BuzzSugar

Buzz News Roundup, 11/19

BuzzSugar — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:35:31 -0800

Legendary superhero creator Stan Lee has won the National Medal of Arts. - Washington Post
Thanks to ongoing legal wrangling, Project Runway most likely will be off the air till Spring - or beyond. - New York Times
Taylor Swift has topped this week's album sales chart, followed by David Archuleta. - Billboard
The release date for The Soloist has shifted again, this time from March 13 to April 24. - Variety
Beauty and the Geek could move to MTV. - The Hollywood Reporter
The 15 finalists for documentary film Oscar nominations have been selected. - LA Times
Patricia Heaton will star in a comedy pilot called The Middle for ABC. - Zap2it
Young adult literature is all the rage for film adaptation lately: The comedic novel Vibes about a 17-year-old cheerleader who suddenly gets the ability to read minds, and the "vampyre" series House of Night will both be made into movies. - Variety
Does nobody want the Daytime Emmy Awards? - The Hollywood Reporter
Warner Bros. will produce the movie Control-Alt-Delete, which "is described as Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure meets The Matrix." - ComingSoon

Back to You will be Back for More

BuzzSugar — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:26:05 -0700

The latest show to get a full-season pickup: Back to You, the Kelsey Grammer/Patricia Heaton comedy on Fox. The show was one of the first to be picked up by any network last spring, so I suppose it only makes sense that Fox would be standing by it now.

The network has ordered 11 more episodes of the show, bringing the total number of episodes to 24 for the season. Its ratings haven't been great - it hovers somewhere between 6.5 and 7 million viewers each week - but it's been consistent. And, as was recently pointed out with the pickup of Gossip Girl, networks are changing their standards for what's considered a hit show in the first place.

In other news:

ABC has ordered six more scripts of Samantha Who? The show is the No. 1 new comedy of the season and did almost as well in the ratings this week as it did in its premiere.
The CW wants three more Reaper scripts, even though this week's ratings were (gulp) a series low.

I'm a little surprised we haven't heard about any of the NBC shows yet. All of the other networks have picked up at least one key series (Back to You for Fox, Gossip Girl for the CW, Pushing Daisies and Private Practice for ABC, The Big Bang Theory for CBS). None of NBC's series has been a huge hit, but I figured at least one of them would have gotten the network's support by now.

Pilot Watch: "Back to You"

BuzzSugar — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 09:30:00 -0700

The networks have announced their fall schedules, but which of the series will actually be worth watching? Throughout the summer, as I watch the pilots, I'll be posting my first impressions. A lot can change before a show makes it to air, so these aren't comprehensive reviews, just quick thoughts on how the shows look now. Today's installment: the Fox comedy "Back to You."

What's it about? A disgraced news anchor returns to the smaller market where he once was a superstar and must work again with his former co-anchor, who's not thrilled to have to share the spotlight with him.

Who's in it? Kelsey Grammer, Patricia Heaton, Fred Willard

The good: I'm an ex-"Fraiser" fan, and this show reminded me that I really do like Kelsey Grammer. For a traditional sitcom - and, don't get me wrong, it is very traditional - it had more laughs than I was expecting. It feels very professional, by which I mean that you can tell that everyone from the lead actors to the writers to the peripheral cast know what it takes to make a comedy work.

The bad: "Back to You" doesn't break any new ground; I've seen all these jokes and plot lines before. The pilot has a supposedly shocking twist that Fox begged reporters not to reveal, but it's the kind of thing that anyone over the age of 12 could figure out easily.

Will I watch? Doubtful, but not because it's bad, per se - it's just not my style.

To watch a video and see a gallery of photos, read more

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Photos courtesy of Fox