'Community' Is a Hit Now
NBC's perpetual underdog may show signs of life, a new reality show is a sad sign of the times, and Tim Burton has ruined Dark Shadows.
.The Call Sheet sifts through the day's glut of Hollywood news to find the stories even non-industry types can care about. Today: NBC's perpetual underdog may show signs of life, a new reality show is a sad sign of the times, and Tim Burton has ruined Dark Shadows.
Cult favorite sitcom Community returned to the airwaves last night after a much-moaned about hiatus (that some feared was a cancellation), and people were apparently quite excited to welcome it back. The show posted a 2.2 rating and attracted 4.9 million viewers, which doesn't sound like much but considering the previous episode, all those months ago, only hit a 1.5 and reeled in 3.6 million, that's a pretty big growth. Biggest of all, though, is that in the super super rarified and most special 18-34 demographic, the show was the best rated of anything on the four main networks. Soooo that's pretty, pretty good! What happened? Was it the Jim Rash Oscar bump? Some sort of Chevy Chase revival? Or, did the show's fans spend so much time these past few agonizing months screaming and yelling and thrashing about this damn show that everyone else was like "FINE. Fine. I will watch an episode of this show when it comes back now please god stop talking about Community"? We think that that's maybe the reason! But who knows. The bigger question is whether or not the show can sustain these numbers. We don't think it's very likely, but crazier things have happened. The important thing is that, yes, lots more people than usual watched Community last night so don't take a good thing for granted, fanboys, and just play it cool, OK? Let's try to keep usage of the phrase "six seasons and a movie" to the barest of minimums, please. Thank you. [The Hollywood Reporter]
In other TV success news, NBC has decided to renew their modern fairy tale series Grimm for a second season. So, good for you, Grimm fans. Are there Grimm fans? Well, there must be some. This show is not to be confused with ABC's goopfest Once Upon a Time, which swaps out the spooky crime procedural stuff of Grimm for a sixth grader's idea of romance and a precocious kid that we wish would be eaten by the Big Bad Wolf. Sorry, harsh words we know, but good god that kid. Good god that show! Worst thing about it is that we just cannot stop watching it. [Deadline]
CBS has ordered a new reality show to be hosted by Lisa Ling. The show is called The Job and is basically like Chopped except instead of competing with food for money, each episode the contestants are competing for a job which will give them money which they can use to buy food. Yes. It's The Apprentice except that it's just a job, not some big Donald Trump honorary position kind of thing. It's just people competing for a job. Just any old job, on national television. Sigh. Amazing times we live in, huh? [Vulture]
Oh terrific. Professional esoteric reference maker Dennis Miller, who of late has become something of a conservative pundit, has been cast on an ABC pilot called Awesometown. Miller will be playing the lead character's scary boss. Crazy. We haven't been this excited since Edmund Muskie was hired by the Carter administration. Or, hm, what about: No one's been this excited since Mari Aldon gave Darren McGavin a hander on the set of Summertime. There. That was good and random, right? See, Mr. Miller? Anyone can do it! You're not so special. [The Hollywood Reporter]
John Corbett has been cast as the lead on the pilot Widow Detective. The show is not about a guy who investigates the shady dealings of widows, though someone should really make that show, it is about "a decorated police detective who, after losing three partners in the line of duty, becomes surrogate husband, lover and father to their families." 1) Please never use the word "lover" like that, ever. Never ever. 2) Three partners? Good grief, guy. Where are you? "Go! I'll cover you... just as soon as I finish this Soduku... And the one goes here and— Aw, crap. Not again." Maybe this show should be called Fired Detective. Or at least Investigated Detective. [Deadline]
Here is a trailer for the new Dark Shadows movie and instead of doing something campy but still serious and scary they have gone and made a dumb joke out of the whole thing and good grief when did Tim Burton turn into such a hack? Ugh. We have nothing more to say about this because it is so upsetting.