood behind its pick, to the point where there were threats of taking the hour-long drama to the competition.
Now, of course, the show is looking like a hit, and the network is singing a very different tune. (Which has gotta be hard when their bigwigs are also eating their words along with a steaming plate of crow.)
So, who was the small screen’s most unwanted lead? Guesses below. I can’t confirm when you get it right, but on the plus side, I also won’t mock you (much) when you get it wrong.
The bill read like an evening at Glastonbury or the Coachella Music Festival: Feist, KT Tunstall, Jarvis Cocker, Martha Wainwright, Vanessa Carlton, and Robyn Hitchcock. But the venue for this all-star lineup’s first (and possibly last) gig last week couldn’t have been farther off indie-rock hipsters’ radar: the bar at the Hotel Uummannaq in northwest Greenland, a snowy Arctic town boasting a harbor strewn with icebergs and a sky streaked with the Northern Lights.
Brought together by Cape Farewell, a UK-based organization that has hosted seven Arctic Circle sea voyages in eight years in the name of climate change awareness and research, the rockers are currently on a nine-day expedition aboard a Russian vessel. Their reward for bunking in closet-sized cabins and heeding early-morning wake-up calls? Treks to the top of snow-covered peaks, up-close views of retreating glaciers—and, of course, the opportunity to play with their acclaimed peers.
Wainwright opened the show, followed by indie darling Feist. Wearing an Inuit shawl of colored beads, the latter gamely attempted a few Greenlandic folk tunes before cutting her set short, saying she was feeling intimidated about following her fellow Canadian. Feist was nearly always on stage, however, whether adjusting the sound for whomever was at the mic or joining Wainwright on backing vocals when Cocker took center stage (see photo) to cover Velvet Underground’s “Femme Fatale.” (An interesting choice, considering Lou Reed’s longtime partner, Laurie Anderson, also a member of the Cape Farewell expedition, was in the audience.)
Elder statesman Hitchcock, who organized the rockers’ only rehearsal in the vessel’s lounge hours before the show, was “the glue between us all,” Carlton told the crowd. But Carlton saw the evening as more than a chance to perform alongside her contemporaries. “Music is comforting, and I hope this was a comforting night for everyone,” she said. And then she boarded a craft bound for an uninhabited shore in sub-zero weather, armed with some comfort of her own: a flask of vodka.
Man, my exclusive Emmy red carpet Q&A with House exec producer Katie Jacobs is the gift that keeps on giving.
Not only did it give me fodder for two consecutive Ask Ausiellos, but that spellbinding scoop about the birth of Foreteen (formerly known as Thoreman) even made its way into last week’s EW.
And I’ve saved the best for this week’s episode of Ausiello TV: the actual interview itself!
As an added bonus, House‘s underused Jesse Spencer makes a cameo and breaks news about the life-and-death arc that will likely pull Chase off the backburner.
Enjoy!
The ladies of Wisteria Lane ruled the roost once again on Sunday night as Desperate Housewives (pictured: Teri Hatcher and Mason Vale Cotton) nabbed an average 15.5 million total viewers, according to overnight ratings, winning its 9 p.m. time slot and the evening. This marks the second straight week that ABC’s girls bested the boys of NBC’s Sunday Night Football (which averaged 12.4 million viewers from 8 to 11 p.m. and 13.5 million viewers during the 9 p.m. hour, when it was on against Housewives). However, DH was down 2.9 million from last week’s premiere, while Football added 1.4 million viewers from its first hour to its last as the Steelers-Jaguars match-up went down to the wire.
ABC’s Brothers & Sisters was also down from its premiere and lost 32 percent of its Desperate lead-in. But the network’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition had a good showing, pulling in 11.7 million total viewers, a nearly 30 percent improvement on last week’s two-hour season premiere. The hour-long tearjerker also added 2.7 viewers from the start of the show to the end, but it still wasn’t enough to beat 8 p.m. time slot contender, and CBS’ Emmy juggernaut, The Amazing Race 13. Not only did Race earn a total of 13.6 million viewers, but it also improved upon its season premiere by 32 percent. That said, the show lost nearly 6.2 viewers as the hour went on. Nevertheless, CBS still won the night, partially due to the 19 million that tuned in to 60 Minutes at 7 p.m.
