Saturday, April 11, 2009

News Round-up: FNL Finale, Yvonne Perry, Tina O'Brien

A Few Bright Spots Among Spring Class
As the broadcast networks head into the final months of a particularly grueling season with few new hits to speak of, the pressure is on to find another scripted series to prop up a failing average.

The handful of spring premieres represent the networks' last crack at scripted redemption before they cede the field to cable, reality and backyard barbecues for the summer. And while spring has historically yielded some breakout hits like ABC's GREY'S ANATOMY, this year has been marked by a dearth of them.

Variety: TV networks revise spending
They're not quite searching Craigslist or the 99 Cents Only store, but the broadcast networks are in serious bargain-hunting mode. And they're finding programming deals in more than just the reality-show aisle. Network execs are sending a message to the industry: "We can't live the way we've lived in the past."

The old-style model of funding a pilot for $3 million-$10 million -- when it has only a 10% chance of survival -- can't be sustained much longer, they say. Ditto the hefty license fees for shows that are only performing so-so. The penny-pinching trend, which started with reality fare, and continued with the Leno-in-primetime plan, is gaining steam on several other fronts as well.

FNL finale: Some say goodbye, some stick around...for two more seasons!
Ken Tucker writes: "What a humdinger of a finale we got for a superlative season of Friday Night Lights. Could things have been more tense, emotional, or funny? Coming on the heels of the announcement that we'll get two more seasons of FNL thanks to the agreement between DirecTV and NBC, that rarest of things has occurred: a relatively low-rated but unusually high-quality show has been saved from cancellation."

INTERVIEW: FNL's Kyle Chander (Eric)
"The town is split up now. The town's got two teams and people are gonna be split up about it. There's going to be all sorts of stuff going on there that I can't even imagine. It's going to be fun; I'm really looking forward to it, and I know the writers are too."

CORRIE's Tina O'Brien: I was naive about storyline
Tina O'Brien has admitted she was too naive to realize how big a furore her teenage CORONATION STREET character would create when she became pregnant. The actress also said she received letters from young fans identifying with Sarah Louise Platt's plight.

"It was really big at the time," she recalled. "At the time I didn't realize it because I was very new to it all and naive, so I didn't realise what a big sort of splash it made really, but yeah I did get a lot of people writing in to me, even young girls saying: 'I'm in a similar situation'."

Yvonne Perry (ex-Rosanna, ATWT) cancer update
"I’m done with my surgeries and it’s back to business as usual. Well, except for a curious phenomenon I refer to as 'pricker nips', which involves stray dissolvable stitches that are not in a hurry to go anywhere. Ouch, watch out for the little cacti! Add something else to the list of things no one prepares you for.

"Meanwhile, I’m pretty busy again. Some of you already know that I was down in the city the day after my last surgery auditioning for LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT. Perhaps I was still giddy from the anesthesia, or perhaps just feeling invincible, but I booked a fun scene with Julianne Nicholson and Jeff Goldblum – a.k.a. Detectives Wheeler and Nichols. We filmed last Thursday, and the episode (titled 'Passions') should air sometime in late May/early June. And no, I didn’t bash the skull of that girl in the alley. And yes, Jeff Goldblum is a quirky sweetheart, he was lovely to work with."

Ferry Doedens cast on GTST
Ferry Doedens, who appeared on season four of DUTCH IDOL, has been cast to portray GOEDE TIJDEN SLECHTE TIJDEN's first gay regular character, Lucas Sanders.

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