Sweeps start Thursday

The February ratings sweeps blow into TV sets across the nation on Thursday. NBC is expected to score big ratings with the Winter Olympics, but the other networks will keep their best foot forward, too.

And at least we should avoid reruns for a few weeks.

Speakin of which, Thursday's "ER" is the show's annual big-name-guest-star-shooting-for-an-Emmy episode. James Woods provides the emotional goods this time out as a former medical school professor confined to a wheelchair by Lou Gehrig's disease.

"Commander" heads to Camp David

ABC is worried enough about the slipping ratings of "Commander In Chief" to give Geena Davis and company a six-week break beginning March 7.

ABC says the show will return, but we've heard that one before... Fox's "American Idol" just restarted on Tuesdays and is killing "Chief" in the ratings. And it's not like there are a bunch of friendly timeslots out there just waiting to be filled. Odds on "Chief" returning? I'd say 90 percent in its favor, at this stage.

For your viewing pleasure

Got to love this: Oprah has Dave Chapelle on the show Friday to at long last reveal why he walked away from "Chapelle's Show" and $50 million of Comedy Central's cash.

If you want to know why I find this so funny, go to The Chapelle Theory and see what it has to say about Oprah.

Can't wait for Friday!

Press coverage of Woodruff

Part of tomorrow's TV Talk column will be about the avalanche of attention over ABC anchor Bob Woodruff being injured in Iraq (along with his cameraman). Is it right that a somewhat well known TV anchor is on the front page of the paper and all over the cable news when so many soldiers are injured in near anonymity every day?

I was at KILO (94.3 FM) this morning and got an interesting perspective from Maj. Gen. Robert Mixon, the commander of Fort Carson. Mixon was doing a Q&A session on the station and several people asked about the Woodruff coverage.

"The media's coverage of a fellow media person is a fairly natural reaction," Mixon said. "I don't feel soldiers are being slighted in that regard."

What do you think about it? Drop me a comment or an e-mail.

I am in HEAVEN

It's 6 p.m. Saturday and I just discovered "Top Gear" is on the Science Channel.

"Top Gear" is a long-running British car show, but that hardly begins to explain its charm. My wife will watch this show with me. It's that good. The Discovery Channel picked up some recent British reruns last summer and recut them into an American version. But after a couple months, "Top Gear" disappeared without a trace. I was heartbroken. But now, it's back, baby.

If you like cars, or even if you just like British guys who like to destroy motorhomes and make fun of Fords, this show is for you.

By way of example, in tonight's episode, one of the lads rented a Volkswagen Golf and took it to a power substation, where they repeatedly struck it with vast bolts of simulated lightning to demonstrate how cars protect their occupants from these sorts of things. Then they returned it. Better to watch than explain, but still....

McCain "24" cameo

Arizona Senator John McCain will be making a cameo in the Feb. 6 episode of "24." Maybe I should be alarmed by the continuing convergence of politics and entertainment, but I think it's kinda cool.

"Lost" recap

Weak episode, in my opinion. I don't care about Charlie when there's so many interesting things happening on the island. And I have a hard time picking clues out of his dream.

On the other hand, Libby and Hurley is intriguing. Not for the love connection, but Libby was clearly protesting too much when she went on about Hurley stepping on her foot as he boarded the plane. Is she a spy? Or is she playing an angle? Maybe she knows that his bank account is as expansive as his waist line?

Richard Hatch guilty

Original "Survivor" Richard Hatch was found guilty of tax evasion today. He's facing up to 13 years in jail, $600,000 in fines and sharing a cell with Sue Hawk.

For all his faults, Hatch seemed like a pretty smart guy. Was he trying to get away with something, or is paying taxes just not his thing? It seems like the companies giving away these big prizes -- CBS in this case -- ought to provide a little more financial oversight.

More CW

I talked some more with Steve Dant, general manager of local UPN affiliate KXTU/Channel 57 (Adelphia 7), about the merger of the WB and UPN to form the CW. (Good lord that's a lot of acronyms to mash into one sentence). Dant said there could be some scheduling conflicts between the CW and his syndicated programming, but he was hopeful things could be worked out. Until the new network launches in September, he says it will be UPN as usual. You can read the whole story in the paper tomorrow.