Fox’s Sunday animation block stayed somewhat strong after last week’s premieres. The Simpsons had 7.4 million viewers at the 8 pm. half hour, down more than 20 percent from last week’s 9.3 million, while King of the Hill attracted 6.6 million total viewers at 8:30 p.m., down just 5.7 percent from last week. Family Guy pulled in 8.4 million total viewers for the 9 p.m. half hour, down 8.7 percent from last week’s 9.2 million, and American Dad stayed about even with last week’s 6.9 million at 9:30 p.m. Fox’s total viewership for the evening averaged out at around 6 million. The CW on the other hand — which boasted debuts of Valentine at 8 p.m. and Easy Money at 9 p.m. — did not fair nearly as well. Both shows garnered an average of just 1.1 million viewers each, a decline even from the reruns of Privileged and America’s Next Top Model that aired the week before.
Meanwhile, over on cable, Cartoon Network aired it’s highest-rated series debut in channel history, according to preliminary data: The special one-hour opener of Star Wars: The Clone Wars (a CG animated action adventure series) ranked No. 1 among all major children’s networks for kids 6-11, 2-11, tweens 9 to 14, teens 12-17, and total viewers.
More TV news:
“Feel My Heat,” the Los Angeles specialty radio show hosted by actor-DJ Danny Masterson (That ’70s Show) and nightlife impresario Brent Bolthouse, has been yanked off the air. The show had a Monday night slot on Indie 103.1 for five years and was among the station’s most popular programs, helping break acts like MGMT, Vampire Weekend, and M.I.A. A rep for Masterson tells EW.com that the actor “resigned after creative differences ensued between he and the station’s new program director” and will shop the show around to other broadcasters, including satellite. An Indie insider contends Masterson was offered a later slot (midnight to 2 a.m. instead of 7 to 10 p.m.), but turned it down. All the station’s specialty programs, with the exception of lunch-time favorite Jonesy’s Jukebox, are apparently being moved out of the weekly lineup or so that the station can focus more on its playlist (and hopefully boost ratings). Other “celebrity DJs” on Indie’s roster include Henry Rollins and the Crystal Method.
Other Danny Masterson content:
HBO announced today that it has granted a sixth season to its comedy series Entourage, which stars Jeremy Piven (pictured), who just received his third consecutive supporting actor Emmy for his role in the series, Adrian Grenier, Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon, and Jerry Ferrara. At the conclusion of its fifth season, currently airing Sunday nights on HBO, Entourage will have debuted 66 episodes. The sixth season will start production in early 2009 and debut over the summer.
Related Entourage content:
Michael Phelps appearing on Entourage
PopWatch: On the scene with Entourage
Jeremy Piven discusses Entourage
Jeremy Piven roasts Emmy hosts
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Even a fake psychic could’ve seen this coming: CBS has inched closer to granting a full-season order to its freshman smash The Mentalist, ordering six additional scripts for the Simon Baker-led drama.
The move comes as The Mentalist has emerged as this season’s only surefire hit. In its first two outings, the show has won its time slot with an average 15.4 million viewers.
An official back-nine order, which would bring The Mentalist‘s season 1 episode total to 22, could come as early as this week. Meanwhile, I’m still on the fence about whether to season-pass this thing. Please submit your pro/con arguments below.
The night’s most-anticipated show — the vice-presidential debate — scored huge ratings on Thursday night, with overnight Nielsen results showing that the contest between Republican nominee Sarah Palin and Democrat Joe Biden could be one of the most-watched debates in history. ABC (just barely) snagged the most viewers (11.8 million), followed by NBC’s 11.6 million and CBS’ 11.4 million. Though totals have not yet been released, Nielsen reports that ratings in the country’s 55 biggest markets were 42 percent higher than they were for the presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama last Friday, which netted 10.2 million for ABC, 7.8 million for NBC, and 7.6 million for CBS. Those early numbers could change slightly when they’re finalized, but if they hold steady, they’d make it the highest-rated V.P. debate in history, passing 1984′s George Bush-Geraldine Ferraro showdown — viewers love a male-female matchup!
