‘Dirty Sexy Money’ Drops Armstrong
Posted on March 30, 2008
Samaire Armstrong, spoiled Juliet Darling in the freshman show Dirty Sexy Money, has been dropped as a series regular, according to Michael Ausiello of TV Guide.
She is, however, expected to return as a recurring character, should her schedule allow it.
Last October, Armstrong checked into rehab to deal with “personal issues”, which forced the producers to write her out of an episode. Whether the two are related or not is currently speculation.
ABC Renews ‘Dancing’, Four More Realities
Posted on February 29, 2008
Reality shows Dancing with the Stars, Supernanny, Wife Swap, Extreme Makeover: Home Addition, and America’s Funniest Home Videos have been renewed for next season by ABC.
This comes after the network gave early pickups to Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Brothers and Sisters, Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, Samantha Who?, and Dirty Sexy Money earlier this month.
Meanwhile, the PaleyFest has added Bones, Moonlight, and Kyle XY to their line-up, with their new leg starting on March 28. Tickets will be available on March 14.
Showrunner Cerone Joins ‘Dirty Sexy Money’
Posted on February 27, 2008
Daniel Cerone joins Dirty Sexy Money as an executive producer and showrunner alongside creator Craig Wright. The ex-Dexter showrunner replaces Josh Reims, who only signed on for the first season, and will oversee the show’s second season.
This comes after he signed a deal with series’ producer ABC Studios before the WGA strike to develop new projects within the production company.
“Since the pilot, I felt like the show had some of the best potential for storytelling and exploration of characters both on the light and the dark side,” Cerone commented. “I don’t think there is any desire to significantly change the show at all. It’s more about keeping all the best elements and adding as much intrigue, drama, and danger as we possibly can.”
He continued, “There is a real desire to essentially relaunch Dirty Sexy Money. The combination of the writers’ strike and ABC’s belief in the show gives us a rare opportunity.” Dirty Sexy Money will return in the fall, having received a thirteen-episode order for next season.
Hannigan for ‘Buffy’ Reunion at PaleyFest
Posted on February 23, 2008
According to the Paley Center website, How I Met Your Mother star Alyson Hannigan, who played witch Willow Rosenberg in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is the latest person set to reunite with her old cast members at the PaleyFest Buffy reunion on March 20.
This follows the news that Sarah Michelle Gellar (the titular lead Buffy Summers) and Charisma Carpenter (once-snobby cheerleader Cordelia Chase) have also booked their places at the event, while sources are saying that David Boreanaz, who portrayed vampire Angel, will film a special message to the fans to make up for his absence due to family commitments.
Panelists already confirmed to be showing up are Amber Benson, Nicholas Brendon, Emma Caulfield, Eliza Dushku, Seth Green, James Marsters, Michelle Trachtenberg, and the mastermind behind it all, Joss Whedon. Buffy the Vampire Slayer ran for seven seasons before it ended in 2003, consisting of a total of 144 episodes, and spawned an Angel spin-off that lasted five years.
Other shows making an appearance at the annual festival, which runs for two weeks from March 14 to March 27 at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, include freshmen series Chuck, Dirty Sexy Money, Gossip Girl, Mad Men, and Pushing Daisies, as well as struggling NBC drama Friday Night Lights.
ABC Reveals Post-Strike Schedule
Posted on February 20, 2008
After Fox unveiled its post-strike schedule earlier today, ABC decided to follow suit and outline its spring schedule for the rest of this season. On April 24, Grey’s Anatomy returns to its familiar Thursday 9PM timeslot with Ugly Betty as its lead-in, while Lost is set to move one hour later to 10PM. All three shows have five original episodes planned. The network hasn’t decided when to air the remaining episodes Eli Stone, which currently holds the 10PM timeslot and averages a 3.3 rating.
Away from Thursdays, Desperate Housewives is back on April 13 with five fresh episodes, including a two-hour finale, while Brothers and Sisters comes back the following week with four. Dates for Samantha Who? (April 7) and Boston Legal (April 8) were also announced, both with six fresh episodes planned. ABC also confirmed that freshmen series Private Practice, Pushing Daisies, and Dirty Sexy Money will all be relaunched in the fall.
There was no word on whether Men in Trees or Women’s Murder Club will return or not.
Meanwhile, CBS has announced that How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory, due back on March 17, will swap timeslots. Big Bang has consistently beaten Mother in the ratings this season and will now take the 8PM timeslot with Mother on half an hour later.
WGA Strike Over
Posted on February 13, 2008
After fourteen long and hard weeks, WGA members have voted to end the strike that started all the way back in November 5, with a resounding 92.5% for it (some 3,500 for and 283 against). This vote comes after the WGA announced that they had a tentative deal with the AMPTP over the weekend. The deal is set to be ratified within the next ten to twelve days.
“The strike is over”, said WGA West president Patric Verrone in an LA press conference. “Our membership has voted and writers can go back to work. This was not a strike we wanted but one we had to conduct in order to win jurisdiction and establish appropriate residuals for writing in new media and on the Internet.”
The deal will see specific residual rates in new media for the writers. They are set to receive 0.36% for the first 100,000 television show downloads for Internet sales, and 0.7% afterwards. And for episodes streamed on an ad-supported website, 2% of residuals will go towards the writers after the initial streaming window is closed.
Now that writers are going back to work as early as today, what does that mean for your favourite shows? Well, rejoice if you’re a Lost fan. Producer Carlton Cuse told Variety, “We’ll have to compress some of the storytelling we planned for this season, and that may not be a bad thing. Damon and I feel like we know how we can finish it off and still make it a really, really great story.” An extra five episodes are likely to be filmed, ending the fourth season with thirteen. Not too shabby.
Most of the veteran shows are set to be going back into production too, including the CSIs, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, House, Smallville, and Supernatural with an estimated four to six episodes for each. Heroes, however, will wait until the fall to launch its third volume entitled ”Villains”. Prison Break’s future has not yet been determined, while the seventh season of 24 looks like it’ll be launching on January 2009. Half-hour comedies like 30 Rock and How I Met Your Mother have the advantage of being able to shoot potentially up to nine or ten episodes before the season ends.
A lot of the freshman programs, though, will be saved for a relaunch in the fall, Pushing Daisies (whose renewal for the second season was announced last week by ABC), Dirty Sexy Money, and Chuck being the main ones. Gossip Girl and half-hour long The Big Bang Theory are the two confirmed exceptions right now. Bionic Woman, Big Shots, and Journeyman amongst a few others aren’t expected to shoot any new episodes ever. In one word, “axed”.
With the time it takes to write, film, and produce, post-strike episodes will probably air during April and May — in time for the May sweeps.
Photo by Brad Herman