Speaking of Steve Dant, his other hat is as GM of Fox affiliate KXRM/Channel 21. Both stations are up for sale by their corporate parent Raycom and that's left KXRM's 9 p.m. newscast a little up in the air. The news is produced by KKTV/Channel 11 and the contract was due to be up soon. All of which is a very complicated way of getting to my point: KKTV agreed to extend the contract through the end of the summer so KXRM could get through the sale before deciding what it wanted to do with local news.

And while we're cancelling...

ABC's "Jake In Progress" is apparently a goner, too. John Stamos may make a return visit to "ER," however.

"Daniel" cancelled?

I read on the Catholic League's Web site that NBC's controversial series "The Book of Daniel" has been cancelled. Not a surprise, given "Daniel's" ratings, but I'm a little shocked to be getting my entertainment news from the Catholic League instead of Variety. It's a strange world we live in.

Breaking news

This just in over the wire: The WB and UPN will merge beginning in the fall to form a new network called The CW.

I just spoke with Steve Dant over at Fox/UPN and he said he's hoping it means good things (by bringing local WB programming to the Springs, I'm assuming), but he'd just heard about the change himself.

We'll have a story in the paper tomorrow and if I find out anything about what it means locally, I'll post it up.

A musical Broncos loss

Linda Navarro, our TV Book editor, commended KRDO/Channel 13 for their humorous take on the Broncos loss Sunday:

"KRDO/Channel 13 News had fun Sunday with their Broncos coverage. Reporter Catherine Anderson headed for Pikes Peak Center to find out just how many Bronco faithful had opted for the Colorado Springs Philharmonic performance instead of their TVs and the orange and blue. Answer: 900, Anderson reported.

The surprise came during the program when formally attired soloist Rachel Barton Pine ended her piece, primly put down her violin -- and announced the score of the game to the audience.

The KRDO crew went further by setting the Broncos ups and downs to the music of the Philharmonic. Clever and a lot of fun. Wish we could say the same for the game."

Dead "Wing" walking

Let me tell you why "The West Wing" ending is a good thing: Vinick wins. The whole season has been building up to a Santos victory, but, to their credit, the writers have made Vinick a convincing enough candidate to make a close race believable. Well, thanks in no small part to the very liberal Alan Alda, Vinick has been more than believable, he's been electable.

So why not? In recent years, "The West Wing" has been derided as being out of step with a conservative-run country. Electing a Republican and then walking away seems like a perfect ending to the series.

ADDED: I see they're going to announce the winner a month before the series finale May 14. Bummer -- that means a month of maudlin parting monologues. I still say Vinick should win, though.

Latest "Lost" theories

Didn't mean to ignore "Lost" last night. Here are the best theories on last night's episode from The Fuselage:

1. When chief "Other" Zeke tells his henchman to bring out captive Kate, he says "Bring her Alex." Alex is the name of the crazy Frenchwoman's missing child.

2. Zeke also quotes from the Hanso Foundation films when he's talking about curiosity.

3. This is the most out-there and the most interesting theory: Zeke doesn't seem to react when Jack talks about the mole Ethan. Does Zeke not know about Ethan? Are there really two groups of Others?

Things to ponder, partner. Oh, and while I was browsing the ABC site to grab some photos for this post, I ran across some very intriguing stills from next week's episode. I'll say no more...

Familiar faces on Idol

Five minutes into the program tonight and we've already seen a few familiar faces. Our old friend Bishop Stylz was shown briefly in the opening montage and David Horning of Colorado Springs stood out for his amazing Hawaiian shirt if not his voice.
I'll post more if I see more.

OK, he's not a Springs guy, but you have to love that miniature cowboy from Wyoming. Man, isn't that the perfect Idol story?

Well, I saw some familiar faces from the audition, but nobody I recognized from down here. If you did, let me know. Probably somebody else made it through but wasn't odd enough to be featured.

And how come Chicago and Greensboro get two-hour specials and we just rate one?

Don't forget Idol

Judging by the 35 million viewers who watched last night's premiere, this reminder is completely unnecessary, but: Tonight's "American Idol" will feature the Denver auditions, including plenty of local talent and not-so-talent. So, even if you don't watch the show, it may be worth flipping over to check for familiar faces.

