'Saving Grace' will Wrap Up Next Summer, 'St. Elmo's Fire' Coming to TV, Cowell Will Remain on 'Idol' and

To all 'Saving Grace' fans; the show, starring Holly Hunter , will air it's final episodes next summer. It normally runs a 15 episode split season, with 9 to run this winter and 6 the following summer. TNT has added three episodes to the season and will air 9 in the winter and the final 9 in the summer, when TNT gets its best series ratings. The reason for the cancellation does not have anything to do with poor ratings, as it has been averaging 3.5M viewers this summer and more to do with the cost associated with the series. It was offered for a fourth season pick up , but for financial reasons a fourth season offer was not accepted . TNT has promised to wrap up the story lines with a conclusion, which is why three episodes were added to the third and now final season. I'm going to miss it. Holly Hunter is amazing and the show really goes where network tv wouldn't dare go.

Continuing on the trend of 80's movies becoming TV Series, ABC has landed the hour long dramedy series inspired by 'St Elmo's Fire'. It will take off from the movie and introduce six new friends, 3 boys and 3 girls. It will take place in Georgetown and St. Elmo's Bar & Restaurant will become St. Elmo's Bar & Grill. Schumaker, one of the original films co-writers and director, is said to be on board. I'm curious as to who they will cast in these rolse. I'm also curious how well received 80's movie revival 'Parenthood' and 'Witches of Eastwick' will be received this coming season. It will be a good predictor to determine how well the TV revival of classic 'St Elmo's Fire' may be received.

Simon Cowell is wrapping up his deal with 'American Idol' to remain as a judge for 3 more seasons. Honestly, if you lost Cowell it just wouldn't be 'American Idol' and I feel it would have taken a slip down the other side of the ratings mountain, if you know what I mean. I'm curious to see how the exit of Paula Abdul will play out with audiences this coming year. We shall see.

'True Blood' Hits Record, 'I'm A Celebrity' Commentary, TNT's 'Hawthorne, '24' Adds New Cast Member , CW Premiere Dates & More

I have been watching 'I'm a Celebrity' although not with any regularity. It's more like when I have nothing else to watch I'll watch it. I am interested in how it all ends, so that is what is keeping me slightly interested. The viewing public is not really having a love affair with the show either, as it is only pulling in 4.7M viewers on average (as of last showing). Not so great.

While I was watching 'Celebrity' last night I kept going back to my first week impression of how the camp looked like it was on a sound stage a lot of the time. I couldn't help but note some very distinct differences between 'Survivor' and 'Celebrity' particularly when they showed the "ninjas", as Patty called them, coming into camp in the middle of the night (3am actually) to wrangle a snake that had wandered into the campsite. Captions for the crew read "On-site security". I wondered to myself, do the 'Survivor' camp members have on site security to wrangle wild and potentially poisonous animals off in the middle the night? Because they never do show such a thing. And why show such a thing? Are you trying to convince us that you are really in the jungle or that our "celebrities" are facing dangers and conditions well beyond what they would ever experience in their celebrity life? Kind of a little over dramatization. Trying too hard perhaps? It just seemed very "campy", no pun intended. There is just something about this entire show that really lacks in how genuine it is. 'Survivor' feels genuine. This show just doesn't. Even if they are in the jungle, I wonder how much they are really roughing it. Even with the food challenges, the losers still get rice and beans. The contestants on 'Survivor' get nilch if they can't fend for themselves. Not that this needs to be like 'Survivor' exactly, but when you have a show like 'Survivor' and you put a bunch of celebrities into camp with far more luxuries than the 'Survivor' contestants could ever dream of, it's just lackluster. It's like the cheapened version of an excellent show. I think that is one of the reasons the American public is just not buying it. It's lame in comparison.

Last night I DVR'd and then watched Hawthorne on TNT. I liked it. There is a lot there and it held my interest about exactly who Hawthorne is, what happened to her husband (why did her daughter say she let her dad die?). It opened well with solid ratings of 3.83M viewers. Looking good for Hawthorne. It was followed by the third season of Saving Grace, which I also watched and is one of my faves. Holly Hunter is a genious in that role. It retained 97% of the audience out of Hawthorne and it's average viewers last night was higher than it's second season overall average. Looks good for Saving Grace.


