On the back of 700 job cuts, NBC’s chief exec for TV, Jeff Zucker says that the network will no longer show scripted comedy and drama in the 8pm-9pm slot because it’s too expensive. Instead, NBC is going to show reality TV and game shows.
And thus the US version of ITV1 is born. More analysis over at Organ Grinder.
There’s a thoroughly amusing anecdote about Ian Levine over on the Off The Telly blog. Basically, Russell T Davies told him exactly where to go at Wednesday’s Torchwood press conference in Cardiff:
“Ian, no offence, you’re not a journalist, so fuck off.”
Magic. I laughed like a drain when I read that.
If you don’t know who Ian Levine is, there’s a handy article about him on Wikipedia. He also has his own discussion forum now. Suffice it to say, he’s a rich, powerful über-fan of Doctor Who, who saved various episodes from being burnt by the Beeb and eventually became a ‘continuity consultant’ to the show back in the 80s.
He’s also notoriously litigious: I was told by a publisher once that I wasn’t allowed to mention him in case he sued the magazine. All I wanted to say was the theme tune to K9 and Company was a bit rubbish, but that, apparently, would be enough to set him off in those days. Can’t stop me now, though!
PS What is it about the St David’s Hotel and Spa? John Barrowman’s going to spend Christmas there with his family, they hold the Torchwood press conference there? There are other hotels in Cardiff, you know. It is nice, mind.
PPS To counterbalance the Ian Levine photo, here’s one of a tree-hugging David Tennant.
Jonathan Pryce is to star as Sherlock Holmes in a Sunday afternoon drama on the Beeb. However, the show won’t focus on Holmes: instead, it’ll be looking at his Baker Street irregulars, a gang of urchins who helped him find out information.
Good news: It also stars Bill Paterson, Anna Chancellor and Michael Maloney
Bad news: it’s being adapted by Robin Hood co-writers Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle
Sounds to me terribly reminiscent of The Baker Street Boys, an early 80s Beeb drama that Richard Carpenter (Robin of Sherwood‘s creator) and Anthony Read put together. Is there something about Robin Hood that makes people want to write about other gangs from classic fiction?
Prison Break creator Paul Scheuring has promised that all the ongoing plots in the series will be concluded by the end of this season. They haven’t yet started working on season three plots, but if they do, it’s unlikely he’ll be involved. “If I were to say the show’s over [after season two], Fox would say… we’ll have someone else run the show. That could happen.”
How refreshing: a series with a serial plotline that actually intends to finish inside of two seasons.
Kristanna Loken, best known as the female terminator from Terminator 3 but also Bloodrayne in Dr Uwe Boll‘s Bloodrayne, is to jump back to television for a new SciFi series, Painkiller Jane. Commissioned for 22 episodes that will air in Spring, Painkiller Jane will follow “a DEA agent recruited by a covert government organisation tasked with capturing genetically enhanced individuals. When she discovers that she has her own set of powers – she’s impervious to injury, but not pain – Jane begins to search for what caused her transformation and her own connection to the people she pursues.”
Now that sounds like quality, doesn’t it?
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