7 p.m. tonight on Fox

Catching up with the dead pool

The networks have announced a bunch of cancellations in recent days and have also put a brace of shows on hiatus, from which they may never return. Here's the rundown:

OFFICIALLY DEAD
Malcolm in the Middle - Fox
That '70s Show - Fox
Emily's Reasons Why Not - ABC
Arrested Development - At least on Fox, it looks like ABC or Showtime will be picking it up
7th Heaven -WB

ON LIFE SUPPORT
Bernie Mac - Fox
Stacked - Fox
Hope and Faith - ABC
Jake In Progress - ABC

BACK FROM THE DEAD
Last Comic Standing - NBC (coming back in summer)
Rock Star - CBS (also in summer)

I think that covers all the recent executions and resurrections.

Family tier satellite style

DirecTV announced today that it would begin offering a family-friendly tier or package of programming. No word on price. Many of the major cable companies (although not Adelphia) have announced family packages to address critics who want a true a la carte system, where subscribers pay for individual channels rather than packages.

While a family package may do something to get the FCC off cable and satellite companies' backs, when I wrote about a la carte a few weeks ago, many of the responses I got were from people who were concerned about money, not content. They believed an a la carte system would be cheaper, or at least fairer. I've got my doubts it would end up being cheaper for the average subscriber, but a family tier won't address those concerns anyway.

Love this idea

Fox power talker Bill O'Reilly is inviting fans and foes alike to debate him on "The Factor" next month. The Great Factor Debate contest will allow six winners to go toe to toe with the big man with the big mouth next month. Enter by e-mailing oreillycontest@foxnews.com. And for all that is holy, if you get on, tell us about it.

Actually, forget about getting on: If you could debate Bill O'Reilly, what would your argument be?

Personally, I'd pay good money to see Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert ("The Colbert Report") go up against his inspiration. Who would you like to see climb in the ring with Bill?

Keep a sharp eye on "Idol"

If you see or hear of any local singers making it on TV during the first few episodes of "American Idol," be sure to let me know.

Fox fallout

We've been a little Fox-heavy here the last few days and I apologize for it. But Fox has a lot going on lately.

The network announced today that this would be the final season for "Malcolm in the Middle" and "That '70s Show." And I know you're thinking: Those shows are still on? Totally understandable.

And, with "American Idol" starting again tonight and "24" drawing big numbers -- 15 million watched Sunday night -- Fox probably doesn't much care about the handful of "Malcolm" fans distressed by the news.

Still, Fox is going to have to find something other than one-season wonder "Prison Break" and minor success "Bones" if it wants to keep its schedule lively. Man cannot live on "Idol" alone.

On that score, look for "Free Ride" and "The Loop" to premiere in March, but don't get your hopes up.

Minor milepost

I just noticed our little operation here at Springs TV Talk just passed 100 visitors a day. Only need about 99,901 more visits a day to catch up with the Powerlines and DailyKos's of the blogosphere.

Today, 100 visits, tomorrow the world. Well, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, I promise.

More '24'

Obviously, no liveblogging tonight's two-part episode. Not really a lot of surprises this time around: Terrorists, blah, blah, bombs, blah, blah, mole, blah, nerve agent. Seen it before. This'll set up the plot for probably the next four or five episodes, then there'll be some new element introduced to take it in another direction.

We did get Sean Astin tonight, at his hobbity finest, but still no Peter Weller or Kim Bauer. I guess Kimmy still needs to escape from the cougar.

If you do have any wild-eyed theories about '24,' be sure to write or call

All eyes on the Broncos

I was just talking with KKTV/Channel 11 GM Charlie Peterson about demand for advertising during the Broncos playoff games and she mentioned that Saturday's Broncos-New England game pulled a 68 share in Denver.

A 68! That's supermammothhuge. It means that of all the TV sets turned on during the game in the Denver metro area, 68 percent were tuned to the game.

Colorado Springs doesn't have overnight ratings, but you can bet the numbers here were similar. It's a good time to be in the Broncos business.

