NBC's Smash: What the Critics Are Saying About the Premiere

NBC's Smash: What the Critics Are Saying About the Premiere

The Broadway-based show stars Katharine McPhee, Debra Messing, Anjelica Huston and Megan Hilty.

After much fanfare (and a The Voice lead in), NBC's midseason musical drama, Smash, finally premiered Monday night.

The show, based on a Broadway musical, stars industry heavyweights Anjelica Huston and Debra Messing as well as former American Idol contestant Katharine McPhee and virtual newcomer Megan Hilty.

After it's opening night premiere, the reviews are in ... and they're almost unanimously positive. 

THR's TV critic Tim Goodman calls the show "Glee for grown-ups," saying, "Smash is a surprisingly high-quality drama and entertainment well worth your investment of time and support, and that’s the only thing a viewer needs to be concerned about," but he does also note that the drama may be too niche for network.

Salon headlines their recap by calling the show "an irresistible take on Marilyn, musicals," before reviewer Kera Bolonik admits he doesn't like musicals: "For a curmudgeon like me, that has skin-crawl written all over it. Except that I was absolutely, instantly bewitched. By the writing. By the acting. By the story and the stories within the story. Even by — especially by — the music."

The Wall Street Journal highlight's the network's large promotional push, saying, After weeks and weeks of advertising, “Smash” premieres," but then goes on to praise the premier, writing," the show seems to have a lot of promise, and the musical numbers dazzled."

"Based on the premiere, which did the internet version of playing out-of-town try-outs on NBC’s website, I think you’d have to say this was one damn lively show with a lot of promise," writes Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker. "I’m a sucker for behind-the-scenes stories, for how-they-do-it productions, for catty exposes of how dirty one’s hands must get to create a gleaming-bright spectacle."

"Save It or Sink It?" asks E! Online ... though it's immediately clear what their reviewer wants to do. "Confession: we're crying. Don't worry! It's happy crying!" gushes the recap, calling the cast "amazing" before praising "the musical numbers! The drama! The hotness that is [Jack] Davenport!"

'Got to Dance': Two acts reach final, Kimberly Wyatt performs

'Got to Dance': Two acts reach final, Kimberly Wyatt performs

Boadicea and Fear of the Unknown made it into the live final of Got to Dance after winning the public vote last night.

The two acts triumphed in yesterday's second semi-final and will now compete in the grand finale next month.

Judge Adam Garcia described Fear of the Unknown, a dance troupe from Glasgow, as "amazing dancers" and "masters of the grand gestures", Kimberly Wyatt described their performance as "absolutely phenomenal", and Ashley Banjo praised their "energy and fire".

Meanwhile, Garcia told hip-hop group Boadicea that they have a "sensual female power", while Banjo said he is "so passionate" about them.

The semi-final also featured a performance from Wyatt, who danced to the Florence + the Machine track 'No Light No Light'.

Six more acts will perform next week in an attempt to make it through to the grand finale, which will be held at London's Olympia on March 4.

Got to Dance continues on Sunday at 6pm on Sky1.

TV Tonight 7th of February 2012

TV Tonight 7th of February 2012

The daily list in alphabetical order, of all the new episodes airing.

