We were pulling for you, “Arrested Development.” Really, we were. And we thought the multiple Emmy wins would protect you from early cancellation. Silly us.
Fox has more or less canceled the funniest comedy on its slate, the Emmy-winning series with the knockout ensemble including Jason Bateman, Jeffrey Tambor, Will Arnett, Jessica Walter, David Cross and Portia de Rossi. The network isn’t using the word “cancel” or speaking with any finality. And the series will return (briefly) Dec. 5. But it has been benched for the duration of the November sweeps.
Fox will air 13 episodes of “Arrested” but won’t pick up “the back nine,” as they say, that would make a full season of 22. Read between the lines. Creator Mitchell Hurwitz has been given permission to shop the series elsewhere (possibly to a cable network?). Consider it a DVD collector’s item.
Along with “Arrested,” Fox bumped “Kitchen Confidential” from its schedule for the remainder of November.
They’re not saying this either, but Fox must be counting the hours until “American Idol” and “24” return in January.
On the other hand, Jerry Bruckheimer’s “E-Ring,” a mediocre drama and middling ratings performer, has been given a full-season order by NBC.
Signs of desperation abound in the announcements this week of the doomed and the delivered. And, of course, there’s conflicting information about whether certain shows were canceled or whether they intentionally came to a conclusion just as they coincidentally tanked in the ratings.
That would be the case for “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.” NBC says the master plan from the beginning for Martha’s “Apprentice” called for only a single season, over and out.
Stewart’s spinoff of Donald Trump’s reality show has been a ratings disappointment, with 6.7 million viewers a week. No need to extend the pain.
“Night Stalker,” which has stumbled badly against CBS’s “CSI,” was pulled from the schedule by ABC after six episodes.
An update of the 1970s series about reporter Carl Kolchak in which he tracks wolflike supernatural creatures, “Night Stalker” struggled to draw a mere 5.2 million viewers.
Tilting to the right
Speaking of midseason surprises, we were shocked to learn the former chair of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was caught playing politics.
When Ken Tomlinson went on a rampage to rid CPB of what he perceived as “liberal bias,” he violated at least a few laws, according to a new report.
The CPB’s internal investigation about the mess at the top concluded that ousted Tomlinson “violated statutory provisions” and the CPB code of ethics by dealing directly with programmers during negotiations over the creation of a public-affairs program and by using “political tests” to recruit Patricia Harrison to be president and chief executive.
What? You thought when he instituted a right-leaning roundtable show, “The Journal Editorial Report,” hired Republican consultants and lobbyists, browbeat senior executives, secretly hired a researcher to monitor Bill Moyers for bias and hired former GOP operative Harrison for the job it was all a big coincidence?
Tomlinson fired off an angry note to accompany the report, saying he was a high-minded reformer just doing his job. Harrison said she has no political agenda and must be judged by her actions going forward.
Cuddling up to TiVo
The networks are warming up to TiVo and other digital video recorders, formerly considered enemies of commercial TV. A multiple-network study released Wednesday says homes with DVRs watch “significantly” more TV and are exposed to more ads. Oddly, viewers with DVRs showed “high levels of awareness/recall on commercials they have fast-forwarded.”
Apparently, we see those logos flying by and we remember them, even if we only remember that our dramas and comedies were interrupted by them.
We’re still in the minority, but our numbers are growing. The study says DVR penetration in U.S. households now stands at 8 percent, representing 11.4 million viewers. By 2010 that number is expected to grow to 39 percent, or 45.9 million viewers.
TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-820-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