New highlights on the TV page

I kind of wonder whether anyone noticed this, but if you turn to the TV page on the back of the Life section in today's Gazette, you'll see a different format for the daily TV highlights. We used to do a round-up of all of the primetime shows (or as many as we could fit), but including everything meant that we could only use a couple of words to describe each show. It seemed silly to include so little information, but we kept doing it that way, because we'd done it that way forever.

Now what we're doing is picking the three or four biggest things going on each day and including at least one honest-to-god sentence describing the show and running a photo. Our hope is that this will make it easier to notice the really important stuff.

Anyway, this is the kind of thing we furrow our brows over here in the Entertainment department. If you have any thoughts or comments on the new format, lemmee know.

24 premiere!

OK, here we go. Three minutes to seven. I've heard about "the first 10 minutes" so many times this weekend, I may just turn the TV off at 7:10. They've got a lot to live up to.

"The following takes place between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m." Not even Kieifer looks good in a big steel hard hat.

Hey, it's the principal from "Buffy." President Palmer's brother, for non-Buffsters out there.

And the President is down! The President is down! Actually, Dennis Haysbert (who plays Palmer) is starring in a new CBS show, "The Unit" that begins in March, so it's not a huuuuuuge surprise.

Um, it's 7:07 p.m. and my socks are still on. One dead President? Is that all they got? That doesn't even buy a cup of coffee these days. An ex-President, at that.

"My friend's brother works on that rig..." Yeah, I've got like a dozen buddies working on oil platforms in Alaska. Who doesn't? Oh, and it's definitely past 7:10 now.

Ohhh no you didn't! Sucker punch -- Michelle goes down at quarter past.

They say Michelle's dead. I'm not buying that -- Reiko Aylesworth doesn't have another show lined up.

On screen for five seconds and I like the new First Lady ("Martha Logan," played by Jean Smart) already: "I look like a wedding cake," dunk.

Using a cell phone in a helicopter? Suuuure. Don't even have to raise your voice.

"We're not going to make it! We're not at speed!"

And, um, smoke bombs under a helicopter? Repeat after me: "It's 24, don't think too much."

"Hold your fire Chloe!" That's so unfair. I guess only Jackie gets to shoot people.
And, it's 7:51 p.m. and we have our first torture scene. I should have had an over-under on that.

Is anyone keeping track of drinks here? Let's see: Car explosion, torture, many, many cell phones. I'm rounding it off to a pony keg. If anyone's actually playing, that second hour could be rough.

"Let's get one thing straight kid, the only reason you're still conscious is because I don't want to have to carry you." Line of the night. Who hasn't wanted to say that to a teenager?

I'm ticked we have seen Sean Astin yet. He's supposed to be the new CTU head. Typical government, bringing in a hobbit to run the agency. Total affirmative action hire.
We haven't seen Peter Weller yet either. Can't wait for superagent Jack Bauer vs. Robocop.

It's an hour after a former President of the United States was assasinated, and they've got the area cordoned off with flimsy plastic barriers (foreshadowing?) and they're not bothering to search vehicles entering the area. "It's 24, don't think too much."

Jack takes down a Secret Service agent. Chloe: "Don't worry, he's really good at this." Second-best line of the night.

Jack wanders right through the middle of hundreds of FBI agents. Nobody notices. Must be the aviator shades. No wonder they're coming
back in style.

Did I call the flimsy plastic barrier or what? Hee hee.

Chloe is such a hardened agent. She'd break if you tickled her hard.

Martha Logan for President! At last we'd have someone in the White House with ironclad deniability. "That's not what I heard!"

And, finally, the poison pill. Love it. Now if could just get a cougar to start stalking Derek...
Maybe on Monday! And we find out the (a) mole. We gotta get some better background checks on these guys.

That's it folks. Thanks for playing along (whenever you read this).

'24' Sunday

So I'm thinking about liveblogging the '24' season premiere Sunday night. Fox didn't send me a screener (otherwise I'd be dropping hints like crazy right now). But since I'll be watching anyway, I'm thinking I ought to write about it.

I was just browsing around the Web to see if I could find a good set of rules for a '24' drinking game. There's no end of choices, but I didn't see one that required a drink every time Jack talks on the cell phone. Without that crucial rule, there's a chance you could end the night sober.

