Friday, May 4, 2012

NEWS ROUNDUP: Decline in TV Viewing, Double-Dipping, Patrick Duffy Superhero, RIP Adam Yauch

Double-dipping in primetime
The past few seasons of must-watch TV have double-dipped on some familiar faces.

Nielsen Reports a Decline in Television Viewing
While the vast majority of American homes still have functioning television sets, more than one million no longer meet Nielsen’s definition of a “TV household:” those that have at least one television set and a cable, satellite or antenna connection.

Last year, for the first time in 20 years, Nielsen said the number of such households had dropped to 114.7 million, from 115.9 million previously, despite a rise in the number of households in the country. On Thursday, Nielsen said the figure had dropped further, this time to 114.1 million.

Not surprisingly, given the lower number of households with TV sets, the total number of Americans who watched any traditional TV in a given month also declined during the last three months of 2011, according to Nielsen: 284.4 million, down about 1.7 percent from 289.3 million during the same time period in 2010.

DEVIOUS MAIDS pilot looking better at ABC
Marc Cherry’s DEVIOUS MAIDS was recently given permission to make senior writing staff offers ahead of its official screening, which bodes well for the dramedy. AMERICANA also is strong following its screening, as most ABC drama pilots are still in contention. Sudser-wise, that includes NASHVILLE ahead of its screening and to some extent PENOZA.

Jonathan Frid became one of the first to portray the undead in a sympathetic light
Echoing some British daytime soaps, DARK SHADOWS was noted for its wobbly scenery and basic production values. With swirling cape and haunted eyes, Frid stole the show as an 18th-century man venturing from the crypt in which he had been entombed to make sense of a 20th-century world.

DALLAS Star Patrick Duffy Admits Losing Super-Hero Job Was A Blessing
Before he was Bobby Ewing on the mega successful nighttime soap DALLAS, actor Patrick Duffy was one of television’s first comic book super-heroes on the short lived NBC-TV series THE MAN FROM ATLANTIS. As an amnesiac thought to be the last surviving citizen of the lost civilization of Atlantis, Duffy's character had extraordinary underwater superpowers. Duffy reminisced in an interview on Thursday about his days as a superhero and how losing that job may have been the best thing that could have happened to his career.



Any chance of a Bobby and Pam reunion on DALLAS?
Brenda Strong understands she has big shoes to fill in the eyes of many longtime fans. “Obviously the audience loves [Pam]. As they should, [she] was a great character,” Strong says. But she also echoes Duffy’s sentiments that the new Mr. and Mrs. Bobby Ewing are built to last: “Unless one of us dies, with the ability for us to work through problems that we have in this first season it definitely paves a very solid foundation for the future.”

Beastie Boys Co-Founder Adam Yauch Dead at 47
Adam Yauch, one-third of the pioneering hip-hop group the Beastie Boys, has died at the age of 47. Yauch, also known as MCA, had been in treatment for cancer since 2009. The rapper was diagnosed in 2009 after discovering a tumor in his salivary gland.

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