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EW.com >_ On the chilly Monday morning that Hollywood’s writers went on strike, Heroes creator Tim Kring called from the streets outside the Hollywood studio where his NBC series is shot. ”Yes, I’m picketing my own show,” says the 50-year-old writer-producer. ”So surreal.”
A memo saying “geek chic is going mainstream” must have circulated among network TV execs as they concocted this fall’s prime-time lineup.
Hoping to woo coveted geek eyeballs, they’ve put their money on nine new shows focusing on — or catering to — nerds, freaks and outsiders of every type.
“Geeks are the new cool,” said Teri Weinberg, NBC Entertainment’s executive vice president. “We are all gravitating towards the underdog.”
Geek TV shows like The Big Bang Theory, The Sarah Connor Chronicles and a retooled Bionic Woman make up roughly 20 percent of the major networks’ new prime-time programming for the 2007-08 season. They join returning geek favorites that include ABC’s Ugly Betty, NBC’s Heroes and the SciFi Channel’s Battlestar Galactica, which blasts back with a two-hour made-for-TV movie later in the year and a fourth season beginning in ‘08. (more…)
Once again, the too stuffy for their own good, Emmy Awards, proved that awarding career bodies of work over annual excellence is what they are all about. Cases in point, Tony Bennett won a few and the Sopranos took best drama. The top moments in the show were:Well-deserved wins went to 30 Rock for best comedy and the Office for best writing.
Surprise shutout: Heroes…of course, the 4400 was not even on the Emmy’s radar!
The lowlight–one word–Seacrest. (more…)
SEATTLE, Wash. & ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., Sep 04, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and NBC Universal today announced that a wealth of quality TV content from NBC Universal is now available on Amazon Unbox (http://unbox.amazon.com), Amazon.com’s digital video download service. Amazon Unbox and NBC Universal are offering customers a variety of content packages, including up to 30 percent off when purchasing full seasons of their
favorite TV series.Popular NBC shows now available on Amazon Unbox include the Emmy(R) Award-winning series The Office, the critically acclaimed drama Heroes, and Emmy(R)-nominated comedy 30 Rock. Beginning on September 10, Amazon Unbox customers can download for free — in advance of their network premieres — the pilot episodes of NBC’s new shows Bionic Woman, Chuck, Journeyman and Life. New episodes will be available on Amazon Unbox the day after they air on TV…
The New York Times has reported that NBC will not renew its iTunes contract–which ends in December. Surprisingly, NBC accounts for 40% of all iTunes’ downloads. Rumored reasons include NBC’s want to increase prices on their content via bundled content offers or NBC’s venture partnership with News Corp’s (NWS) YouTube competitor, Hulu.com - currently in private beta. Is this purely a negotiation tactic or will the following shows not be available on iTunes next year: 30 Rock, Heroes, The Office, Scrubs, My Name is Earl, SNL, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