While I was watching 'Hawthorne' I couldn't help note the differences (and some of the similarities) between 'Hawthorn'e and 'Nurse Jackie'. Obvious differences are it's tone. 'Nurse Jackie' is a darker feel, more gritty (language and overall bluntness) than most medical series on TV. 'Hawthorne' is , of course lighter. But, then Showtime can take more liberties in their story telling than TNT can. One similarity is the student nurse that is obvious and present. In the fall we will be getting a third medical show that follows nurses with 'Mercy' from NBC (which I blogged about back in May when reviewing the up coming medical shows from the networks this fall). Just a little note, 'Nurse Jackie' ratings were up 8% this week.


'True Blood' from HBO premiered it's second season. I blogged awhile back about how I wanted to add HBO to my cable package. Funny thing is, I got a call the other day offering me HBO and Cinemax for 6 months for $6.95! They must have read my mind. Unfortunately I didn't catch all of season 1 of 'True Blood' in time before they yanked the season 1 from the On Demand list. So, I haven't watched the episodes from Season 2 yet. Good news is that I can catch season 1 on DVD and I will because the episodes I did see of season 1 were excellent. It averaged 3.7M viewers and was the most watched series on the network since the 'Sopranos'. I have to catch up because I'm missing some good TV by not being in the loop!



In other news, '24' has gained actor Clayne Crawford in the role of a bad boy from Dana Walsh's (Katee Sackhoff) past. She is the character I blogged about a few weeks back who will be the expert CTU analyst involved with Freddie Prinze Jr.'s character. Rick Worthy (Battlestar Galatica) is in negotiations to join the 'Heroes' cast.

And the last bit of news for the day; the CW will launch it's fall season starting on September 8th. Premiere dates are ;


Tuesday, Sept. 8
8:00-9:00 p.m. "90210" (Season Premiere)
9:00-10:00 p.m. "Melrose Place" (Series Premiere)

Wednesday, Sept. 9
8:00-10:00 p.m. "America's Next Top Model" (2-Hour Season Premiere)

Thursday, Sept. 10
8:00-9:00 p.m. "The Vampire Diaries" (Series Premiere)
9:00-10:00 p.m. "Supernatural" (Season Premiere)

Monday, Sept. 14
8:00-9:00 p.m. "One Tree Hill" (Season Premiere)
9:00-10:00 p.m. "Gossip Girl" (Season Premiere)

Wednesday, Sept. 16
8:00-9:00 p.m. "America's Next Top Model"
9:00-10:00 p.m. "The Beautiful Life: TBL" (Series Premiere)

Friday, Sept. 25
8:00-9:00 p.m. "Smallville" (Season Premiere)
9:00-10:00 p.m. "America's Next Top Model" (Encore Episodes)

Don't forget 'Wipeout' tonight followed by ' I Survived A Japanese Game Show' and ' So You Think You Can Dance'. BTW.. my predictions of who would go home last week were right on.

'Raising the Bar' ratings down, 'Nurse Jackie' Picked up for 2nd Season & More

TNT's Closer had a great opening this past Monday, according to news on THR.com. 'Raising the Bar', however, dropped 53%. Uh oh. I really do like' Raising the Bar'. Man , I wish Nielsen would come into my home.

I finally caught up and watched 'Nurse Jackie 'the other day (episodes 1 and 2 on Demand). I like it, and apparently so does the rest of the country. It was Showtime's most watched season premiere ever. As a result, 'Nurse Jackie' was already picked up for a second season. If you missed it, it's really gritty and probably the most "real" medical drama out there. Has a nice dark humor. Showtime seems to do dark humor quite well ('Dexter' has some humor and 'United States of Tara' ). What you'll find interesting is that Nurse Jackie had 1.35M viewers see it's premiere (it actually had 1M at it's first showing, and 1.35M at it's repeat hour), and it was picked up. Meanwhile shows on network stations that get 5M viewers are canceled. Interesting huh?

Fox is creating a reality series called 'More to Love' to be hosted by the plus size model Emma. It will be a dating show for "average people". Ah.. refreshing change. Getting bored with watching Barbie & Ken dolls on the 'Bachelor & Bachelorette'. There are some other dating/relationship type shows coming this fall , including 'The Marriage Ref' on NBC, 'Arranged Marriage' on CBS and 'Dating in the Dark' from ABC this summer (July 20Th). The one that truly sounds the most interesting is 'The Marriage Ref' from Jerry Seinfeld. It's being billed as an unscripted look at marriage as celebrities, comedians and sport stars decide who is right and who is wrong in disputes of real life everyday couples. That should be fun. Perhaps if my husband and I have a squabble I'll call them. I'd love for them to send me some of my favorite celebrities to tell me I'm right (wink , wink). Wonder if they take requests and if so could they send Brad Pitt?