    112 - på liv och död S05E11: "Del 11 av 36"
    90210 S04E16: "No Good Deed"
    Ano Natsu de Matteru S01E05: "Episode 5"
    Another S01E05: "Build limbs"
    Arctic Air S01E05: "Northern Lights"
    Bleach (JP) S16E17: "The Sorrowful Battle! Ichigo vs. Sado & Orihime!"
    Bondi Vet S04E02: "Season 4, Episode 2"
    Campus PD S04E06: "Reports of a loud party bring the police"
    Coach Trip S09E07: "Series 9, Day 7"
    Come Dine With Me S18E20: "Series 18, Episode 17"
    Conan S02E46: "Dr. Phil McGraw, Keegan-Michael Key, Alabama Shakes"
    Cowboy Builders S06E06: "Update Show"
    Dance Moms S02E05: "Brooke's Back (FKA Burn, Pom Poms, Burn!)"
    Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou S01E05: "Episode 5"
    Days of our Lives S47E64: "Ep. #11774"
    Deal Or No Deal (UK) S07E153: "Episode 1833"
    Dickinson's Real Deal S08E46: "Series 8, Episode 46"
    Dirty Jobs S08E09: "Tower Top Hand"
    Doctors S13E193: "Appearances"
    EastEnders S28E23: "February 7, 2012"
    Emmerdale S41E32: "February 7, 2012"
    Escape To The Country S12E26: "Somerset"
    General Hospital (US) S49E216: "#12490"
    Glee S03E12: "The Spanish Teacher"
    Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden S22E112: "Season 22, Episode 112"
    Got to Dance S03E39: "Series 3, Episode 39"
    Halv åtta hos mig S08E10: "Linköping - Andreas"
    Hidden City S01E10: "TBA"
    Holby City S14E17: "The Best Man"
    Hollyoaks S18E27: "February 7, 2012"
    Home and Away (AU) S25E12: "Episode 5447"
    Hotel cæsar S28E147: "Season 28, Episode 147"
    Ink Master S01E04: "TBA"
    Jane By Design S01E06: "The Image Issue"
    Jeopardy! S28E102: "Show #6307"
    Jersey Couture S02E01: "TBA"
    Jimmy Kimmel Live S09E201: "Michelle Williams, Damon Wayans Jr., 50 Cent"
    Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best? S02E03: "TBA"
    Junior Doctors – Your Life In Their Hands S02E03: "Series 2, Episode 3"
    Justified S03E04: "The Devil You Know"
    Key & Peele S01E02: "Season 1, Episode 2"
    Last Call with Carson Daly S10E09
    Last Man Standing S01E15: "House of Spirits"
    Last Man Standing S01E16: "Tree of Strife"
    Late Night with Jimmy Fallon S02E215
    Late Show with David Letterman S19E21: "Denzel Washington, the Fray"
    Live with Regis and Kelly S29E116
    My First Place S21E08: "Inspection Rattles Dream House"
    Natsume Yūjin-Chō S04E06: "Other Side Of The Glass"
    NCIS S09E14: "Life Before His Eyes"
    NCIS: Los Angeles S03E14: "Partners"
    Nederland van boven S01E10: "De lucht in"
    Neighbours S28E22: "Episode 6332"
    New Girl S01E12: "The Landlord"
    Parenthood (2010) S03E15: "Politics"
    Pointless S05E111: "Series 5, Episode 111"
    Prisoners' Wives S01E02: "Episode 2"
    Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is S05E27: "Series 5, Episode 27"
    Ragin' Cajuns S01E04: "Under Pressure"
    Raising Hope S02E13: "Tarot Cards"
    Ringer S01E12: "What Are You Doing Here, Ho-Bag?"
    Shameless S09E06: "Series 9, Episode 6"
    Shipping Wars S01E10: "TBA"
    Shipping Wars S01E09: "TBA"
    Southland S04E04: "Identity"
    Switched at Birth S01E16: "Las Dos Fridas"
    Tabatha Takes Over S04E05: "Chill, Ventura: Ca"
    Teen Mom 2 S02E11: "Falling"
    The Biggest Loser S13E06: "Season 13, Episode 6"
    The Biggest Loser (2009) S03E06: "Series 3, Episode 6"
    The Bold and the Beautiful S25E226: "Ep. #6255"
    The Chase (2009) S05E26: "Series 5, Episode 26"
    The Ellen DeGeneres Show S09E95: "Martin Scorsese, Rachel McAdams"
    The Exit List S01E05: "Episode 5"
    The Fixer (UK) S01E02: "The Chough Bakery"
    The Game S05E05: "Drink, Pray, Love"
    The Jeremy Kyle Show S07E102: "February 7, 2012"
    The L.A. Complex S01E05: "Home"
    The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson S08E22: "Kenneth Branagh"
    The Real Housewives Of Orange County S07E01: "Season 7, Episode 1"
    The Revolution (2012) S01E17: "Season 1, Episode 17"
    The River S01E02: "Marbeley"
    The River S01E01: "Pilot"
    The Rosie Show S01E66: "Kendra Wilkinson, Hank Baskett"
    The Tonight Show with Jay Leno S19E236: "Chelsea Handler, Jon Huntsman, 2Cellos"
    The View S15E100
    The Young and the Restless S39E223: "Ep. #9838"
    Thuis S17E117: "Season 17, Episode 117"
    Tosh.0 S04E02: "How To Draw Guy"
    Unforgettable S01E14: "Carrie’s Caller"
    Veckans brott S04E04: "Mordfall i Rotebro utanför Stockholm"
    Wanted Down Under S06E27: "Series 6, Episode 27"
    Watch What Happens: Live S06E22: "Taylor Armstrong and Gretchen Rossi"
    White Collar S03E14: "Pulling Strings"

Super Bowl Most-Watched U.S. Show Ever; 'Voice' Scores Big

Super Bowl Most-Watched U.S. Show Ever; 'Voice' Scores Big

The Super Bowl narrowly edged out last year's to become the most-watched television show in U.S. history. It scored 111.3 million viewers, just over last year's 111 millon, which broke the 2010 record.

The 40.5 rating in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic was the highest for a Super Bowl in 16 years, thanks in part to a contest between the New England Patriots and victorious New York Giants that was close down to the final seconds. (The 1996 Super Bowl scored a 41.2 demo rating.)