Let's make it simple: Product placements, cell phones and explosions are one drink; threatening torture, defying a direct order or administering first aid is two drinks; and nuclear explosions, biological warfare or Jack crying means you finish the bottle. Hope Monday's a holiday for ya.

KKTV live streaming results

Just talked with KKTV/Channel 11 news director Nick Matesi about the station's first-ever live streaming coverage over its Web site, www.kktv.com. The station provided live Internet coverage of Gov. Bill Owens' final state of the state address on Thursday.

"Our little test went flawlessly," Matesi said. "It was really cool. It sets the stage for a lot of possibilities in the future. When you have those types of events, but you don’t want to cut into programming, it’s a way to provide coverage."

A technical snafu prevented KKTV from recording Owens' speech to make it available to download later, but future live streams will be recorded and posted on the Web site.

Next up, KKTV will live stream its Broncos postgame show Saturday night and is planning to do the same for President Bush's State of the Union speech.

Late 'Lost'

We were talking about this around the office yesterday, but I forgot to put up the link here. In Wednesday's "Lost," where we see Mr. Eko through the smoke monster, there are a series of images in the smoke from his backstory. You can find screen captures of the images over at www.thetailsection.com and some interesting discussion of the rest of the episode at www.thefuselage.com.

Comments

A few interesting comments on the KKTV story over on the main Gazette page.

Same station, different subject

KKTV/Channel 11 is going to try its first live streaming Internet coverage today on its Web site, www.kktv.com. The event is Gov. Bill Owens' final State of the State address. Wave of the future or technological sideshow? Watch and decide for yourself.

I've gotten a few calls and e-mails in regards to today's story on the new KKTV anchors. People seem resigned to Eric and Melissa not coming back, but they're still not happy about it.

KKTV names new anchor team

KKTV announced its new evening anchors this morning. They'll be Don Ward, most recently an anchor and reporter at WB2 in Denver and Shannon Brinias, who is a reporter at KIRO/Channel 7 in Seattle.

They'll start in early February.

Ward and Brinias may not be familiar names to most people in the Springs, but I remember Brinias from Seattle and both have a bunch of big market experience.

When KKTV let go/pushed out its longtime anchor team of Eric Singer, Melissa Brown and Mike Madson, there were a lot of questions about what the move meant -- was the station going to go young and cheap, was it giving up on ever catching KOAA? Bringing in anchors from major markets certainly indicates they're serious about going after KOAA.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether viewers will come back to the station without like Singer, Brown and Madson.

We'll have a story with more details in tomorrow's paper.

Yes Giselle

OK, so just got at least part of the Giselle Fernandez interview. The Nielsen ratings came out today and 17.3 million people watched last week's premiere, so I think her Q rating is going up like a rocket -- she ditched me after maybe 10 minutes to do a CNN interview. I asked the pub person to schedule a few more minutes tomorrow, but I'm dubious.

Anyway, CNN aside, Giselle was very nice. She had fond memories of the Springs. Her first job was as a camera woman in KRDO's Pueblo bureau. And, she said, the dancing thing is really, really hard. I can believe it. Don't know if we'll get the story in Thursday now, but we'll see.

Nice work if you can get it

News report today says ABC is getting $2.5 million for Super Bowl ads this year, up slightly over Fox's haul last year. It's still a good buy -- I'm a big football fan, but I watch the Super Bowl as much for the commercials as for the frequently disappointing game.

No Giselle

Didn't get that Giselle Fernandez interview this morning. Don't know what happened there, but we'll try to reschedule.

Speaking of "Dancing with the Stars," Kenny Mayne got the boot Friday night. He's got some pretty funny reactions to his poor performance over on his blog.

How 'bout that Kenny Mayne?

Anyone else watch the "Dancing with the Stars" season premiere? Or get forced by their wife to watch?

My wife would have forced me, but I was watching anyway, since I'm supposed to interview former KRDO reporter and current dancing star Giselle Fernandez on Monday. I was freaked out that she'd get booted on the first show, because it's stupid to run the interview a week after someone gets the axe, but Fernandez looked great.

ESPN anchorman Kenny Mayne, on the other hand, looked truly mental (right), but it was good fun. Hey, I can't clap in rhythm, I won't cast stones.