I'm looking forward to 'So You Think You Can Dance' tonight on Fox. ABC is giving us a special treat of 2 back to back new 'Wipeout' episodes due to the' Goode Family' being booted to Friday (TV death slot as a result of poor ratings). FYI , the 'I Survived A Japanese Game Show' premiere has been moved up to June 17Th from the original July 8Th premiere date to fill in for the moved 'Goode Family'.

Remember When Summer TV was full of RERUNS?

Do you remember when the summer meant that there was at least 3 months where there was nothing but re-runs on TV? Before the days of the DVR, it was a great chance for you to get those shows you couldn't fit into your schedule when they re-ran. (At least that's what I used to do). I remember back in 1991 when FOX put Beverly Hills 90210 on in the summer and gave us a special Summer Season. That was the start of what has become a flock of summer shows!

TNT is really heavy on some good solid shows over the summer that also happens to run in the winter. I noticed that their seasons are "shorter" but more frequent and not as much time passes between their "season finale" and their new season. At least that is the case when it comes to shows like The Closer and Saving Grace. Raising the Bar did have a longer wait period between seasons as did Leverage. All of these shows are returning this summer.
Monday Night:
The Closer at 9pm followed by Raising the Bar a 10pm (EST)
Tuesday Night:
Hawthorne (new) at 9pm followed by Saving Grace at 10pm
Leverage and the new show Dark Blue will be on Wednesday at 9pm and 10pm respectively.

Two of my favorite from last summer are coming back. The hilarious Wipeout (ABC 5/27). I've had spontaneous bursts of silly laughter while watching people .. well wipe out. The commentary those two hosts make along with the drawings are just so silly it's hysterical - like milk shooting out of your nose funny . And then there is I Survived A Japanese Game Show (ABC 7/8). Of course, America's Got Talent on NBC is also returning on 6/23 and So You Think you Can Dance (LOVE that show) on FOX, is already under way. I can't wait to see more Mia Michael's choreographed routines. She is my favorite of all the choreographers. Her dances are amazing!

And then there is my ULTIMATE FAVORITE summer guilty pleasure BIG BROTHER on CBS returning in JULY! My mom and I watch that religiously. She even subscribes to the feed. She's fortunate to have a job that she can listen to the streaming feed while she works..LOL.. then she spills all the stuff to me on the phone later. I could technically since I"m at home, but I have a lot to do during the day and spend the time outdoors with my little man and watching a feed like that all day is a little over the top for me, especially when I could be outdoors in the beautiful summer weather. Getting the juicy stuff from my mom though, makes a difference. You totally view each of the housemates in a different light because there just isn't enough time to show all of their high jinx!

The rest of the summer landscape is a lot of reality and fluff TV from the networks. Although the Great American Road Trip on NBC sounds interesting.. especially for those of us foregoing a vacation in this economy. We can live vicariously through the TV families that will be..well taking that Road Trip across the U.S while competing against each other. I'm a Celebrity Get me Out of Here on NBC, while it sounds kind of cool, I have a feeling we'll get bored with it early. My husband is excited to watch that though. Dating in the Dark, on ABC also sounds interesting but pretty cheesy. We get to watch as people date each other over a course of a few weeks.. you got it, in the dark. At the end of the show the lights will come on and they'll have to decide whether they want to see each other or not. Shows like that are like train wrecks. You know their wrong, but you just want to watch to see what's going to happen. I'm not one for Cartoon family shows ala Simpsons and The Family Guy so I'm probably going to skip The Goode Family. Since I'm not much into sports, I'm probably going to also skip The Superstars.. both from ABC

I'm looking forward to The Listener on NBC and the Philanthropist. Not so sure how I feel about Merlin also from NBC.

I hear True Blood is going to be back on HBO this summer.. I really need to subscribe to HBO. but gave it up for Showtime because my husband LOVES Dexter (yeah.. it's pretty awesome) and I love the United Sates of Tara. I did watch he first season of True Blood and found it pretty cool. I may just add HBO to my subscription.

And my DVR thought it was going to get a vacation!