Ugly Betty and Survivor felt the standard post-premiere-week letdown in their second outings this fall. According to overnight ratings, Betty (8.6 million viewers) lost 1.3 million viewers since last week, though that’s not far off from its 8.7 million average last season. Survivor (12.9 million) dropped only 200,000 viewers compared with last week, but that’s almost 2 million below its average for last fall’s China-set season.
NBC’s double dose of My Name Is Earl actually ticked up slightly, from 6.4 million last week to this week’s 6.6 million at 8 p.m. and 7.4 million at 8:30 p.m. The CW’s Smallville (4 million) nearly matched its 4.2 million average from last year; Supernatural (3.6 million), meanwhile, kept with the net’s overall upswing this season, beating its 2007-08 average by 400,000.
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Related EW content:
PopWatch: VP debates — Good TV?
PopWatch: Tina Fey as Sarah Palin on SNL season premiere
I’ve long suspected that Julie Meyer was harboring some serious unresolved daddy issues, and this casting scoop pretty much confirms it: When Susan’s now-adult daughter (Andrea Bowen) returns to Wisteria Lane next month, she’ll be bringing along one helluva surprise: boyfriend Steven Weber.
I kid you not.
Sources confirm to me exclusively that Desperate Housewives has cast the ex-Wings man as Julie’s thrice-divorced college professor-turned-lover, whose sudden appearance leads Susan to double her crazy-pill intake.
Lucky for Mom, the happy couple’s visit will be brief; as of now, Weber and (presumably) Bowen are only on board for one episode.
Knee-jerk reaction? Intrigued by this unusual pairing? Or is this Housewives‘ ickiest plot to date? Comment away!
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a super-size edition of Casting Scoops featuring exclusive intel on Saturday Night Live, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Damages, and more!
• Saturday Night Live: On the off chance this weekend’s SNL features a spoof of tonight’s vice presidential slugfest, I can tell you who will be playing PBS moderator Gwen Ifill: Queen Latifah. A well-placed source confirms to me exclusively that SNL has gone ahead and secured Latifah’s services for Saturday’s show. The insider cautions, however, that the debate sketch isn’t 100 percent locked — and a final decision might not come down until Saturday. There’s also no official word as to whether Tina Fey would be back as Palin, but this much I know for sure: If she loved me, she’d do it.
• The New Adventures of Old Christine: Talk about a stretch: Megan Mullally is playing a homophobe! This November, the Emmy-winning Will & Grace laugh riot will guest star on Old Christine as the head of the family values-based organization that owns Christine’s gym. Her character threatens to shut down the fitness center when she learns of Christine and Barb’s marriage.
• Desperate Housewives: Fat Actress‘ Rachael Harris will appear in a November episode of Housewives as a reporter doing a profile on nationally renowned domestic goddess Bree Van De Kamp (Marcia Cross).
• Grey’s Anatomy: I’m happy to report that negotiations between Grey’s and Alias alum Melissa George have produced a signed contract. It remains unclear when exactly George’s bisexual intern will first show up at Seattle Grace, but if I know Shonda Rhimes, it’ll be the precise moment Erica and Callie find true happiness.
• Damages: An Emmy can do wonders for one’s career, but can it also raise the dead? Apparently so! Fresh off his Supporting Actor win as Damages‘ Ray Fiske, who shot and killed himself in last season’s penultimate episode, Zeljko Ivanek has inked a deal to make what my source calls "several appearances" in season 2. Hope Patty Hewes isn’t afraid of ghosts!
Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but it’s looking like ABC and NBC may have made a tactical error by delaying the return of serialized shows like Heroes (pictured) and Pushing Daisies until this season. You remember why they did it, right? After the 100-day strike was resolved in March, ABC and NBC chose to table freshman series like Private Practice, Dirty Sexy Money, and Chuck and re-launch with the rest of the 2008-09 fall lineup. But it’s been almost a year since those shows last aired in prime-time, and they’re now getting the (low) ratings to show for it. On ABC, Practice, the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff, was down 44 percent in viewers Oct. 1 versus its September 2007 debut (14.4 million vs. 8 million), Daisies was down a whopping 52 percent (6.3 million versus 13 million) compared to its series premiere, and Money was down 32 percent (7.1 million versus 10.4 million). The news was just as bad for NBC: Life was down 47 percent (from 18.8 million to 10 million), and Chuck lost 31 percent (6.8 million versus 9.8 million). And not even the sight of a shirtless Mohinder Suresh could stop the bleeding on Heroes, which is already down 41 percent this season (from 16.9 million to 10 million).
