FIRST LOOK
http://www.eonline.com/news
ON TELEVISION (MONDAY 12/22/14)
NBC: A Saturday Night Live Christmas at 8pm
FYI: Tiny House Nation (Premiere) at 9pm
FYI: Tiny House Hunting (Premiere) at 10pm
ABC: The Great Christmas Light Fight (Finale) at 8pm
FX: Anger Management (Finale) at 10:30pm
As the fallout from the Sony cyber attack continued, Mr. Robot (wt) got a series pick-up from USA. Hacker drama from Universal Cable Productions starring Christian Slater (The Adderall Diaries) and Rami Malek (24) “could not be more timely or relevant,” said Chris McCumber, President, USA. The drama is USA’s first pilot pickup for 2015-16.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Fox News Channel and Fox Business Channel were the latest nets to be yanked from Dish in a carriage dispute. After a Turner scuffle in October and a CBS blackout early this month, the Fox stations were taken off the air when an agreement with Dish could not be reached by a Saturday midnight deadline. And the war of words grew heated. “This is the third time in as many months that Dish customers have suffered through a blackout due to Dish’s intransigence,” said Tim Carry, EVP, Distribution for Fox News. “Dish’s record speaks for itself, and makes its rhetoric about ‘reasonable’ agreements ring hollow.” Dish countered that talks stalled after Fox introduced other channels into negotiations that hadn’t been included in the contract up for renewal. “It’s like we’re about to close on a house and the realtor is trying to make us buy a new car as well,” said Dish SVP of programming Warren Schlichting. “Fox blacked out two of its news channels, using them as leverage to triple rates on sports and entertainment channels that are not in this contract.”
(Source: Cynopsis)
Snoop Dogg and his son, Cordell Broadus, will star in five-part Snoop & Son: A Dad’s Dream, chronicling the duo’s efforts to launch high school football star Broadus’ gridiron career. It’s not the rapper’s sole pigskin pastime – avid sports fan Snoop started LA’s Snoop Youth Football League in 2005. Series debuts Wednesday, January 14 at 7p on ESPN.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Fox Networks’ TV Everywhere content is now available to DirecTV’s 20 million customers. Included is access to Fox Now, FXNow and Nat Geo TV apps, and the feeds of FX, FXX, FS1, FS2, Nat Geo and Nat Geo WILD for home streaming.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Velocity and Discovery Channel announced the on-air team of auto experts who’ll be on hand for the 100 hours of live Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction coverage airing on the nets in January. Among those sharing the driver’s seat: Chris Jacobs, host of Velocity’s Overhaulin’, Ray Evernham, host of Velocity’s Americarna and three-time NASCAR champ and veteran auto-racing reporter Rick Debruhl. Auction starts Tuesday, January 13 at 6p on Discovery, continuing through Sunday, January 18 from 2p-7p on Velocity.
(Source: Cynopsis)
The Producers Guild of America will honor HBO’s The Normal Heart with its 2015 Stanley Kramer Award, for raising awareness of important social issues. 26th Annual Producers Guild Awards ceremony takes place January 24 in LA.
(Source: Cynopsis)
David Fincher (Gone Girl) is set to direct the pilot for HBO’s Living on Video (wt), about music videos in the ‘80s, reports The Wrap. The project is based on Fincher’s own experiences in the genre.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Keith and Kenny Lucas (The Lucas Bros. Moving Co.) will star in Fox comedy A Better Bushwick, about twin brothers dropping out of school to pursue their dream of becoming community organizers. 20th Century Television project is exec produced by Marcus Willey, and Michael Rotenberg and Avi Gilbert of 3 Arts Entertainment.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Fusion is expanding Alicia Menendez’s daily show, AM Tonight, to an hour in the new year, and adding Kim Gamble as exec producer. “Alicia is already redefining what it means to anchor a show that covers the stories that matter to her generation,” said Fusion CEO Isaac Lee, “a generation that is incredibly diverse, came of age in a digital era, and values inclusivity.” Gamble was exec producer and head writer for MTV’s Nikki and Sara Live.
