Ratings Rat Race: Boss Slips, Shark Tank Rises, Fringe Inches Up In Winter Finale

CBS’ Undercover Boss (1.9/9 in adults 18-49, 8.6 million viewers) dropped 21% in 18-49 from its big Friday premiere last week but still ranked as the top program of the night in the 18-49 demographic. The reality series was also the most watched show last week but that title went back to CBS’ Friday staple Blue Bloods (1.7/5, 11.2 million), which was up 6% in the demo from last week. Sandwiched between Undercover Boss and Blue Bloods at 9 PM was A Gifted Man (1.3/4, 9.1 million) which didn’t help its renewal chances with a 13% drop from last week’s time slot premiere. As Undercover Boss declined, ABC’s Shark Tank (1.8/6) and Fox’s Kitchen Nightmares (1.5/5) bounced back, up 20% and 15%, respectively, from last week when they were pushed down by Undercover Boss’ debut. Shark Tank matched its best 18-49 result for a regularly scheduled episode. The Friday 8 PM hour is shaping up as one of the most competitive in the unscripted arena with 3 solid shows, Undercover Boss, Shark Tank and Kitchen Nightmares, duking it out. NBC’s Grimm (1.5/5) was down a tenth returning from yet another preemption. (NBC’s scheduling team must really hate the fairytale/horror drama, never allowing it to run uninterrupted for more than 2-3 weeks.) Grimm still won the 9 PM hour in 18-49. Its lead-in, Who Do You Think You Are? (0.9/3), was down 25%. Meanwhile, in its winter finale, Fox’s Fringe (1.2/4) showed signs of life, up a tenth from the series low it had been stuck at for weeks. From 9-11 PM, ABC dropped from the highly-rated two-hour 20/20 special about Whiteney Houston last week (2.0/6) with What Would You Do? (1.4/4) and 20/20 (1.2/4). That helped NBC’s Dateline (1.3/4), which was up 2 tenths at 10 PM. The CW aired repeats.

SAG-AFTRA Merger: How Stars Seriously Energy

SAG-AFTRA merger ballots head out soon, so when people of Hollywood's two actor unions give a thumbs-up, they'll trigger a couple-year technique of mixing staff, boards, contracts and, probably, pension and health plans.After which it what?How about two more mergers? Don't laugh. Proper combinations could change Hollywood and spawn a titan worth top billing in the summer season action movie: a bulked-up superunion with star energy, deep achieve into every congressional district and unequalled leverage in the major art galleries.Step one should be to merge SAG-AFTRA with Stars Equity, happens stars union. Which will bring nearly any professional actor in one location -- enabling the megaguild to exhibit within the warmth on Disney, a sizable theater producer.The merged stars union may go a step further and join getting a union that has hardly any mind-participate Hollywood: the American Federation of Artists. Besides talking about the worries of entertainment union people -- wages, benefits and job options -- the text here's AFTRA, the 77,000-member guild that signifies stars, newscasters and, importantly, entertainers. Major-label tracks are frequently produced by AFTRA entertainers and AFM artists, working 16-hour days together.The unions interact too. They run a joint royalties fund, in addition to their music contracts are really synchronized, supplying all of them with more energy when faced with labels -- such as the new the new sony Music, which becomes a pressure point in the company's movie studio too.A mixture of SAG-AFTRA while using AFM might be a game title title-changer. The musicians' union boasts 90,000 people, which might bring the combined total with a hefty quarter-million. More valuable, AFM's individuals are spread across 250 residents, a geographic achieve SAG and AFTRA is only able to imagine.Which means an opportunity to area significant amounts in every single condition and congressional district -- needed for fighting for union legislation points of interest or against people in the art galleries. The union could, for instance, tie lower NBCUniversal by flooding city local government bodies nationwide with complaints about cable companies possessed by Comcast, the studio's parent.Now add the wattage of SAG-AFTRA stars -- needed for getting in national media attention -- plus you've got the sun and rain for just about any potent campaign in mid-air and on the ground.Might be the chairman from the key congressional committee from rural Kansas? SAG-AFTRA-AFM could deploy a Kansas-born star to garner local coverage and generate calls and e-mails. SAG alone, in addition to SAG-AFTRA, has little achieve in places where cows outnumber people. But AFM people live everywhere.Definitely, the ultimate time an entertainment union strode within the national stage was 70 in the past, when the AFM shut lower the record industry -- and hang r / c industry in the vise -- for just two years beginning in 1942. Choking off entertainment within the height of World War Ii introduced with a national uproar, but AFM leader James Petrillo was firm, even if faced by having an individual appeal from FDR. So undeterred was Petrillo he didn't hesitate to call another strike, in 1948, that made it several several weeks. Both ended while using companies capitulating.Can entertainment labor accomplish a hat trick? SAG-AFTRA politics will definitely be complex, the AFM possesses its own stresses, and mega-union plans frequently founder over concerns that particular constituency might dominate. Certainly no can happen unless of course obviously SAG and AFTRA merge. Equity won't connect if people two unions are estranged, too for SAG, the road to AFM leads straight through AFTRA -- and possibly to true national energy.--------------MERGER Opponents MAKE THEIR CASEDespite signs os member support for mixing SAG and AFTRA, just a little yet progressively vocal minority is making its opposition heard. About 30 picketers collected outdoors the La headquarters of both actor unions in February for just two "Save SAG" rallies designed to call concentrate on perceived flaws in the merger, including queries about whether SAG health plans might be vulnerable after mixing with AFTRA. The unions' leadership argues the merger brings the clout needed to pass through conglomerate-possessed art galleries, beat back nonunion work and improve benefits. However, many, for instance longtime SAG board member and former v . p . Anne-Marie Manley, call the fallacy, fighting this program would "marginalize stars and be a basis damaging the union." Other people are agonizing that approach to election once the issue is defined before people in the finish of February. "I'm leaning toward no," states Ron Ostrow, another on SAG's settling committee, before adding that he's "concerned that saying no thanks thanks is worse than tallying.Inch SAG people rejected merger plans in 1998 and 2003, nevertheless the union has selected professional-merger leaders lately, and 87 percent of the national board endorsed a combination plan within the month of the month of january. Still, a whiff of suit is within the air, with one or more opposition group threatening to file for a suit in federal court to avoid the merger election before it happens.Revise: This story was prepared on February 20 for inclusion inside the weekly print edition of THR. Next date, the suit suggested above was indeed filed. The Hollywood Reporter

