CBS Gives Full-Season Orders To All 5 Freshman Series: 'Hawaii Five-0', 'Blue Bloods', 'Defenders', 'Mike & Molly' & '$#*!'

http://www.deadline.com/2010/10/cbs-gives-full-season-orders-to-all-5-freshman-series-hawaii-five-0-blue-bloods-defenders-mike-molly/

CBS is not monkeying around, handing out today full-season orders to all of its freshman series: dramas Hawaii Five-0 and Blue Bloods, dramedy The Defenders and comedies Mike & Molly and $#*! My Dad Says. No big surprise here given the fact that those happen to be the five most-watched new series of the season and 3 of them, Hawaii, Mike & Molly and $#*! also rank as the top three new series in adults 18-49. The solid showing by the five freshmen helped CBS win the opening 4 weeks of the season for the first time. "Everything has clicked so far this year—from development in January, to scheduling in May, to production over the summer, to marketing and publicity in the fall," CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler said. Hawaii is averaging 14.2 million viewers and a 4.1/11 in 18-49 and also ranks as the most DVR'd TV program, adding some 3.4 million viewers with live plus 7-day playback. Blue Bloods (12.7 million, 2.2/07) dominates its Friday 10 PM time period. The season-to-date averages for the other newly-renewed series are: Defenders (11.3 million, 2.8/8), Mike & Molly (12.3 million, 4.1/11) and $#*!(11.3, 3.5/10). CBS is the only network to keep all of its freshman series for the whole season this fall. NBC, ABC and Fox have already cancelled one series each: Outlaw, My Generation and Lone Star, respectively. NBC has picked up the rest, giving The Event, Chase, Law & Order: Los Angeles andOutsourced back-nine order and Undercovers an order for 4 more scripts. Fox has picked up comedyRaising Hope for the rest of the season. 

The Future of Big Bang, The Good Wife, Charlie Sheen and More...It's CBS' Day to Schmooze the Critics

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b192632_future_of_big_bang_good_wife_charlie.html

We love us some Big Bang Theory. And hey, we know loads of people love Two and a Half Men too.

But lest there ever be a class-off between the stars of Chuck Lorre's two hit CBS comedies, you should hear what BBT's star Kaley Cuoco told reporters today.

CBS rolled out stars from its new and returning fall series in Beverly Hills today, as the 2010 Television Critics Press Tour kicked off, and here's what you need to know about what went down:

The Big Bang Theory: Everyone's beloved Big Bangers made their post Comic-Con appearance today, bringing along even more scoop for the masses. Like what, you ask?

Um, like the return of Wil Wheaton and Wolowitz's onetime ladylove Bernadette. "He's evil," Bill Prady teased of Wil. "He's Sheldon's mortal enemy." And Melissa Rauch makes a comeback, although it's still unclear as to what her relationship with Howard will be.

Speaking of Sheldon, someone braved the topic of Jim Parsons' character having some sexytime with returning love interest Mayim Bialik (Blossom!), and Jim responded: "I don't know the answer to it, but I wouldn't hold anything past anybody at this point. I might have said no for sure six months ago, but I never thought we'd even stumble upon a female that he communicated with. [And] we did that." And all Chuck Lorre would say is, "He'll have a very specific relationship with Mayim." Uh-huh. Sure.

And before you broach to subject of those much-talked about contract negotiations with Kaley or Jim, think again. This cast is far too classy and tactful to discuss such things. Unlike the most recent tactics of a certain Two and a Half star, it seems they'd prefer to keep their bargaining details out of the press.

"We have people that kind of help us with that and take care of it," Kaley responded. "I mean, I'm doing next season for free. I don't know about you guys. I just figure it would make things a lot easier." Like we said, class-ay!

CBS Executive Session: Head gal-in-charge Nina Tassler chatted with critics and responded to the recent failing grade from GLAAD (gulp!). Nina promises more sexually diverse characters on the way in the coming season. "We're very disappointed in our track record so far," Nina admitted. "[But] we know we will do better...You're going to meet Alicia's brother in The Good Wife, a gay character. We're also going to be adding a new character to Rules of Engagement. Jeff and Audrey's surrogate will be a member of Jeff's softball team, and she's a lesbian. We're also going to be recurring a character in $#*! My Dad Says, [played by] Tim Bagley."