(Source: Cynopsis)
HBO is close to a pilot deal with Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker for Divorce, says the Hollywood Reporter. Parker would star and exec produce through her Pretty Matches Productions.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Destination America is grabbing hold of weekend wrestling, kicking off Impact Wrestling with brand-new premieres on Friday, January 16 at 9p.“We want to serve all wrestling fans who have followed the entertainment over the years and who have become comfortable and familiar with catching their wrestling fix on Friday nights,” said Marc Etkind, GM of Destination America. Saturday morning premieres start with Impact Wrestling: Unlocked from 10a-12p and TNA’s Greatest Matches at 12p on January 17.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Season 26 of The Amazing Race will be a mashup of dating show and travel competition, with all of the format’s teams made up of dating couples – five of whom are on a “blind date” race around the globe. CBS announced the change during Friday’s season finale; reality series returns in February.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Pivot’s first original scripted drama, Fortitude, launches Thursday, January 29 at 10p with a two-hour premiere. Dark drama is set in the melting Artic.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Chef Andrew Zimmern leads Travel Channel spinoff, Bizarre Foods: Delicious Destinations, premiering Monday, January 26 at 9p. “For years now I have wanted to make a show that tells the world in simple, easily digested terms what the classic 5 or 6 foods are in the world’s great cities,” said Zimmern. “If you go to Paris or Tokyo, these would be the must-eat dishes that you have to try before leaving and perhaps more importantly, why.”
(Source: Cynopsis)
TLC’s My Husband’s Not Gay follows men who are devout Mormons and attracted to other men, but insist they are not homosexual. Special from Hot Snakes Media airs Sunday, January 11 at 10p.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Iggy Azalea and Fall Out Boy join the lineup of performers for CBS’s People’s Choice Awards on Wednesday, January 7 at 9p. Azalea picked up her first nods this year; Fall Out Boy took home a 2014 alternative band trophy.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Fusion and YouTube are partnering to celebrate the biggest headlines of the year. Mariana Atencio, Pedro Andrade and Romina Puga host YouTube’s Top News Stories of 2014 tonight at 9:30p.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Check out Neil Patrick Harris’s American Horror Story: Freak Show debut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0gbPuuPPyg. Show returns Wednesday, January 7 on FX.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Season seven of Animal Planet’s Whale Wars launches with a three-hour event Friday, January 2 at 8p, documenting Captain Paul Watson’s “Operation Relentless” environmental campaign. Need to catch up? An all-day marathon of the series precedes the premiere, and from December 23-January 19, all six seasons will be available on VOD.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Re-mark your calendars: Season two of BBC America’s Broadchurch has a new premiere date. Crime drama returns Wednesday, March 4 at 10p, a month later than previously scheduled.
(Source: Cynopsis)
AXS TV’s Seriously. Funny. Thursdays. resume January 15, with a new, Sinbad-hosted ep of Gotham Comedy Live’s season four at 10p, followed by the season two premiere of MOCKpocalypse at 11p.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Marital misadventures and questionable career moves color season two of CMT’s My Big Redneck Family, premiering Thursday, January 1 at 11p. Tom Arnold (Roseanne) is back as host.
(Source: Cynopsis)
E!’s Total Divas is back with new eps for season three Sunday, January 4 at 10p. And there’s a new duo ready to shake things up: WWE Diva Alicia Fox and WWE Diva Paige form a locker room clique that leaves Natalya stuck in the middle.
(Source: Cynopsis)
David Schwimmer will star as lawyer and father-of-Kim Robert Kardashian in FX’s American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson. Cuba Gooding plays the disgraced ex-NFL-er in the upcoming anthology miniseries from Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Chinese actor/director/producer Daniel Wu (City of Glass) has joined the cast of AMC martial arts drama Badlands (wt). Wu joins Emily Beecham (The Village), Sarah Bolger (The Tudors) and Oliver Stark (My Hero).
(Source: Cynopsis)
Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters) will guest on ABC’s Once Upon a Time as King Poseidon. New eps of the fairy tale series return Sunday, March 1 at 8p.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Embeth Davidtz (Mad Men) and Jack Noseworthy (Killing Kennedy) landed roles in Marilyn, the Lifetime miniseries about Marilyn Monroe premiering in 2015. Kelli Garner plays the blonde bombshell, with Susan Sarandon onboard as her mentally ill mom.
(Source: Cynopsis)
The final episode of Comedy’s The Colbert Report on Thursday was its most-watched ever, with 2.5 million viewers. The series finale also topped Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings’ daily top five list, with tweets about the show sent by 53,000 unique authors and seen a total of 8.5 million times, according to Nielsen.
(Source: Cynopsis)
The season 25 finale of CBS’s The Amazing Race on Friday drew 6.5 million viewers and 1.3/5 among A18-49, according to early Nielsens, its second-best numbers for the season.
(Source: Cynopsis)
NBC’s Saturday Night Live scored a 4.0 HH rating and 2.0 among A18-49 in metered markets, for the show hosted by Amy Adams, up .1 in households and even in the demo versus last week.
(Source: Cynopsis)
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – $56.2 million
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb – $17.3 million
Annie – $16.3 million
Exodus: Gods And Kings – $8.1 million
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – $7.8 million
(Source: Box Office Mojo)
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