Archive for July, 2011
First Look: Kelsey Grammer in Boss
Jul 31st
Hmm, looks like someone is going the Ted Danson route!
Yep, following in the footsteps of his Cheers co-star who re-energized his career with a serious and sensational turn on Damages, Kelsey Grammer is leaving the sitcoms behind for a much darker role in the upcoming Boss.
Kelsey plays the Mayor Of Chicago, who’s diagnosed with a degenerative mental condition that only he and his doctor knows about (sounds a bit like The Big C to me). Friday Night Lights vet Connie Nielsen plays Grammer’s wife and the pilot is directed by Gus Van Sant – pretty impressive!
The teaser trailer doesn’t exactly reveal much but however it turns out – it can’t fare worse than Back To You and Hank, Kelsey’s recent comedy misfires that lasted just 14 and 5 episodes respectively…
Boss starts on October 21st on Starz… so will you be watching?
Ratings Roundup: 30th July 2011
Jul 30th
Winners and Losers From The Last 7 Days
WINNERS
ABC FAMILY: While the broadcast networks seem to have thrown in the towel this summer (is the CW still breathing?), there’s lots of ratings action going on in the cable world. Case in point, ABC Family, who’ve steadily built themselves a fervent teen fanbase.
Switched At Birth, following a big cliffhanger last week, saw its ratings soar by 30% to an impressive 3.14 million viewers and a 1.3 18-49 share. Also holding on well – The Secret Life Of The American Teenager, with 2.89 million and a 1.2 share. And though it’s slipped a little recently, Pretty Little Liars is still doing well with 2.35 million and a 0.9 youth demo.
But it’s not ALL good news for ABC Family… check out our Losers column for more! (more…)
Before They Were Big: Ryan Gosling Is Young Hercules!
Jul 29th
It’s time for another movie star flashback – this time featuring Crazy, Stupid, Love star Ryan Gosling…
Most people know that Ryan’s first big break was on The Mickey Mouse Club – the series that also famously launched Britney, Christina and Justin…
But Mickey wasn’t Ryan’s only notable early role. 3 years after he left the Club in 1998, Ryan headed to New Zealand to star as the title character in Young Hercules, a sword and sandals series from Sam Raimi, who also oversaw the adult Hercules and Xena: The Warrior Princess (and the current Spartacus)
Though Young Hercules only made it to one season, it was a super-size series – comprising of 50 episodes in total – all filmed for an amazing $20 million TOTAL! That’s some crafty TV making. The effects came courtesy of Weta Workshop, the New Zealand based effects house that would go on to win Academy Awards for their work on the Lord of the Rings movies…
The show ran on the Fox Kids network and attracted a passionate and devoted young female audience (I wonder why). Even back then Gosling was turning heads – though as anyone who’s watched the likes of The Believer, Half Nelson and Blue Valentine knows, he’s More >
2011 Fall TV Preview: Terra Nova
Jul 28th
It’s that time of the year again – where we start looking ahead to the upcoming Fall Season. Yep, we’re starting extra early this year as there are a LOT of new shows to get through – partly because the last TV season didn’t produce a single stand out hit!
So how will this season’s new shows fare? To kick us off here’s one of the most hyped and eagerly awaited shows of the year, Fox’s Terra Nova…
Quick Take: America’s Got Talent – Hollywood Week Three
Jul 27th
Week three of the America’s Got Talent ‘live’ shows and…
Hold on, can we first of all stop calling them ‘live’ shows. ‘Live’ means live – and yet you can clearly see AGT is full of screen wipes and edits, indicating a show that’s been shot earlier in the day and then tweaked. It may be ‘almost live’ but that’s not the same thing. Okay – got that off my chest!
Back to the show and once again it was obvious who rose to the top – and who came up short – so here’s my pick of the four acts going through to the Semi Finals…
Mariah Carey Hits HSN: Come See The Crazy!
Jul 26th
Oh Mariah, what have you become?
