Apologies in advance for the lengthy post but there is so much happening this weekend! Don’t hesitate, read on, read on!!!
1. Mid-Season Premieres/Returns/Finales/Milestones! So much premiering and ending this weekend. The easy stuff first, CBS shuffles its timeslot around tonight with Undercover Boss and A Gifted Man switching up their times, while on Sunday, The Simpsons reach their 500th episode. Aye Carumba! Sunday night, we have the season premiere of HBO’s Eastbound & Down and the series debut of Life’s Too Short while NBC premieres the newest season of Celebrity Apprentice. While we say hello to some new friends, we say goodbye (maybe, forever) to an old one, a as ABC’s Pan Am concludes its 14 episode run (while its fate hangs in the balance). Other cable premieres this weekend include Curious and Unusual Deathsat 10 on the Health Network, Style Network premieres of Jerseylicious at 8 and Big Rich Texas at 9; and E!’s premieres of Khloe & Lamar at 10 and Ice Loves Coco at 10:30.
2. TV Tonight! CBS is new with Undercover Boss, A Gifted Man and Blue Bloods while NBC goes with The 43rd NAACP Image Awards. Fox has its normal Friday night Kitchen Nightmares and Fringe (only one more episode before the hiatus) while ABC airs Shark Tank at 8 and a two hour special of 20/20 – One Moment in Time: The Life of Whitney Houston and CW has Nikita at 8 and Supernatural at 9. On cable, you can two hours of Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, shows on TBS from 8-10; or get all end of days with History and its Ancient Aliens: The Mayan Conspiracy; or better yet, let Animal Planet scare the beejezus out of you with Infested! at 9 and I Shouldn’t Be Alive at 10. Yay Options! Enjoy!
3. TV Sunday! TV is abuzz on the broadcast channels and cable this Sunday with all new offerings across the board, starting with CBS’s lineup of The Amazing Race, The Good Wife and CSI: Miami. NBC gives us the two hour premiere of this season’s Celebrity Apprentice (does Trump even do the non-celebrity version anymore?) starting at 9 while Fox has a whole night of Animation Domination. ABC leads the night with new Once Upon a Time, Desperate Housewives and Pan Am (season? series? finale) . On cable, if its not too soon for you, check out Discovery’s special, Cruise Ship Disaster: Inside the Concordia at 10pm. Comedy Central offers us the I Ain’t Scared of You: A Tribute to Bernie Mac at 10; AMC has new a night of newness with The Walking Dead at 9 and Comic Book Men at 10; for the kids, check out the Bubble Guppies special, Bubble Puppy’s Fin-tastic Fairy Tale at 8 on Nick; and TLC goes with Little People Big World: Battle for the Farm at 8, Hoarding: Buried Alive at 9 and two new episodes of My Strange Addiction in the 10pm hour. HBO is a hot bed of activity tonight with new Luck at 9 and the premieres of Eastbound & Down (season) and Life’s Too Short (series) at 10 and 10:30. If you are feeling manly, may we suggest History’s Ax Men at 9 and Full Metal Jousting at 10. If you’re feeling rednecky, go with Animal Planet all night Hillbilly Handfishin’ at 8, Gator Boys at 9, Finding Bigfoot at 10 and Rattlesnake Republic at 11. Wow.
4. Casting News! Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, Once Upon a Time) is set to guest star on an episode of Community … once it makes it back to the airwaves. The red-headed stepchild of NBC’s Thursday night lineup has been very active lately booking guest stars which perhaps is a sign that things are happening behind the scenes? Ryan Hansen (Veronica Mars) has been cast as the lead male in the Fox comedy pilot, El Jefe (which sounds just dreadful). Chloe Sevigny (Big Love) will guest star on an upcoming episode of Law & Order: SVU. Jenny McCarthy, hot on the news of her new VH-1 show (reported yesterday), has been tapped as the host of the second season of NBC’s summer show, Love in the Wild. The hysterical Michael Urie (Ugly Betty) has been cast as the gay lead on the Will & Grace knock off, Partners, which is a comedy pilot for CBS. We reported that Sophia Bush was also added to the cast earlier this week. Its been a good week for the Ugly Betty alum! Kristin Kreuk (Smallville) has been cast as the “Beauty” half of the reboot series, Beauty and the Beast, for CW. Sorry Ms. Kreuk, but you are not nearly as hot as mid-80′s Linda Hamilton! Last, the new Portia de Rossi pilot, The Smart One, announced that Jean Smart (lots of TV, most recently, Harry’s Law)and Malin Akerman (Childrens Hospital) have been added to the cast.
5. Bad Ideas for New Shows! Oh Oxygen!, you are better than this. Eh, actually you’re probably not better than that.
6. The Colbert Show has shut down production for the remainder of the week with no explanation given. My guess is for rehab or so Colbert can attend the Whitney funeral Saturday … or Both!
7. Following in the footsteps of Smash, NBC has released, online, the pilot episode of its next big, high-concept show, Awake. Why go to NBC.com when you can watch it here?!?
Thanks for the heads up on Bubble Guppies, must record for Lil’ Standing Blogger!