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CBS just added another comedy to its 2013-14 primetime roster.
The network announced today that it has ordered Bad Teacher, a single-camera comedy that’s based on the 2011 Cameron Diaz film of the same name.
Here’s the official logline: “Bad Teacher stars Ari Graynor as an always inappropriate, fearless and unapologetic former trophy wife who masquerades as a teacher in order to find a new man after her wealthy husband leaves her penniless.”
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FX has greenlit a single-camera pilot called The Comedians that will star Billy Crystal as a veteran joke teller who is paired with a younger and edgier performer for a late-night sketch show.
The pilot, which will begin shooting this summer, is based on a Swedish format of the same name from Stockholm-based Efti AB. Larry Charles (Seinfeld) will direct and executive produce the pilot. Other EPS are Matt Nix (Burn Notice), Ben Wexler (Community, Arrested Development) and Crystal.
“It truly is an honor to be in business with Billy Crystal and Larry Charles, two of the all-time greats in comedy,” said FX Topper John Landgraf in a statement. “We have also wanted for some time to be in business with Matt Nix, who has done such an amazing job creating and running Burn Notice. They, along with Ben Wexler, are an unbeatable team and we’re incredibly excited about this project.”
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Scream 4 star Emma Roberts is the latest star to sign up for the third installment of Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story—this year subtitled Coven. Roberts will play a party girl named Madison, according to TVLine, which first broke the news.
Roberts will be joining her real-life boyfriend Evan Peters on the series along with Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, Patti Lupone, Taissa Farmiga, Gabourey Sidibe, Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe, and Frances Conroy. Murphy has also worked with Emma’s aunt, Julia Roberts, previously on Eat Pray Love and will be directing her in his adaptation of The Normal Heart for HBO.
Read more:
‘American Horror Story’: Angela Bassett and Patti LuPone join season 3′s ‘Coven’
‘American Horror Story’: ‘Precious’ star Gabourey Sidibe signs on for season 3
‘American Horror Story’ and ‘The Big Bang Theory’ lead Critics Choice nominees
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In anticipation of CBS’ May 28 tribute to Jeanne Cooper, the longtime star of The Young and the Restless who died at 84, EW obtained this exclusive photo of Jess Walton (Jill Foster Abbott), seen above with costar Michelle Stafford (Phyllis Summers Newman), from the special. We also talked to Walton about shooting it and what she remembers about her beloved costar.
“We tell the audience what we are about to do in the special and then five different groups talk about her. What was really funny was how much we all had in common. Kristoff St. John was a little pissed off because he thought he had a special relationship with her and it turns out everybody had a special relationship with her. She had the power to make everyone feel so special. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Adam Taylor/ABC
But Kellie Pickler was so popular!
In the end, though, the allure of the pixie-haired hoofer wasn’t enough: Tuesday’s two-hour finale of Dancing with the Stars only earned a 2.6 rating/7 share in adults 18-49, down 21% from last year’s spring results (3.3/9 on May 22, 2012) to become the lowest-rated finale in the franchise’s history, according to Nielsen. Since the show averaged 14.9 million viewers, ABC came in first for the night in eyeballs but second in the demo behind NBC, which was buoyed by The Voice.
Speaking of which: NBC’s singing competition, which earned a 3.1/9, was down 11 percent versus last week but it still ruled at 9 (where it averaged 9.9 million). It was preceded by a special about Oklahoma (2.0/6, 8.1 million) and followed by the Grimm finale (1.7/5, up 6% from last year, 5.2 million).
Fox came in third with a two-hour installment of So You Think You Can Dance (1.9/6, 4.5 million) while CBS trailed in fourth with a bunch of pesky NCIS repeats.
CBS closed a new deal with The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing to keep the annual Tony Awards broadcast on CBS through 2018.
The awards show, which honors theater pros for their work on Broadway, has been on CBS for the past 35 years. The 67th Annual Tonys will air live from Radio City Music Hall on June 9. Neil Patrick Harris returns as host.
“The Tony Awards give viewers across the country the opportunity to experience the excitement of Broadway theater from their very own living rooms,” said Jack Sussman, CBS’ Executive Vice President, Specials, Music and Live Events, in a statement. “We’re pleased to renew our commitment to the performing arts and look forward to continuing this great and long-standing partnership by bringing the best of Broadway to primetime television for many years to come.”
And baby makes … a whole new season of antics for Keeping Up With The Kardashians, which returns for its eighth (!!!) season on June 2.
E! is obviously hoping any fresh intrigue over Kim’s life change will help launch a new series at 10 p.m. called The Wanted Life, which follows the U.K. band The Wanted as they live together in the Hollywood Hills and “take on all that LA has to offer.”
Here are sneak peeks of both shows: READ FULL STORY »
Oops! Technical difficulties with voting on Monday temporarily forced Dancing with the Stars to divert fans from the network website to social media to pick this season’s winner.
Voting on ABC.com is temporarily down,” the show tweeted Monday on its official site. “But you can vote by texting, calling and on Facebook.”
The website was eventually restored and the hoofers hit Twitter in force to encourage voting to resume. “Facebook and abc.com are back online,” Zendaya tweeted. “Don’t forget to vote that way too…u register with email then u will get 5 votes!!”
The finale is tonight on ABC. A network spokesman said the snafu was caught early and shouldn’t affect the outcome.
On May 8, NBC faced problems of its own when fans couldn’t vote for their favorite crooners on The Voice. Fans trying to vote online and via text message had difficulty casting their votes via the show’s vote-tallying company, Telescope. The network insisted the issues would not have resulted in a different outcome on the show.
TV recap: ‘Dancing with the Stars’
‘Dancing with the Stars’: So, who should win?