Check out this compilation of moments of Mariah Carey as she paid a visit to HSN over the weekend to plug her latest fashion and jewelery lines. It’s four minutes of pure diva…
There’s Mariah giving instructions to the camera crews, constant complaining about her recent pregnancy and the general self obsession we’ve come to expect from the multi-octave diva!
Here’s my take! I was quite a fan of Mariah in the early Vision Of Love days, before her music became too hip-hop and over-produced. But the Mariah of then is worlds apart from the Mariah of now.
I like a bit of diva and some crazy is fun (a la Lady Gaga) – but I have a low tolerance for brattiness – and I know from several colleagues just how high maintenance Carey is in real life. When you hear tales of such disgusting behavior it’s hard to then like the performer themselves. There’s a fine line between diva and just plain rude….
But what do you think? Are you a Mariah fan – and why? And what do you make of this HSN appearance… will you buying any of Mariah’s collection? (more…)
More >
Remote Patrolled Predicts: When Will Glee End?
Jul 25th
Hey everyone!
It’s time for a new feature here on the site. This one’s called Remote Patrolled Predicts and is my chance to predict the future for some of today’s veteran shows – and just how many more seasons they have left in them!
To kick us off we’ve a show I’ve talked about a LOT here on the site. But if you ask me the end is nigh for everyone’s favorite high school musical… but do you agree?
Ratings Roundup – 23rd July 2011
Jul 23rd
Winners and Losers From The Last 7 Days
WINNERS:
Regular Remote Patrolled readers will know I’m not a huge Gordon Ramsay fan, but there’s no arguing with the numbers. During the summer months, Ramsay is a valuable asset to Fox, scoring relatively strong numbers against the limited network competition.
On Monday night, Ramsay ruled screens with the return of Hell’s Kitchen managing a decent 5.84 million and a 2.5 18-49 share and Masterchef following closely behind with 5.62 million and a 2.4. Sure the total viewers aren’t earth shattering, but bear in mind that Hell’s Kitchen is now in its ninth season. And then compare the numbers with NBC’s still new Marriage Ref – which on Sunday night scored just over 3 million viewers and a measly 1.0 18-49 share (and that was UP on last week). Who’s the donkey now?
Breaking Bad: Some good news for AMC, still reeling from the mass audience revolt against that controversial Killing season finale! Returning drama Breaking Bad hit a ratings high on Sunday night at 10pm, with 2.56 million viewers and a 1.1 18-49 share. That’s up by 32% on the season 3 premiere and the show’s highest ratings ever. Also bear in mind that Breaking Bad averaged just 1.2 million More >
First Look: The Walking Dead – The Full Season 2 Trailer
Jul 22nd
Here it is – the trailer we’ve all been waiting for – the extended look at The Walking Dead season 2
Yep, it’s been a good few days since I last mentioned my favorite zombie drama epic – so I didn’t want you all to be getting withdrawal symptoms!
The trailer was unveiled at Comic Con today and is pretty darn fantastic. I love the hiding-under-the-cars sequence – although wouldn’t the zombies be able to sniff the humans out? Still it’s terrific, dramatic stuff and looks to me like this is a key scene from episode one.
Today we also learned that The Walking Dead is getting an earlier time slot – 9pm EST – and will be launching a couple of weeks earlier than last year, 16th October rather than Halloween. Still too far away though…
Anyway here’s the trailer – take a look and start sending over your comments! (more…)
Cool Commercial: Samsung’s Unleash Your Fingers
Jul 22nd
Here at Remote Patrolled we’re always on the lookout for cool clip and commercials to share with the world – and yesterday this pretty amazing viral campaign from France caught my eye…
The clip’s called Unleash Your Fingers and celebrates the launch of the Galaxy SII phone in France. To promote the product Samsung flew in ‘finger tutting’ phenomenon JayFunk to showcase his rather unique skills.
Seems to have worked – the video’s already been viewed over 3 million times after just a month online…
Be sure to keep watching until the 0.38 mark, where the ad gets REALLY interesting…
Cool stuff, huh? (more…)