Viewership climbed throughout the game, averaging 117.7 million in the final half hour. Madonna's halftime show was also the most-watched ever, and was seen by an average 114 million viewers.

The second-season premiere of NBC's "The Voice" after the Super Bowl, meanwhile, scored the highest ratings of any entertainment telecast since 2006.

"The Voice" scored a 16.3 rating in the key demo and 37.6 million total viewers overall. It was the best rating since a 16.5 for "Grey's Anatomy" after the Super Bowl on ABC in 2006, and provided a welcome boost for fourh-place network NBC.

The show was up 47 percent in the demo and 40 percent in total viewers over the episode of "Glee" that aired after the Super Bowl on Fox last year. ("Glee" scored an 11.1 and 26.8 million total viewers.)

The show airing after the Super Bowl is typically the highest-rated entertainment program of the season, and that will almost certainly be the case again this year. Prior to the post-game "Voice" premiere, the season's highest-rated entertainment program was the season premiere of "Two and a Half Men," which drew 27.7 million viewers curious to see how Ashton Kutcher would fill Charlie Sheen's shoes. It earned a 10.3 rating in the demo.

The strong ratings for "The Voice" bode well for the show as it moves to its new Monday time slot tonight, where it will challenge "Men" and other CBS comedies from 8 to 10 p.m. CBS's sitcom lineup has dominated Monday nights all season, but NBC hopes "The Voice" will thrive and provide a strong lead-in for the new musical drama "Smash" at 10.

Lifetime Planning Columbine Miniseries

Lifetime Planning Columbine Miniseries

Lifetime is developing a miniseries about the 1999 Columbine High School shootings, based on author Dave Cullen's bestselling 2009 book on the tragedy, "Columbine."

"An American Crime" and "United States of Tara" writer Tommy O'Haver will write the script for the movie, which will be produced by Michael DeLuca ("Moneyball" and "The Social Network"), and "Mildred Pierce" producers Christine Vachon and Pam Koffler.

Cullen confirms the project on his website, where he also says a stage play based on the book is in development.

Cullen spent a decade writing the book, a compelling, thorough account of the April 1999 shootings. High school students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 of their fellow students and a teacher, then committed suicide.

"Columbine" includes interviews with the survivors and friends and families of the victims and the shooters, as well as details on the police investigation, background on Harris and Klebold, and updates on life in Littleton, Colo., site of the shootings.

PILOTS SEASON TALENT: Which Actors Are Hot This Year And Other Casting Trends

PILOTS SEASON TALENT: Which Actors Are Hot This Year And Other Casting Trends

With pilot pickups almost completed, the focus shifts to casting them. Every year, there are a dozen or so name actors that attract 90% of the early pilot offers until the thesps pick a project or pass on all. After fielding multiple offers, some of the most sought after actors this year already made their choices. That includes Kevin Bacon, who is making his first foray into series with a starring role in the Fox’s Kevin Williamson project; Andre Braugher, who signed on to lead the cast of ABC’s drama pilot Last Resort; and JoAnna Garcia Swisher, who is set as the female lead in the Greg Berlanti/Greg Malins CBS comedy pilot. Other heavily pursued actors are still in play. In comedy that includes James Mardsen and Justin Long, who are hotly pursued coming off high-profile arcs on 30 Rock and New Girl, respectively, Damages‘ Rose Byrne and Ugly Betty alumna Becki Newton. Kyle Chandler is getting a ton of drama scripts but appears more inclined to do a cable project like his Friday Night Lights co-star Connie Britton who starred on the FX drama American Horror Story. James Purefoy also is popular in drama, and Without A Trace Anthony LaPaglia is fielding interest for both drama and comedy pilots.

As usual, there is a large contingent of feature actors that are being approached for pilots this season. The list includes Bacon, Long, Mardsen, Jane Fonda, Uma Thurman, Ed Harris, Hugh Grant, Tim Robbins, Michelle Monaghan, Anna Kendrick, Tea Leoni, Greg Kinnear, Ellen Barkin and Seann William Scott. TV stars that are being lured to return to series duty include Carol Burnett, Keri Russell, America Ferrera, Josh Holloway, Ian McShane, Tony Shalhoub, Allison Janney, Jean Smart and Weeds‘ Justin Kirk.

