Glee First Look: The 2011 Christmas Special

Glee First Look: The 2011 Christmas Special

Looks like Artie has truly found his calling in life.

In the following exclusive clip from Tuesday’s Glee (airing 8/7c on Fox), the West Side Story director is asked to once again take the reins of a major production.

But this time around, the stakes are really high because Artie is helming a television special featuring New Directions!

Meanwhile, the Christmas spirit is in the air at McKinley High as Mercedes belts out Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” in our second sneak peek below, a performance that inspires a lot of flirting in the choir room.

The Promo

All I Want for Christmas

Do They Know it's Christmas

Friday Night Dead Zone: Where Nerds Keep Shows Alive

Friday Night Dead Zone: Where Nerds Keep Shows Alive

Friday night remains a ratings dead zone, where shows go to either die or compete, "Hunger Games" style, in a final, desperate bid for survival.

Once in a while, a show can surprise there, as NBC's "Grimm" has done this season. But survival demands that shows find favor with the lords of this land, who -- can we be honest? -- tend to be nerds. Or have some nerdish tendencies. (Your humble correspondent says this as someone who owns many, many boxes of comics and played oboe in junior high.)

In a look at this season's biggest ratings gainers and losers, four of the 10 shows that have posted the biggest losses did so after a move to Friday -- and one, CW's "Supernatural," was already there. We compared ratings for this season through the week of Nov. 13, compared to the same period last year. (See chart, left).

No show on television has slid more than "Chuck," which is down 55 percent as it serves out its final season in the dead zone.

The slides are no surprise. Because Friday night draws so few viewers, it has become a place for shows that skew older, or for sci-fi and fantasy tinged shows whose fans would follow them to hell.

Or even Fridays.

Shows like "Supernatural," "Chuck," and Fox's "Fringe" might not be able to survive elsewhere. But they are a gift to TV executives on Friday nights, because they offer small but die-hard followings on a night when little is guaranteed.

"You're not going to give Friday the weight you might give other nights on your schedule, so it's always good if you use shows that have built-in audiences," said Preston Beckman, Fox's executive vice president of strategic program planning and research. "We're not going to go dark, so you've got to put something on. Better to put on something that has a built-in audience."

Beckman, let it be noted, did not once use the word "nerds."

Only one new show has debuted strong on Friday nights this season -- and would you believe one of its lead characters is a wolf? "Grimm" has averaged a 1.8 rating in the 18-to-49 demographic -- a low number any other weeknight, but an impressive one for a Friday.

The show's ratings were good enough to earn it its first Thursday tryout last night. It scored a low 1.6 rating that was nonetheless NBC's best in the timeslot in 11 weeks.

If it makes a move to another weeknight, "Grimm" will be the rare show that not only survives on Friday, but escapes it.

Eddie Murphy to Get Cracking on Marion Barry Biopic

Eddie Murphy to Get Cracking on Marion Barry Biopic

"Tower Heist" star Eddie Murphy, who recently bowed out of the hosting gig for next year's Oscars, is attached to play scandal-plagued former Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry in a biopic that's being developed by HBO Films, HBO confirms to TheWrap.

Spike Lee will direct the project, while John Ridley (whose resume includes "The Wanda Sykes Show," the "Barbershop" TV series and "Undercover Brother") will write the script. Murphy, Lee and Ridley will all serve as executive producers.

The project's source material will include the 1994 book "Dream City" by Washington, D.C. journalists Harry Jaffe and Tom Sherwood, who will serve as consultants on the project. Also consulting: Dana Flow and Toby Oppenheimer, who made the 2009 documentary "The Nine Lives of Marion Barry."

Barry initially served as mayor of D.C. -- he was the city's second mayor -- from 1979 to 1991, but his political career was temporarily placed on hold due to a drug scandal during which he was videotaped smoking crack cocaine. After serving six months in federal prison, Barry was elected to the D.C. city council, and was elected mayor again in 1994. He currently serves as a member of the Council for the District of Columbia.

Oops: Rick Perry's Wearing a 'Brokeback Mountain' Jacket

Oops: Rick Perry's Wearing a 'Brokeback Mountain' Jacket

Oh, Rick Perry, as long as you keep providing the oops moments, the media definitely won't be able to quit you.

A day after the release of his already infamous "Strong" campaign ad -- the one in which he bashes the idea of gays serving in the military -- Perry is making fashion news of sorts.

If you think that jacket he's wearing in the "Strong" ad looks familiar, it should … it's almost identical to the one Heath Ledger wore in "Brokeback Mountain."

