Thursday, July 23, 2009

News Round-up: CORRIE, Tom, 10 THINGS, T.R.

CORONATION STREET's first Thursday episode in 50 years airs tonight
CORRIE fans will be tuning in tonight for the first Thursday episode in the soap's 50-year history. Those who expected to see the STREET at 7.30pm last night got GRIMEFIGHTERS instead. The controversial move has bewildered many fans. But ITV bosses say it is necessary to make way for coverage of this year's Uefa Champions League. It is the end of an era for devoted Street fans, who have watched stalwarts such as brassy Elsie Tanner and battle-axe Ena Sharples on Wednesdays ever since the show started in 1960.

ITV.com to launch exclusive CORONATION STREET content
ITV.com has commissioned a range of exclusive CORONATION STREET digital content in a bid to attract more users to the soap’s new site. The site will boast more than 100 minutes of premium video content, including exclusive cast interviews, backstage footage and archive clips, along with three-minute episode catch-ups, episode summaries, sneak previews and character profiles. ITV.com also plans to launch CORRIE-specific mobile downloads and games later in the year. These will include ringtones and graphics that can be purchased directly from the site.

INTERVIEW: B&B's Heather Tom (Katie)
Tom was a guest on "BuzzWorthy Radio" on Wednesday night.

T.R. Knight on why he left GREY'S ANATOMY
“There just comes a time when it’s so clear that moving on is the best decision,” Knight says in this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly, on newsstands tomorrow. The actor cites a “breakdown in communication” with Rhimes and says he asked to be let out of his $14 million contract three years early.

“My five-year experience proved to me that I could not trust any answer that was given [about his character, George],” states Knight, who says George evolved into someone he didn’t understand or even respect (the character slept with his best friend, Izzie — played by Katherine Heigl — while he was married to Sara Ramirez’s character, Callie). Knight also resented his noticeable lack of screen time. “It didn’t seem like an ebb to me,” he says. “No other series regular’s character had ever disappeared like mine did this past season.”

More TVs than humans
In 2009, there were nearly 115 million TV homes in the US, each averaging 2.86 TV sets, according to a new Nielsen study. That computes to nearly 329 million TV sets -- more than the entire US population, estimated at 307 million by the US Census Bureau. And the average number of TV sets-per-home has been growing steadily. It was up 18 percent over 2000 (2.43 sets-per-house) -- and up a whopping 43 percent over 1990 (when it was two TV sets-per-home).

Bay Area Reporter on the gays of daytime
"We're happy to see more queers on the TV landscape, but we'd like fewer of them to be criminals. Three out of six gay men on daytime are criminals, as is the one pseudo-bisexual (Adam is only using Rafe to get what he needs). Is this the way to go after decades of no gay characters at all? We think not."

More good ratings news for ABC Family
The series premiere of ABC Family’s RUBY & THE ROCKITS performed well enough for the cable network, drawing 654,000 P18-49 and 1.6 million total viewers. Those numbers make it the second best comedy launch in net history, trailing only the recently launched 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU in the demo and 2003’s ROOMMATES in total viewers. RUBY actually improved on its 10 THINGS lead-in by 6% in P18-49. Meanwhile, 10 THINGS posted double digit growth over last week’s installment, including a 22% boost in 18-49s to 616,000 and 45% in total viewers to 1.6 million.

ABC finalizes premiere dates
BROTHERS & SISTERS, now entering its fourth season, will resume the Walkers' saga on Sunday, Sept. 27, at 10 pm.

3 comments:

  1. "Phillip is a another scummy character, having faked his own death (a very popular soap motif) for over 20 years, sent a friend to pretend to be him, replete with frozen blood for the erstwhile DNA test. He ran out on his wife and infant son, who is now grown and fighting in Iraq. Phillip's rationale for faking his own death and destroying the lives of at least five other people is that he couldn't risk their disapproval if he came out to them."


    And this is why mixing the real life issues of an actor, in this case, has failed. Y&R's writers should have made Phillip's homosexuality been secondary for his leaving. Instead, the show should have focused on him suffering from depression. A story about depression would have made Phillip more sympathetic.

    Instead, we have Phillip the dirt bag who is unapologetic about dumping his wife, child, and mothers. Phillip was the son of a billionaire. He could have grabbed his trust fund, divorced his wife, and moved to San Francisco in the real world. Phillip wasn't some poor or middle class kid. He had real options.

    BTW, Y&R has released PSA for both ovarian cancer and Huntington's Disease. There have been no PSA's to advise about the runaway or mental health issues facing gay teens. Neither has the show issued one strictly for depression.

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  2. Lots of good comments. I agre about mixing real life issues in the storylines. With Barbara's oral cancer on ATWT I was okay with it (although they did nothing with it). But in the case of Thom/Phillip, it was too much of a stretch and the actor couldn't pull it off unfortunately. If there was any remorse that was supposed to be there, it hasn't come across yet.

    Interesting observations about the PSAs!

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  3. Roger,

    I was pulling for Thom Bierdz; still am. He's been saddled with TERRIBLE writing, poor direction, and an utter lack of imagination on the show's part not to use all of the video clips that show what a sweet but trouble kid he was, the relationships he had, or the fights between Nina, Katherine, and Jill.

    It's mind-boggling how in the age of YouTube and this site, Y&R couldn't have created a quick microsite devoted to Phillip Chancellor III. The show could have piggbacked it off the main Y&R page and produced it for a few thousand dollars. Add a few links to depression resources or gay teen runaway hotlines and the show could have won a few awards.

    So, I don't understand why Bell, Sheffer, Hammer, and Rauch didn't supervise this better.

    GL has its problems but Wheeler and crew know how to use the web decently.

    I'm just a little frustrated with some of the choices Y&R is making. It's obvious that the show is setting up for a baby switch. Sharon's baby will be taken and given to Ashley since their due dates are now suddenly close. (Strangely, Sharon doesn't have a baby bump showing like Ashley!!)

    As for Adam, when the whole Chris Engen thing blew up, on other soap sites, I kept bring up the fact that Adam as psycho seeming bisexual man was utterly stereotypical. Many, not all, gay commenters were focused on Engen quitting and the thought of hot scenes between Rafe and Adam not to understand that Adam is a wretch.

    Film and literature have used the stereotype of the depraved gay or bisexual man repeatedly. How much more twisted can a character be if he continues to torture a woman after causing her unborn child's death? Thanks, but I wouldn't want Adam on my team. Trade him.

    http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DepravedBisexual

    Doesn't this sound like Adam:

    "The typical Depraved Bisexual is bi because, well, they're simply just that depraved; their willingness to sleep with everyone they can is just one facet of their being Ax Crazy. A slightly less pathological version of the trope depicts the Depraved Bisexual as "simply" supremely manipulative; recognizing the effectiveness of sex as a control mechanism, they resort to it at every opportunity - reasoning that successful seductions gain new thralls, while even unsuccessful ones tend to increase others' fear of you."

    Now let's be honest. Why were so many gays so excited about Adam possibly being gay/bi instead of being outraged that Y&R was going to foist such stereotype on them?

    In retrospect, Y&R's attempts at bring queer folks on the show have been far from progressive:

    1) Adam: Psychopath

    2) Rafe: Gullible MacGuffin, two-dimensional character used to forward the story

    3) Phillip: Deadbeat, remorseless dad

    I don't think Bell, Sheffer, and Hammer set out to create a trio of losers but they sure as heck don't seem to have thought things through meticulously. Where are Y&R's gay writers? Don't they have a voice?

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