This season also marked a big resurgence of talent development/holding deals. It caps a trend of those pacts slowly coming back over the past several years after drying up almost completely in the mid-2000s, with both the networks and the studios  stepping up to lock in talent early. The actors signed in network deals this season include Martin Lawrence (CBS), Desperate Housewives co-star Vanessa Williams (ABC), former Law & Order star Jesse Martin (ABC/ABC Studios), The Talk and King Of Queens alumna Leah Remini (ABC/ABC Studios), former Greek star Scott Michael Foster (ABC), comedian Dane Cook (NBC), The Event star Jason Ritter (NBC), The Closer veteran Corey Reynolds (NBC) and Army Wives star Sally Pressman (NBC). Latino actors are particularly hot this season. Fox hired a Mexico-based casting director to search for untapped Latin American performers and ended up signing talent holding deals with Mexican actors Martha Higareda and Adan Canto. Meanwhile, ABC signed Gina Rodriguez, hot off her Sundance movie Filly Brown, and veteran John Leguizamo. On the studio side, 20th Century Fox TV inked development deals with Lie To Me star Tim Roth and Scrubs alumna Sarah Chalke, while Warner Bros. TV enrolled former Heroes co-star Greg Grunburg. Under her deal, Chalke has already been cast in 20th TV’s ABC comedy pilot How to Live With Your Parents for the Rest of Your Life.

New element this season was signing talent deals with actors targeting specific projects that had not been officially greenlighted as a way of securing talent for hot projects before formal casting could be done. The Book Of Mormon star Andrew Rannells was signed in a joint 20th Century Fox TV-NBC talent holding deal with the intention for him to play one of the 3 leads in the NBC/20th TV comedy from the Glee duo of Ryan Murphy and Allison Adler, while actor-comedian David Koechner signed a talent holding deal with NBC with an eye toward him joining Greg Daniels’ adaptation of British comedy Friday Night Dinner. Both scripts were eventually picked up to pilot.

Also notable this season was the large number of projects sold with talent attached, especially on the comedy side. NBC bough half-hour projects starring Roseanne Barr, Sean Hayes, Sarah Silverman, Portia de Rossi, Mindy Kaling, Kal Penn, Snoop Dogg, Nick Thune and Omid Djalili. ABC went for comedies toplined by Kirstie Alley, JoAnna Garcia, Reba McEntire, Mandy Moore, Jim Belushi, Judy Greer, Ashley Tisdale, Jeff Garlin, Jim Breuer, Romeo Santos, Kyle Bornheimer, Marlon Wayans, Craig Kilborn and Sharon Horgan. The last 3 also created their starring vehicles, as did Kaling and Aasif Mandvi who headlined a comedy for CBS. (Silverman and Barr serve as co-creators of their shows.) Fox bought pitches with Tyler Labine and Hannibal Buress. The only drama projects with stars attached were NBC’s Jason Katims medical drama starring Jason Ritter and the network’s Blue Tilt toplined by Ethan Hawke and Vince D’Onofrio. (The latter has been rolled.) Of the talent-driven projects, the Kirstie Alley-starring The Manzanis went straight to pilot, with those toplined by Silverman, Barr, de Rossi, Kaling, McEntire and Greer also greenlighted to pilot, though the de Rossi and Kaling projects got the thumbs-up at ABC and Fox, respectively, after getting passed over by NBC. And White House comedy 1600 Penn clinched a pilot order from NBC after co-creator Josh Gad agreed to also star in the project. The Moore-starring comedy is still in contention at ABC, while talent released after their projects didn’t go are already pursued for other pilots. After multiple offers, Garcia was already snatched by the Berlanti/Malins CBS comedy, with Bornheimer also approached for other pilots.

The casts of veteran series that are ending their run are always targets for pilot casting directors. This year that includes ABC’s Desperate Housewives and NBC’s Chuck. I hear that Desperate Housewives‘ production schedule may not allow its stars to do hourlong pilots, but doing ABC half-hour pilots is a possibility because of the shorter production span and the ability to coordinate dates internally. Felicity Huffman already has been approached for an ABC comedy pilot. Meanwhile, Williams who has a talent deal with ABC and on avergae has less work load than the other Desperate Housewives leading ladies, may be able to do an hourlong pilot. As for Chuck, star Zachary Levi has already been talked about for a couple of half-hour pilots, including an NBC comedy.

Brett Ratner To Direct Fox’s Karyn Usher Spy Drama Pilot

Brett Ratner To Direct Fox’s Karyn Usher Spy Drama Pilot

Brett Ratner is set to direct and executive produce Fox ‘s spy drama pilot written by Karyn Usher (The Playboy Club). The procedural thriller centers on the orphaned 17-year-old daughter of a CIA operative who is recruited to become an operative herself. She encounters a mysterious rogue agent/assassin who serves as both her surrogate father and professional mentor in the spy world. The project hails from 20th Century Fox TV and Marty Adelstein and Shawn Levy’s studio-based 21 Laps/Adelstein Prods. Usher, Adelstein, Becky Clements and Levy will executive produce with Ratner. The pilot gig stems from the new overall deal Ratner signed with 20th TV in August. Of the previous pilots CAA-repped Ratner has directed for 20th TV, where he has been based for the past 8 years, two, Prison Break and Chaos, went to series.