Just because Tracy Morgan took Thursday night off from the late night circuit does not mean that last night's afterhours programming was devoid of crazy. In fact, Jimmy Kimmel upped the circus freak show quotient by parading two once-washed-up talents around on his show. First, Huey Lewis, for his best work onscreen since Duets and then Freddie Prinze Jr., who gamely poked fun at his rom-com resume and his Scooby Doo career-suicide. Those moments, as well as the others you missed last night while considering a career change, after the jump.
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When news broke that the creators of Will & Grace sold a sitcom pilot to CBS based -- of all things! -- on a Twitter feed called Shit My Dad Says, it rocked the Hollywood firmament. Forget sitcoms about nothing. This was a sitcom about less than nothing -- borne out of 50 odd tweets, allegedly transcribed by the live-at-home son of a salty old-timer with a functional knowledge of 21st Century pop culture and a flair for kvetchy philosophizing. (Here's our FAQ on the subject.) But who could serve lines like, "I like the dog. If he can't eat it, or f*ck it, he pisses on it. I can get behind that" with just the right cocktail of lovable fuddyduddyness and a dash of bitters? How about William Shatner.
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Instead of painting buildings in Jay Leno's likeness and polluting small-town movie theaters with popcorn tubs emblazoned with the comedian's mug, NBC is tiptoeing towards its Jay Leno premiere this time around. Last night, during the network's record-breaking Winter Olympics coverage, NBC premiered a single Tonight Show spot, a cheeky reference to its hundred-million dollar Jay Leno Show campaign last summer.
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· For the first time in six years, Fox's ratings juggernaut American Idol fell short of No. 1. The top spot went instead to NBC, whose coverage of the Vancouver Olympics was helped thanks to several of the country's favorite athletes who performed on Wednesday, including Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn and Shani Davis. According to early audience numbers, 30.1 million Americans tuned into NBC at the 9 PM hour, compared to Fox's 18.4 million. Last night, American won six gold medals. (Photo credit: Getty) [Reuters]
Simon Cowell clears up those Howard Stern rumors, the CW finds its new Nikita, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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While approximately 400,000 Betty White fans still wait for golden smoke to rise from the chimney of Rockefeller Center, Tina Fey has already staked a Saturday Night Live hosting visit in April. Her episode will be timed to the April 9 release of Date Night, her romantic comedy with Steve Carell, and will "probably" include a Sarah Palin skit. Fey last hosted the show in February 2008 with special guest Steve Martin. [AP]
Ladies and ladyboys, your top 24! What a long, mantis-necked trip it's been. The important thing isn't whether any of the newest success stories are surprises (which is lucky, because there are no surprises here), but whether we even like these people at all. Idol blew through these 17 wins in 60 minutes, so let's see if we can judge them in even less time. How about, say, four minutes?
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NBC may have ousted Jimmy Fallon this week for the Winter Olympics, but there were more than enough past and present Saturday Night Live cast members on last night's late night circuit to make up for his absence. The NBC reps included Abby Elliott and Tracy Morgan, who displayed both his crazy and his heartbreakingly sincere sides during two very different segments. Click through for those clips as well as the other highlights you missed last night while trying to comprehensively consume everything in that vending machine.
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· A day after announcing that Steven Spielberg is considering returning to the dinosaur biz, NBC has excavated the director's Nine Lives project, which was originally greenlighted by Syfy (then Sci Fi) four years ago as a miniseries. The project, written by Les Bohem (Nowhere to Run), revolves around a group of people who find a way to reunite with their loved ones in the afterlife through near-death experiences, but those journeys unleash an evil force. NBC will decide whether to push Nine Lives directly-to-series after Bohem rewrites the script. [THR]
Spike TV gambles on a sex-addicted golf caddy named Tiger, another Better Off Ted star finds pilot work, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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Has it blown your mind during the final season of Lost to see familiar, long-gone faces like Boone, Dr. Arzt, Helen, Frogurt, Claire, that one guy from that one episode, Rose, the pilot, Mac from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia for some reason, and Bernard? Well, a pair of casting announcements today will scramble those blown-up mind pieces even further.
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With the Olympic coverage preempting all late night programming on NBC, CBS and ABC were left to scavenge guest line-ups that could possibly compete with Johnny Weir's underrated men's short program and American snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis's tragic disqualification. The resulting line-up? For the Late Night with David Letterman, it was dogs who jump rope and Ben Kingsley. For Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Michael Emerson of Lost. Those clips, as well as the other highlights you missed while running around naked watching The Real Housewives of Atlanta , after the jump.
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Ryan Seacrest clogged our lives with 120 minutes of redundant announcements last night. Over eight seasons I've grown to love this abuse, which means I need a pamphlet from the doctor's office, and now. Seacrest started off several narrations with versions of the following tease: "There are three rooms full of contestants here... and some of them... are going... to be on American Idol... which is the show... they are on... right now." Downright Hitchcockian, the suspense here. Except Simon Fuller didn't follow through by throwing birds and cropdusters at Kara DioGuardi. That's the thriller I want, SimFu! The two-hour show saw seven contestants move on to the Top 24, and Movieline's estimation of their potential is just as moving as Ellen DeGeneres's ability to tolerate Kara's hopeless puns. Spoilers ahead!
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NBC unveiled the new and improved Tonight Show with Jay Leno logo yesterday -- a slightly more sophisticated graphic than the pre-Conan version. NBC also revealed that production designers are hard at work transforming The Jay Leno Show's Studio 11 at NBC Studios Burbank into a new Tonight Show set. A set that a few lucky Leno fans will be able to see, thanks to an airfare giveaway for the first taping on March 1. Meanwhile, it is unclear what will happen to Conan's ravaged Tonight Show set at Universal Studios. [NBC]
· For the first time since 1997's The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg is contemplating dinosaurs, this time for an ambitious Fox drama series. The project, called Terra Nova, revolves around a family from 100 years in the future who travel back in time 150 million years to the strange and inhospitable environs of prehistoric Earth. The series would involve such expensive sets and VFX that 20th Century Fox TV is considering going ahead with a series order because it would be too costly to shut down between pilot and episodic production. The script was penned by Craig Silverstein (Bones) and British writer Kelly Marcel. Although no formal deals have been made, Spielberg could end up exec producing alongside Aaron Kaplan, Peter Chernin and Dreamworks figures Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank. [Variety]
Eugene Levy dusts off his pilot tracksuit, Poppy Montgomery finds a new cop drama, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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We had to delay our weekly interview with the newly eliminated Project Runway contestant thanks to the show's climactic Bryant Park showing on Friday. Thankfully, we're back on track today with our newest interview, an in-depth look at a designer who ended up working with a male-form mannequin thanks to poor production planning. We also addressed fellow contestant Jesus Estrada's damning comments, and the problem with trusting a certain silver-haired mentor.
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The CW has issued five predictable series renewals today, to The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, 90210, Supernatural and America's Next Top Model. The freshman Vampire Diaries is the network's most-watched show, averaging over four million viewers. Among the shows still holding their breath are the poorly received Melrose Place, One Tree Hill, Life Unexpected and Smallville, which if picked up, would enter its 10th season next fall. [THR]
