Remembering Dom DeLuise

On the Air Tonight:
Prime-Time Programming Options 

The Corner Bar

Note: The overnight (metered market) rating results for Tuesday, May 5 were not available due to the early release of The Programming Insider. National ratings for the week of April 27 are delayed and are expected to be included in tomorrow's column. And the fast affiliate results for Sunday, May 3 and Monday, May 4 are still not available at PIFeedback.

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Ratings Box:

-Record Results for First Round Basketball Coverage on TNT:

TNT’s coverage of the NBA Playoffs rose to an average 3.38 million viewers -- up 14 percent from last year’s already record breaking first round results. The overall 2.3 household rating for the 24 games was up by 10 percent from last year’s 22 games. Of particular note was coverage of the game seven showdown between the Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics on Saturday, May 2, which finished as the most-watched Round One game in cable television history in households (5.02 million) and total viewers (6.99 million).

-Strong Start for Disney Channel’s Jonas:

Jonas, the new Disney Channel sitcom featuring red-hot the Jonas Brothers, opened on Saturday, May 2 as the top-rated program for the evening in kids 6-11 (1.6 million), tweens 9-14 (1.6) and the girl demos, Comparably, the Jonas Brothers outdelivered the launch of Nickelodeon’s Fairly OddParents: Wishology across all key demos, with 4.0 million viewers in total.

What follows are the top 20 rated series in syndication (first-run and off-network) based on households for the week of April 20:

Wheel of Fortune (CBS Television Distribution): 6.5 rating, Jeopardy (CBS): 5.6, Oprah (CBS) and Two and a Half Men (Warner Bros.): 4.7 each, Judge Judy (CBS): 4.2, Entertainment Tonight (CBS): 4.1, Family Guy (Twentieth Television): 3.9, Seinfeld (Sony Pictures Television) and CSI: NY (CBS): 3.3 each, Dr. Phil (CBS): 3.2, Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS) and Inside Edition (CBS): 3.0 each, George Lopez (Warner Bros.) and Law & Order: SVU (NBC Universal): 2.8 each, Wheel of Fortune – Weekend (CBS): 2.7, Live With Regis & Kelly (Disney-ABC) and King of the Hill (Twentieth): 2.6 each, Seinfeld – Weekend (SPT): 2.5, King of Queens (SPT) and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (Disney-ABC): 2.4 each

CBS Television Distribution’s The Insider (1.9) had the largest week-to-week increase of any strip in first-run, with its best performance in one month.

The Doctors (2.0), also from CBS, was the highest rated new first-run strip for the 14^th consecutive week. Second was NBC Universal’s Deal or No Deal, with a 1.6.

-Two and a Half Men has now led the off-net sitcom genre for 79 consecutive weeks. 

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

On the Air Tonight:
Prime-Time Programming Options

10:00 p.m. The Unusuals

 8:00 p.m. The New Adventures of Old Christine

 8:30 p.m. Gary Unmarried

10:00 p.m. CSI: NY (R)

 8:00 p.m. Law & Order: Criminal Intent (season premiere)

10:00 p.m. Law & Order

 9:00 p.m. American Idol

 8:00 p.m. America’s Next Top Model

 9:00 p.m. 90210 (R)

 8:00 p.m. World’s Funniest Moments

 9:00 p.m. World’s Funniest Moments (R)

Comedian, actor and author Dom DeLuise passed away in his sleep at a Los Angeles hospital on Monday. He was 75. 

Best known for his roles in several Mel Brooks classics, including Blazing Saddles, Spaceballs, Robin Hood: Men in Tights and The History of the World, Part 1, Brooklyn, New York born DeLuise honed his acting skills with early appearances on TV series like The Dean Martin Show, The Munsters, Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. In 1968, he headlined summer variety series The Dom DeLuise Show, followed by a self-titled sitcom called The Dom DeLuise Show, which aired in first-run syndication in the 1987-88 season.

Later roles for DeLuise included appearances opposite personal friend Burt Reynolds in theatricals Smokey and the Bandit, The Cannonball Run, The End and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and on detective drama B.L. Stryker. Other big screen hits included Fatso and The Muppet Movie. Diversified DeLuise, in addition, was the author of children’s books Charlie The Caterpillar and Goldie Locks & The Three Bears: The Real Story!, and cookbooks Eat This! and Eat This, Too!. He also traveled the game show route as the host of a revival of Candid Camera from 1991-92.