On a strictly name-recognition basis, I'd have to think NFL great Jerry Rice is probably the biggest "star" on the bill and it was a hoot to see how seriously he took the thing. And, as you might expect from a man famous for his work ethic, he did OK, kept those hips swiveling.

Look for the Fernandez interview, hopefully, next Thursday.

Tip for Jan. 12

One of the perks of this job is that we get tapes and DVD's of a lot of the upcoming programs. We don't review them, but we do watch sometimes. And on that note -- the episode of "The Office" titled "The Injury" is the funniest thing I've seen this year. (OK, it's not much of a year so far, but still). I'm not even that big a fan of "The Office," but trust me on this. It's scheduled for Jan. 12 -- but they sent me two episodes labeled for the 12th, so it may be the 19th.

Rose Bowl ratings

Just got a press release from ESPN -- they say Wednesday's Rose Bowl got the highest ratings of any bowl game since 1987, with 35-plus million viewers. Good taste, America!

KOAA Olympics show

KOAA/Channels 5&30 is planning a kinda cool Olympics pre-game show, "The Olympics Zone." The half-hour program will include some local stuff from Lee Douglas, plus some NBC pieces from Bob Costas, to offer a preview of that night's action. It'll be on 6:30 p.m. most nights of the Winter Olympics, which run Feb. 8-25.

I'm a huuuuge Winter Olympics fan. Luge, biathlon, short track speedskating, ski jumping -- the weird sports just come out of the woodwork. The Summer games have even more wacky sports, of course, but without the snow and ice, there's no romance to them and they're just dorky.

Looking ahead

Another great game last night, but I was having a hard time concentrating. Maybe after a dozen-odd football games in less than a week, I've finally hit my football threshold. Nahhhh.

Anyway, a reminder that NBC's "Book of Daniel" premieres Friday night. I'm looking for opinions on the show -- I've heard from a bunch of people who won't be watching it, but I'd like to hear from people who did watch it, too. We'll see.

Also, if there's another midseason show that has caught your fancy, let me know about it. There's some decent stuff out there: CBS' "Love Monkey" looks good and, uh, Fox has "Skating with Celebrities." So there's that...

Lord the Orange Bowl was beautiful

Yeah, it was a great game and all, but I would have just sat there last night and watched the grass in HD. My favorite moment was when they were showing one of the coordinators up in the press box and I could read the time on his watch (I think it was 11 p.m.).

I'll stop babbling now.

REMINDER: Super Bowl is now in HD in the Springs

If you missed the earlier post: KRDO/Channel 13 WILL BE broadcasting the Super Bowl on Feb. 5 in high definition. And Wednesday's Rose Bowl national championship game between Texas and USC.

If you don't have an HDTV, go buy one now.

"I'm Just a Bill" on your iPod

It's only Jan. 3, but I can already tell you that portable video is going to be the hot media tech story of 2006.

ABC just announced it was making condensed versions of the BCS bowl games available on the iTunes music store, along with other ABC sports programming, ESPN programming, "Ebert and Roeper," some of ABC Family's cable programming and... wait for it... the "School House Rock" programs from the 1970s. All for $1.99 an episode.

You can already get "Desperate Housewives" and "Commander in Chief" on iTunes.

What a time to be alive.

KRDO in HD

My friends at the Colorado Springs AVS forum tell me KRDO/Channel 13 was broadcasting some of the football games and the Tournament of Roses Parade in bright, shiny high definition yesterday. I've called the station to see if they're in a testing phase or if this is the real deal. Either way, it's a good sign for the Super Bowl (not to mention for "Lost" fans).

If you have any money left over from Christmas, this would be the time to go get a new TV.

UPDATE: Just talked to Joe Reed, KRDO's chief engineer. He confirmed it's just going to be live events for the time being. That means yes to the Super Bowl, no to "Lost." A big step in the right direction, anyway.

UPDATED UPDATE: Just talked to Neil Klockziem, KRDO's general manager. He said the HD equipment arrived at the last minute and crews installed it on Saturday. The station is waiting for the equipment needed to rebroadcast primetime programming that's delayed for the Mountain time zone. Klockziem said the station should have that capability soon.