Image Credit: Scott Green/NBC
Grimm wraps up its sophomore season tonight with a continuation of the undead-tastic storyline that started in last week’s episode: The Grimm version of zombies are spreading mayhem in Portland.
Reg E. Cathey (The Wire, House of Cards) returns as the pufferfish-like Wesen character based on Haitian Voodoo’s Baron Samedi, and we haven’t seen the last of his infectious green spit that is turning Portlanders into zombie-like creatures. READ FULL STORY »
All season long, Criminal Minds has been teasing the arrival of The Replicator, and this Wednesday on the two-hour season finale, we’ll finally be able to put a face to the name. But first, the Hotchner brothers are going to find themselves dealing with a tricky situation.
As you can see in this exclusive preview from the episode, Hotchner is called away from a seemingly lovely reunion with Beth (guest star Bellamy Young of Scandal) after receiving an urgent call from his younger brother, Sean, who may have gotten himself mixed up in a crime. (Per the episode description, Sean’s predicament will likely tie into a string of ecstasy-related deaths.)
Watch that below: READ FULL STORY »
The Voice
Contestant coach and country artist Blake Shelton and his wife, singer Miranda Lambert, will perform a duet dedicated to their home state of Oklahoma. The song will be performed at the top of the show, which gets underway at 9 p.m. ET. NBC isn’t releasing the song’s title, but we’re told it’s a tune that’s “close to their hearts.” The performance will be accompanied by an on-screen number for American Red Cross donations.
NBC’s The Voice recap was scheduled as a lead-in to the live show at 8 p.m. but will be pre-empted tonight. Instead, the broadcaster will run an NBC News special covering the tragedy hosted by Brian Williams live from Oklahoma.
Monday night’s Voice addressed the disaster, as well. Shelton expressed his feelings about the headlines and The Swon Brothers (who are from Oklahoma) imparted well-wishes too, along with host Carson Daly and Christina Milian giving call-outs for viewers to donate to the Red Cross.
Image Credit: Sam Urdank/Fox
Mother’s Day was more than a week ago, and Father’s Day is still a few weeks away, but now is the perfect time to recognize two of the most amusing, least attentive parents around: the chilly, vodka-rocked Lucille Bluth (Jessica Walter), and unscrupulous fallen real-estate titan George Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor), who was just here a minute ago but seems to have disappeared. The pair — along with those seven other maladjusted family members — return to comedic duty on May 26, as Netflix releases 15 new episodes of Arrested Development, with each installment catching us up to speed on a particular family member.
Check out our behind-the-scenes story of how this beloved comedy came back to life, and scroll down for bonus quotes from Walter and Tambor, who understood the questions and responded to them.
On how optimistic they were that the show would be revived in some form
TAMBOR: “Even when there wasn’t much murmuring going around, I always said that [we would reunite]. And I always believed it…. It seemed to get stronger after we left the air, and people old and young seemed to be able to recite it backward and forward, so, I mean, just do the math. You’d have to be pretty callous for it not to go forward.” READ FULL STORY »
Bazinga: CBS has overthrown Fox to win the 2012-13 broadcast season among the coveted adults 18-49 demographic. With only two nights left in the season, CBS claimed victory Tuesday given its insurmountable lead. The win snaps Fox’s unprecedented eight-year winning streak.
Among total viewers, CBS has led the broadcast field for years, ranking No. 1 during 10 of the past 11 seasons. But this is the first time CBS has won in the 18-49 demo in 21 years. CBS would even win the season if you excluded the network’s high-flying Super Bowl coverage. The network claims nine of the top 15 scripted prime-time programs, including Big Bang Theory, NCIS and Person of Interest.
During a press breakfast for reporters last week, CBS Corp. CEO Les Moonves relished the current standings. Yet CBS only deserves partial credit for its ranking. The network maintained roughly the same ratings as last year — which is certainly no easy task in an era of increasing DVR use, streaming and competition from cable networks. But it was Fox declining 22 percent due to softening American Idol popularity and other factors that gave CBS the trophy.
Fox hopes to surge back next season with its new schedule, including the promising J.J. Abrams-produced action-drama Almost Human, and the use of short-order limited series, including a rebooted 24. The Idol judges panel will be firmed-up over the next couple months, and last night Fox announced an experienced new judges panel for The X Factor.