Investor pushes for America online changes

A Gotham fund that wants a completely new board plus an all-new proper strategic business plan at America online Friday launched a alternate slate of 5 company company directors it's selected to manage for election within the Netco's annual meeting in May. America online, the newest in the string of companies including Yahoo and Lionsgate to handle a disgruntled investor trying to pressure change, mentioned it had been in talks with Starboard however the firm rejected any "productive path" forward. Lionsgate fended off Carl Icahn carrying out a tense standoff. But pressure from Yahoo investor Third Point LLC brought to co-founder Jerry Yang quitting the board taken. Starboard Value LP, which has about 5.2% of America online, started agitating late a year ago for that organization to awesome its mission for media while focusing on patenting proprietary Internet technology. Starboard claims America online has huge intellectual property that "went unacknowledged and under-utilized." Including, it mentioned, 800 patents covering secure data transit and e-commerce, travel navigation, online marketing together with the areas. "We appreciate the ongoing dialog we have had with management and others in the board within the last two several days. However, we are very disappointed our conversations in regards to the issues elevated...have postponed. Particularly, we are troubled the organization remains closed-minded to alternative value creation initiatives, and rather appears solely dedicated to pursuing things because they are,In . Starboard written in the letter to AOL's board Friday. It thinks the patent portfolio could generate over $1 billion in certification costs. America online mentioned in the statement Friday it had held several conferences with Starboard, which was offered an opportunity to assist shape AOL's board of company company directors, but that Starboard's "singularly focused agenda" made compromise impossible. America online mentioned it's dedicated to simplifying the business and enhancing investor value which 2011 was the most effective year it has been on the while if this involves advertising revenue, improvements in legacy revenue streams, reducing costs. The stock, which closed Friday at $18.32, has risen significantly in the 52-week low of roughly $10. America online mentioned it's also divested non-core assets, bought back stock and implemented a "performance-based culture to operate against our apparent strategy." It mentioned it had already hired experts to learn to extract cash from "non-proper" patents. "We'll still strongly execute and innovate on our strategy after we continue the turnaround of America online," the business mentioned. But the turnaround at America on the internet is a piece happening almost since Time Warner acquired it in 2001. It cut the cord last season when America online again increased to become standalone public company. As broadband elevated, dial-up clients, which have been the first backbone in the America internet business, started disappearing. America online has moved in a number of directions, like buying the Huffington Publish, but is fighting in the complex digital landscape with vicious competition for every ad online dollar and constant speculation from the takeover or merger. The alternate board slate includes Starboard cofounder and Boss Jeffrey Cruz patent expert Ronald Epstein private investor Steven Finke Dennis Burns, a classic professional at Lionsgate, The brand new the new sony Pictures and Turner and James Warner of online marketing advisory firm Third Floor Companies which has held positions at Primedia, CBS and Cinemax. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com