Also exploring a new side of her sexuality in the coming year is The Good Wife's Kalinda (Archie Panjabi). "You [won't] see it in the first part of the season, but you will later on," Nina tells critics. "People love speculating about her personal life and her sexuality, so as long as people keep talking about it, we don't want to spill the beans just yet."

Nina also made known that Two and a Half Men fans need not fret over Charlie Sheen's availability despite his ongoing criminal case. "We happen to have a really wonderful relationship with [Warner Bros.] and there's been no indication that there will be any interruption to the delivery of the episodes or to production." According to sources, he will be able to make it on set when the show resumes production next week.

Hawaii Five-O: With Comic-Con survivors Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park hard at work back on the island, CBS fave Alex O'Loughlin and Entourage's Scott Caan chatted up critics Tuesday afternoon to talk about their new series—which is not a remake, just so you know!

"For me, the word 'remake' suggests we're doing exactly the same thing," explained show runner Alex Kurtzman. "And in our experience in Star Trek we felt like you have to find the spirit of what that original franchise was about, and you have to really be true to it, then you have to expand on it and bring it into the modern time with whatever rules will govern it."

Scott revealed that he did not go back to rewatch the original series in hopes to make his character Dano his own. Alex tuned in a bit, but only enough to get a sense of who MacGarrett was.

Fun fact: Peter Lenkov dubbed DDK "the unofficial mayor of Waikiki," thanks in large part to his Lost history in Hawaii.

Mike and Molly: Alright you guys, listen up. We all know you've seen the promos for Chuck Lorre's latest TV venture, but please, please do not mistake it for a show about being overweight (like, ahem, some critics in the room may have). Seriously.

"It's about real people with real issues trying to have a relationship," Chuck explained. "Television would normally have cast Chris O'Donnell and Courteney Cox as the people who meet at Overeaters Anonymous. But in this case we had the courage and the wisdom to cast people that are just people. They're trying to make their lives better, and find someone that they can love and be loved by." Well said, C.L.

But for the record, both Melissa McCarthy (Gilmore Girls!) and Billy Gardell (who couldn't be more endearing in real life) are still grateful. Says Billy: "These men are incredibly gracious to put someone who's not 'normal'-looking in the middle of the show, and I know Melissa feels the same way too. When you're a fat guy in Hollywood, you're the bad guy, the cop, or the neighbor. That's what you're doing."

The Defenders/Blue Bloods/$#*! My Dad Says: CBS' newest cop/legal drama-ramas (and Twitter operation) all showed up here today, too, with TV vets Jim Belushi (so funny), William Shatner and Tom Selleck in the house, plus two of our faves Donnie Wahlberg and Jerry O'Connell.

Like what you see? Hope so! Fill us in in the comments section, and stick around for coverage from your favorite shows all week.
 

 

Jonathan Sadowski To Star In CBS' '$#*!'

http://www.deadline.com/2010/07/jonathan-sadowski-to-star-in-cbs/

After an extensive search, I hear Jonathan Sadowski has landed the young lead opposite William Shatner in CBS’ upcoming comedy series $#*! My Dad Says. The project, based on the popular Twitter feed by Justin Halpern, stars Shatner as Ed Goodson, a forthright and opinionated dad who relishes expressing his unsolicited and often wildly politically incorrect observations to his son Henry (Sadowski), a struggling writer-turned-unpaid blogger. Sadowski replaces Ryan Devlin, who played the role in the pilot. The network opted to recast the role when it picked the pilot to series in May. Co-starring on the Warner Bros. TV-produced series, executive produced by David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, are Will Sasso as Henry’s brother the meek half of his husband/wife real estate duo with domineering Kathleen (Nicole Sullivan). Sadowski, repped by WME and manager Susan Yoo, most recently starred on the NBC/WBTV comedy pilot Our Show. The pilot’s other star, Nate Corddry, just landed a big lead on another upcoming series that had been recast, NBC’s Harry’s Law. $#*! My Dad Says is not doing a panel at Comic-Con but Shatner will sign autographs at the Warner Bros. booth on Friday.