Teeth on the Dial - TV Talk

I feel like I'm reiterating half the stuff I just read in author Warren Ellis's "Bad Signal" regular email.

NBC has replaced head of programming Kevin Reilly with Ben Silverman, whose production company Reveille is responsible for "The Office" (U.S.) and "Ugly Betty". While the shows Reilly championed were critical hits, he was unable to deliver on ratings. With NBC in 4th place among the overall ratings for a second year, and no significant buzz among the new shows NBC announced for the fall (none of those shows is going to get NBC out of the basement ratings-wise), someone had to pay. I'm sure it came at a price too, as Kevin Reilly just re-signed a contract a few months ago, and NBC would have had to pay out to get him out. Look for some shake-ups to continue, as perhaps the entire NBC 2007-2008 line-up could radically change. Warren Ellis suggests that Kevin Reilly (who received a nice package on the way out) may find his way to HBO, which recently deposed of their head programmer "alleged girlfriend-puncher Chris Albrect".

NBC's pushing to get Heroes an Emmy nomination for Best Drama by playing down the super-powered aspects of the show, choosing to focus on the stories, being told such as Peter and Nathan relationship. T.V. shows with sci-fi elements typically get the shaft and ignored by the Emmy awards: can I get agreement from fans of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "X-Files", and "Battlestar Gallactica"?
Source: Newsarama.com - Hiding their powers from the Emmy powers that be

It's been confirmed that the next (4th) season of Battlestar Galactica will be the last. Here's hoping they can solve"the flabbiness that crept into the middle of their seasons" and bring home a solid closing. The final season with 22 episodes will likely start early in the new year.

Jenna Fischer (Pam on "The Office) is recovering from her broken back after taking a bad fall a few weeks ago. She's getting better, and in addition to cards and flowers, received cupcakes from Zach Braff, who was also at the party where she tumbled. Yay Jenna, yay Zach, yay cupcakes.

Funny story: a story that 'George Clooney addicted to "Dancing with the Stars"' is making the rounds as legitimate. But the source is "Ocean's Thirteen co-star Don Cheadle. Cheadle, as well as Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Clooney himself, are reknown for playing jokes on each other, or as Trev and I refer to it, "taking the piss out of one another". It's a British term of endearment. Like bullocks. And Manchester.

Clooney is hooked on the show and watched it continuously on the set of movie sequel Ocean's Thirteen, his co-stars Brad Pitt and Don Cheadle have revealed. Pitt tells Access Hollywood, "I was shocked to find that George watches 'Dancing With the Stars.'" Cheadle adds, "He wants to compete, in fact! He feels it all rapidly going away. He's looking for a way to resurrect - hence the plastic surgery, which is really not a bad job. "You really can't tell... not on film, anyways."

You know what "Grey's Anatomy" creator Shonda Rhimes likes more than emotionally unstable interns? Spelling Bees. She is addicted to Spelling Bees and their pint sized pugilists. You can read her live-blog play by play of yesterday's National Spelling Bee on A List of Things Thrown 5 Minutes Ago. Look for the "by Shonda" indicators. A Canadian made it to the finals but there was no joy in Mudville:

Championship Round:

Evan is on his game – calm, mellow and self-assured. Go Evan! I can’t help but root against Nate who seems like a sweet kid and just as self-assured – he’s just not my Evan who I feel I’ve watched grow up here on this stage.

These final rounds are not that exciting. Why? Because there’s a commercial break every five seconds. I love commercials. I believe in commercials. I just want to see my Bee without so many breaks. I want to see the sweat on the brows of Evan and Nate. Also, it’s delaying the airing of Grey’s Anatomy. And I like Grey’s Anatomy.

10:04 pm: I dig Evan’s ears. He’s got the kind of face that is going to grow into those ears and be fantastic. He spells “yosenabe” like it’s nothing, no thang but a chicken wing, and keeps on moving. I’m so impressed.

Ach! Nate went down on coryza! I was barely paying attention cause he was so confident! He went down!

Now, Evan must get the next word right in order to win. The word is “serrefine” which is a word I instinctively spelled wrong. But Evan gets it right and-EVAN GETS IT RIGHT!I CALLED THE WINNER OF THE BEE CORRECTLY FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE!!!

Shonda Rhimes

And closing with a quote from Warren Ellis. Again.

Sometimes I wonder how many people realise their favourite American tv actors are Canadian.