The rest: NBC slipped slightly this season. But if you were to remove the Super Bowl from its average last year, NBC would have actually been up thanks to The Voice boosting its fall (and despite a rather spectacular midseason ratings crash). ABC also fell, and this fall rolls out a whooping eight new shows. Here’s how ratings stack up this season with only a couple days left on the clock: READ FULL STORY »
Missed The Voice‘s top 10 contestants performing last night? You’ll have to catch the show online: EW had confirmed that instead of tonight’s planned Voice recap episode, NBC will air a live special focused on the devastating tornado that killed at least 24 people and leveled dozens of homes, a hospital, and at least two schools in Oklahoma on Monday. 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: WireImage.com
ABC has signed judges, cast and a host for its new competition series Sing Your Face Off, and it’s quite a unique collection of famous names.
First, actor John Barrowman (Torchwood, Arrow) will host the show, where five celebrity contestants take on the identity of an iconic music performer each week.
The judges are former Saturday Night Live cast member Darrell Hammond and pop singer Debbie Gibson.
And the show’s contestants learning to perform the hits of famous music stars are ex-Skid Row frontman and heavy metal singer Sebastian Bach, comedian Jon Lovitz, Toronto Raptors player Landry Fields, teenage Disney Channel actress-singer China Anne McClain and former soap star Lisa Rinna. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Rowland: Bravo; Lovato, Cowell: Fox; Rubio: Getty
Simon Cowell is going to be outnumbered on The X Factor this fall, but somehow we suspect he won’t mind.
Fox has confirmed our Friday near-deal exclusive report that Destiny’s Child founding member Kelly Rowland and Latin singer Paulina Rubio will be the new Factor judges for season three. They’ll join executive producer-judge Cowell and his fellow lone surviving panelist from last season, pop singer Demi Lovato.
Yes: It’s Simon and three talented attractive women. The combination is certain to prompt some smirking, but the move makes Factor the first major U.S. broadcast singing competition series to have a female majority on its panel. The ensemble also targets a diverse collection of music fans of varying ages: Lovato (age 20) is a current pop singer, Rowland (32) leans toward R&B, and Rubio (41) sings Latin dance music. And of course Cowell (53) lends his experience as a music producer, reality TV icon and talent spotter.
“It’s taken more than a decade but I’m delighted to finally be on a panel with three girls (I think!),” said Cowell in a statement. “Paulina and Kelly both have great taste and massive experience in the music industry and together with Demi, this is going to be a fun panel. It just feels like the time to do something different.”
Another plus: The new hires have prior experience judging a major music competition series (unlike, say, ex-X Factor judge Britney Spears, or American Idol‘s Nicki Minaj or Mariah Carey). Rowland was a judge on the UK version of X Factor, while Rubio judged the Mexican version of The Voice. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Eric Ogden/TNT
During last week’s Upfronts presentations, Turner networks TNT and TBS announced that they will become the first entertainment networks to live stream content nationwide across multiple platforms 24/7. Cable subscribers will be able to watch a simulcast of the two networks’ programming via apps currently called TNT and TBS that will soon be rebranded as Watch TNT and Watch TBS.
Turner (which, like EW, is owned by TimeWarner) already streams live content for its networks CNN, HLN, and Cartoon Network, though only CNN and HLN stream 24/7. News and sports were among the first types of programming Turner made available live. Jeremy Legg, Turner SVP of business development and multi-platform distribution told EW that “it got to the point where we felt like the market was mature enough that we bring the next set of content online. So our general entertainment networks were the next logical place to begin streaming. This is in some ways the last set of streaming that we’re doing rather than the first…. It’s obvious to us that consumers want to be able to access our content on these other platforms.” READ FULL STORY »
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.
Image Credit: Jojo Whilden/HBO; AP
Don’t let the title fool you — this film is not about Ali taking down Frazier. As it turns out, Muhammad Ali’s greatest fight was not in the ring.
Written by Shawn Slovo and directed by Stephen Frears, Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight tells the story of Ali’s famous courtroom battle. After being drafted to the Vietnam War, Ali claimed conscientious objector status on religious grounds, which therefore lead to years of dodging punches from the U.S. judicial system before finally facing the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971.But Frears’ latest film takes the focus away from Ali and puts the camera on the nine Supreme Court justices, lead by Christopher Plummer’s John Harlan and Frank Langella’s Warren Burger, who took on the case. READ FULL STORY »
James Hibberd
@James_Hibberd
Lynette Rice
@EWLynette