DeLuise is survived by his wife of 44 years, Carol Arthur, and sons Peter, Michael and David. DeLuise and his sons, in fact, appeared together on NBC sci-fi drama Seaquest DSV and NBC sitcom 3^rd Rock From the Sun. 

TV Tidbits:

Notes of Interest

-Entourage Heads to Spike TV:

Repeats of hit HBO comedy Entourage will begin airing on Spike TV in January 2010. The off-net acquisition, which is exclusive to Spike TV on cable, will consist of all 78 episodes (plus the upcoming sixth season).

-More True Jackson:

Nickelodeon has renewed live action Saturday night comedy True Jackson for a second season, with an order for 20 additional episodes. 

-Fox Cancels Talkshow with Spike Feresten:

Fox has swung the axe on three year-old Talkshow with Spike Feresten, which will temporarily clear its Saturday night slate clean of any talk shows. Veteran MADtv concludes its 14-season run on May 16. The network, however, has not abandoned the format and will air a new talk show with comedian Wanda Sykes in the fall. Sykes, a current co-star on CBS’ The New Adventures of Old Christine, will have a busy year if she stays with the sitcom. ABC has already announced it will renew Old Christine for a full season (22 episodes) if CBS drops it.

-NBC to Document Farrah’s Cancer Battle:

NBC will air Farrah’s Story, a two-hour documentary on Friday, May 15 that will chronicle Farrah Fawcett’s ongoing battle with cancer and was shot with Fawcett’s own video recorder. Featured will be Ryan O’Neal and Farrah’s former Charlie’s Angels co-stars, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith.

-Upcoming on Disney XD:

Disney XD has renewed Aaron Stone for a second season, with an unspecified number of new episodes for 2009-10, and will introduce a new multi-camera series tentatively titled Viper Slap. Viper Slap, which begins production in July, will feature a teenager who has the opportunity to become the new lead guitarist for his favorite vintage rock band.

-Good News with Daryn Kagan Available to TV Stations:

Daryn Kagan and Sewee Entertainment have announced the launch of Good News with Daryn Kagan, a syndicated news service featuring news reporting for Daryn Kagan, the creator and host of DarynKagan.com. The news service is available to television stations for use in their newscasts and websites, with five weekly one-to-two minute video news reports. For more information, contact Tim Voit at 843/224-3444 or via email at Tim@Sewee.net.

-Jimmy Kimmel in Prime-Time:

No, Jimmy Kimmel is not heading to prime-time five nights per week like Jay Leno on NBC. But, mirroring last year, the ABC late night host will headline a half-hour edition in prime leading into the basketball finals each night they air. The first earlier edition of Kimmel airs Thursday, June 4 at 8 p.m. ET.

-GMA: The 2009 Summer Concert Series:

ABC’s Good Morning America has announced its 2009 Summer Concert Series, which is sponsored by Walgreens. Kicking off the series on Friday, May 22 will be Grammy Award winning Green Day on May 22. Next is Lionel Richie on May 29, followed by John Legend (June 5), The Jonas Brothers (June 12), Jamie Foxx (June 19), the cast of Broadway’s Hair (June 26), Brad Paisley (July 3), Queen Latifah (July 10), Kelly Clarkson (July 31), Kenny Chesney (August 14) and Reba McIntyre (August 21). For more information, go to www.abcnews.com.

-Mark Your Calendars:

Lifetime Television has announced that season three of drama Army Wives will open on Sunday, June 7 at 10 p.m. ET. 

TV Trivia Time:

The Corner Bar

Which one of the following TV characters was often seen with a beer (or two) at the Warsaw Tavern?

The answer to yesterday’s question…

Which one of the following sitcoms had its theme song sung by country crooners The Judds?

Is: d) The Torkelsons, the early 1990s NBC sitcom that was re-titled Almost Home in its short-lived second season. Once The Torkelsons became Almost Home, two of the five Torkelson tots (Steven Floyd and Ruth Ann) suddenly disappeared. They join Chuck Cunningham (Happy Days), Judy Winslow (Family Matters), John-Curtis Willard (The Waltons – Mary Ellen’s son), Charlie Walton (The Waltons – Ben’s son) and Samantha Molloy (Life With Bonnie) in the land of the lost TV children.

-Current kudos goes to:
Gerry Bixenspan, Larry Collins, Tom Condosta, Annie Courtney, John Ferlazzo, Arleen Fong, Bob Ingersoll, Tom Kilgallon, Synda Kollman, Alan Perris, Gordon Purcell, Colleen Roth, Ron Salmon, Michelle Stanton