And it's a jacket that -- kudos to Yahoo! for digging up the evidence -- the late "Brokeback Mountain" costume designer Marit Allen noted was chosen to help convey the repressed homosexuality of Ledger's cowboy, Ennis.

Nate Berkus Show Not Returning for Third Season

Nate Berkus Show Not Returning for Third Season

"The Nate Berkus Show," starring Oprah Winfrey's favorite interior designer, will fold at this end of its current, second season, TheWrap has confirmed.

The decorating-centered show will still air the remainer of its second season. The series premiered last year, but never caught ratings fire.

Winfrey, a champion of Berkus, left the airwaves earlier this year to focus on her OWN network. But a person close to the Berkus show told TheWrap that it will not be following Winfrey to OWN.

"After careful consideration, we have decided that 'The Nate Berkus Show' will not return for a third season in the fall," Sony Pictures Television and Harpo Studios said in a joint statement. "We are grateful for the hard work and heart that Nate, [executive producer] Corin Nelson and their entire team have poured into the show, and we're very proud of what they've delivered."

Berkus leaves a daytime landscape that will soon be crowded with new shows from Jeff Probst and Katie Couric, among others.

The show's end was first reported by Broadcasting & Cable.

Lifetime's Remaking 'The Blue Lagoon'

Lifetime's Remaking 'The Blue Lagoon'

It sealed Brooke Shields' status as a teen star (and, trivia, made her the first-ever recipient of the Worst Actress Razzie), and now Lifetime is going to remake the 1980 drama "The Blue Lagoon."

Lifetime confirmed to TheWrap the made-for-TV do-over will be produced by Neil Meron and Craig Zadan's Storyline Entertainment and Judith Verno's Peace Out Productions will produce in association with Sony Pictures Television.

The 1980 movie starred Shields and Christopher Atkins as Emmeline and Richard, two children who grow up together while marooned on a deserted island, fall in love, experiment with the birds and the bees and don't initially realize why Emmeline's tummy begins to grow.

The Lifetime remake will actually be the third version of the movie; the story is based on a 1908 novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole, as the first of a "Blue Lagoon" trilogy. A 1949 movie adaptation of the first novel starred Oscar nominee Jean Simmons and Donald Houston.

In 1991, Milla Jovovich and Brian Krause both earned Razzie nominees as the stars of "Return to the Blue Lagoon," a sequel to the 1980 film.

Meanwhile, the movie becomes the second big screen-to-boob tube makeover in Lifetime's upcoming slate. The network is also producing a remake of "Steel Magnolias," the 1989 drama that earned Julia Roberts her first Oscar nomination. The Lifetime remake will feature an all-black cast.

'Glee' Drama: Is Lea Michele Leading a Mutiny?

'Glee' Drama: Is Lea Michele Leading a Mutiny?

It sounds like the title of Fox's musical "Glee" might be growing more ironic by the day.

Us Magazine reports that "Glee" creator Ryan Murphy has turned into nothing short of an ogre, and that it's gotten so bad that star Lea Michele is staging a mutiny.

Rachel Berry, revolutionary? "The cast has been speaking about banding together against him, and Lea is leading the charge," a source tells the magazine.

Michele's rep denies the magazine's claims, telling TheWrap that the article is "completely false."

The report cites a grueling schedule as the major reason for the unrest, but there are other factors involved, it says. They include the cast being denied raises for the current season, and not receiving money from "Glee" songs sold on iTunes.

"Things are really bad on set," the magazine's source claims. "The cast talks about how much they love Ryan, but they have grown to hate him."

At one point, according to Us, when Michele complained about going on the "Glee" tour, Murphy replied with a not-so-veiled threat.

"He asked her which of her friends she wanted him to fire," according to a source.

So is there really a revolt in the works?

Besides the denial from Michele's representative (Murphy's spokesperson offered no comment), a look at Michele's Twitter account also suggests that reports of an overthrow at McKinley High might be exaggerated. Sure, Murphy might be a prickly sort -- as evidenced by his public feud with Kings of Leon -- but Michele's tweets don't exactly read like the journal of a tormented prisoner.

"So thankful for my glee cast and my entire #glee family:)," Michele recently wrote.

And while many of her tweets do reflect a hectic work schedule, there's probably no need to call OSHA to the set just yet.

"Omg been working so hard all day I realized I haven't tweeted in hours!" one tweet notes.

As for getting hosed on "Glee"'s iTunes sales? Michele recently tweeted her elation that the "Glee" tune "We Are Young" had climbed to the top of the iTunes sales chart.

"We Are Young is #1 on iTunes!! That's so amazing!!!" Michele gushed.

Not exactly the words of someone who's enraged at being robbed blind over royalties.