Not everybody is singing a sad tune right now, however. Unlike the competition, CBS fired up its regular schedule right after the strike and regained the momentum it lost during the labor dispute. As a result, most of its veteran shows have posted double-digit gains in viewers since returning for the new season: Criminal Minds is up 34 percent, NCIS is up 29 percent, and How I Met Your Mother is up 14 percent.
“Holding back the shows after the strike has certainly has not proven to be the best decision,” concedes Bill Carroll, director of programming for the Katz TV Group. “We are creatures of habit, and when we no longer have the opportunity to watch our favorite show or our new favorite shows, we move on. At this point, viewers have not returned.”
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As we learned on Monday, when we saw low numbers for the returns of NBC’s Chuck (down 26 percent compared to last season’s premiere) and Life (down 30 percent), after long, strike-induced hiatuses, it’s "out of sight, out of mind" for some TV viewers. ABC got a taste of that Wednesday night with the return of Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, and Dirty Sexy Money — all of which had been off the air since December 2007.
According to overnight ratings, Daisies (pictured: Lee Pace) grabbed 6.3 million viewers, down from its season 1 debut (13 million), its season 1 average (8.8 million), and its last original episode (6.8 million). It finished fourth in the 8 p.m. hour, behind Fox’s solid Bones (9.8 million), a Wednesday night new comer that continues to out-perform its averages in last season’s Monday and Tuesday time slots. Daisies also trailed NBC’s Knight Rider (7.6 million), which actually grew its audience by about a million over the course of the hour and bested last week’s season premiere by 3 percent, and CBS’s comedy block of The New Adventures of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried. Christine‘s 6.9 million viewers is a 6 percent improvement from its season premiere, but a 31 percent drop from last season’s average. Jay Mohr‘s Gary Unmarried (7 million) once again built on its lead-in, and was up 2 percent from its series debut. America’s Next Top Model rounded out the hour with 4 million viewers.
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Moving on to the 9 p.m. hour, Private Practice came in third
with 8 million viewers. That’s down from last year’s debut (14.4
million), last season’s average (9.9 million), and its last original
episode (10.4 million) back in December ’07. As ABC is quick to note, however, Practice was
Wednesday night’s top show among adults 18-34 and the key women demos
(18-34 and 18-49). Still, it was CBS’ Criminal Minds that won the hour with
14.5 million viewers, down 15 percent from last week’s season premiere
but still up 21 percent from last season’s average. In second place was the season finale of NBC’s America’s Got Talent, which averaged
12.6 million viewers but naturally grew its audience in the second half
hour (from 11.7 million to 13.4 million). Fox came in fourth with a
block of two new ‘Til Death episodes. The first was seen by 4.7
million viewers, the second by 3.9 million. (FYI: That latter number is
still 276,000 more than what tuned in for the last episode of former
9:30 p.m. time slot holder Do Not Disturb.) The CW had 1.7 million sets of eyes for its encore of Tuesday’s 90210.
As for the 10 p.m., Dirty Sexy Money returned to 7.1 million
viewers to finish second. That’s down from the season 1 premiere (10.4
million) and last season’s average (7.4 million) but actually up 6
percent from its last original episode (6.7 million), which aired in December. CBS’ CSI:NY
dominated the hour with 14.7 million viewers, up about 80,000 viewers
from last week’s season debut and 33 percent from last season’s
average. NBC’s Lipstick Jungle brought up the rear with 5.3
million viewers, down 15 percent from last week’s season opener and 14
percent from its freshman average, when it aired Thursdays.
Daisies, Practice, and Money will likely see their numbers rise somewhat once DVR usage reports come in — though probably no more than about 10 percent. "I wouldn’t put those ABC shows in the strong category," a rival network exec said.
Related content:
Ausiello’s Pushing Daisies scoop
Ausiello’s Private Practice scoop
Dirty Sexy Money behind-the-scenes photos
America’s Next Top Model recap
James Hibberd
@James_Hibberd
Lynette Rice
@EWLynette