In response to Monday’s Oklahoma City tornado, which had killed over 50 people at press time, Dancing With the Stars host Tom Bergeron requested that the audience not applaud coming back from a commercial break during season 16′s final performance show (read full recap).
“Here’s why,” Bergeron said, on the verge of tears. “We’re a live show, and as such, occasionally we go to air in the shadow of tragic events. That happened April 15, when we went to air hours after the Boston bombing. And it’s happened again today. While we’re having a celebration here [in the ballroom], we want you to know our thoughts are with everyone who’s been affected by the devastating tornado in Oklahoma City.”
“I would, however, ask you to applaud the amazing courage of the first responders on site,” Bergeron added, visibly shaken before introducing the next dance.
Update: At 10 p.m. ET, the hosts announced that voting on ABC.com was “temporarily down” and directed fans to vote via phone or Facebook instead. As of 6 a.m. ET, ABC.com voting is still down. It’s Facebook or bust. The official voting period ends at 11 a.m. ET.
‘Dancing With the Stars’: Who should win season 16? — POLL
Read more:
All ‘DWTS’ recaps on EW.com
‘DWTS’: All Hidden Gems of the Week
Image Credit: Monty Brinton/CBS
CBS has decided to pull tonight’s season finale of Mike & Molly, which talks about a tornado hitting Chicago (though no devastation was going to be shown).
“Due to the tragic events this afternoon in Oklahoma, we are pre-empting tonight’s season finale of Mike & Molly, which has a related storyline,” said a CBS spokesman. “A repeat broadcast of Mike & Molly will run in the time period. The season finale will be broadcast at an appropriate date.”
Two men died after severe weather on Sunday triggered a frightening wave of tornadoes across Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois and Iowa.
NBC has ordered a scripted series for summer about a reality show gone way bad.
Siberia, which will bow July 1 at 10 p.m., is about a group of contestants who arrive in a remote Siberian territory of Tunguska where a meteor hit back in 1908. When a player is badly hurt and no help arrives, the 16 contestants realize the strange occurrences on the island are not part of the show.
“The concept of survival, when mysterious elements are at play, makes for a compelling show,” said Jeff Bader, President, Program Planning, Strategy and Research for NBC Entertainment, in a statement. “We believe a scripted series that offers an insightful behind-the-scenes view of how a reality concept comes together — especially when things don’t go according to plan — will connect with our audience in a very satisfying way.”
Done. The fates of pilots and returning shows are sealed. The new fall schedule has been revealed. And the week of network sales presentations to advertisers is over. Here’s some of the best and worst of the past week and what it means for this fall.
Highest concept (figuratively): Mixology — a sitcom where the entire series takes place during one night in a bar. Cheers only felt like that.
Highest concept (literally): Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. You see that trippy trailer? Might as well call it the Bong Hit Fairy Tale Hour.
Most-deserved cancellation: Where to start? Animal Practice, Guys with Kids, Partners, Do No Harm, The Mob Doctor, Golden Boy, and a bunch of others that are already fading from memory.
Least-deserved cancellation: Probably Happy Endings — not because ratings were good enough to continue (they weren’t), just because of the passion fans feel for the show. Also: Go On? Only because we feel sorry for Matthew Perry.
Luckiest show: Nikita. With only 1.4 million viewers (including DVR), fans are fortunate that The CW continues to give its showrunners a chance to craft an ending (and sister-studio Warner Bros. a chance to make a six-episode order worthwhile). In contrast, CBS wouldn’t even let CSI: NY shoot a one-episode finale for a drama that’s been on for nine seasons and averaged 11.2 million viewers. Have a nice life, Gary Sinise!
Luckiest show runner-up: NBC’s Community.
Luckiest actor: Zooey Deschanel. New Girl may be down in the ratings, but it’s getting Fox’s post-Super Bowl slot.
Smug mother-f—ers: CBS.
Desperate motherf—ers: ABC.
Pouty motherf—-ers: NBC.
Manly motherf—-ers: Fox.
Repetitive motherf—-ers: The CW.
Biggest Trend (industry): Shorter seasons. The nets are finally catching up to what cable nets have done for years by ordering fewer episodes and stacking them in clusters to avoid repeats. Examples include CBS’ decision to air back-to-back runs of the new drama Hostages (pictured above) followed by the Josh Holloway-starrer Intelligence, and ABC clustering serialized shows like Grey’s Anatomy into 12-episode batches.
Biggest Trends (content): CBS-style cop dramas (two with robots!), and comedies about boomerang kids.
Biggest stealth cancellation: The Dancing With the Stars results show, which got merged into the performance show.
Show we’re glad got cancelled but wish one of its stars would stay: The New Normal, and Ellen Barkin.
Pilots the interwebs were most surprised didn’t make it: Beverly Hills Cop, Delirium, Backstrom, The Sixth Gun, Mulaney.
Most offensive trailer: Fox’s Dads, which comes courtesy of Family Guy creator (and professional misogynist) Seth MacFarlane.
Best original show title: Mom. (Shocking that such a simple but effective moniker has never been used before). Also: Intelligence and Almost Human.
NEXT: Worst new show title, best/worst scheduling moves and presentations
On June 23, high wire artist Nik Wallenda will do a tightrope walk across the Grand Canyon live on Discovery — without a safety net or tether. Below, we have an exclusive first look at a bio video in which Wallenda explains why he doesn’t consider himself a daredevil (he started walking the wire when he was 2) and drops some words to live by (“Fear is choice; danger is real…. you can decide if you’re scared of something or not” ). If just seeing him sit on the ground with his feet dangling over the edge makes you a bit queasy, imagine what you’ll be feeling next month. READ FULL STORY »
James Hibberd
@James_Hibberd
Lynette Rice
@EWLynette