New John Carter Clip Online

'I did not cause nevertheless this i'll finish it'If Disney's sci-fi fantasy adventure JohnCarter was any longer epic David O. Selznick would return within the beyond particularly to hug all concerned. All we view up to now, you'll find epic deserts, epic citiscapes and ape-ic White-colored Apes with guy-crushing energy arms, each being a fantastically eye-popping backdrop to Taylor Kitsch's Martian heroics.Yahoo! Movies has laid its at work a completely new trailer within the movie which further foregrounds the fantastic and good of Andrew Stanton's Edgar Grain Burroughs adaptation. Consider Lynn Collins as Princess of Mars Dejah Thoris, Mark Strong as badster Matai Shang together with a performance-taken Willem Dafoe since the eco-friendly, four-armed Tars Tarkas. He required to act the part on stilts, donchayaknow, but nevertheless handles to ally with Carter against an military of criminals without nearly the same as a teeter. John Carter will probably be flexing his chest around the (very) silver screen in your town on March 9. If you're hungry for further meanwhile, check out stills within the movie.

REVIEW: Condemned What This Means Is War Gives New Meaning to Counter-Intelligence

If males come from Mars and ladies from Venus, What This Means Is Wardrifts in cold, empty space approximately the 2 orbits, where, because the famous tagline goes, no-one can hear you scream. The film, the first one to be directed by Micrograms since 2009'sTerminator Salvation, is kind of an action movie having a rom-com twist, and kind of a screwball comedy with explosions and shootouts, but does not commit enough either in direction to actually please whichever 1 / 2 of the theoretical couples within the audience pulled their reluctant significant others along towards the theater. Is a film about how exactly the CIA's finest partnership is nearly destroyed by competition for that affections of the winsome blonde from Atlanta, or perhaps is it one about how exactly stated blonde needs to choose from two dashing males keeping some serious secrets, minimal which is they know one another and therefore are alsoacquaintedwith each other peoples courtship plans? Bromance or romance,What This Means Is Warfeels like something scrawled by enterprising teens who developed their concepts of affection and espionage from films and television shows they caught on the couple of weekends of fundamental cable surfing (Timothy Dowling, ofRole Modelsand Go By Using It, and Simon Kinberg are credited for that script). This leaves you without any option but to put back and take pleasure in the film-star wattage from the cast, that is considerable and unpredicted, and do not give consideration to anything they are really doing or saying.Reese Witherspoon shorelines through familiar territory asLauren, an item tester who gone to live in La for any guy (Warren Christie), broke things off after catching him cheating, then hidden herself in her own work instead of attempting to move onto somebody new. I love her much more being an actress when she handles to escape the typical sorority-girl-with-a-spine-of-steel, but she does bubble away seriously here, lecturing herself within the mirror about being "a good lady" and dancing in her own underwear to "This Is The Way We All Do It." Inside a less comfortable role is Tom Sturdy, playing the a really different variety of motion picture spy than he did in the last onscreen appearance as Ricki Tarr in Mess, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (though both figures have moments by which their ladyfriends bring them around in aconvertible). Hardy's still hugely watchable as Tuck, but he appears conscious that he's a awkward fit for any light romp of the film, especially because the sweet and sensitive reason for the romance triangular - he looks more prone to steal a hug after mugging you than mood-light his chic attic with candle lights. He is doing release as the film goes along, but he's vigorous hazing his bestie/rivalFDR Promote (Chris Pine) than wooing Lauren with dates towards the Santa Monica Pier and paintball range. Pine has not had an opportunity to take many roles between Star Treks, and he's proves themself to become all right like a smarmy eterna-bachelor whose selected target for some thing serious works out,regrettably,to become the lady Tuck just continued an online date with. Unlike Sturdy, they know much better than to bother trying to find any sincere emotion in FDR, who might not be Lauren's favorite (allow me to not be charged with spoilage) but is unquestionably the director's. Within the film's peculiar conception from the CIA, there's appears to become a much more murder happening compared to secretive gathering of intelligence (with no one describes why a Brit is working there). Following a allegedly covert opp dissolves right into a roof firefight having a helicopter swirling money in to the air along with a body rapidly declining off a highrise, FDR and Tuck are grounded by their boss (Angela Bassett, given absolutely nothing to do), which describes why they've a lot time for you to misuse Company assets to analyze Lauren and, once they accept allow her to choose from then, monitor each other peoples excursions. If This Means Warfinally works itself around for this spy/dating overlap, it is a cute joke that's too rapidly encounter the floor - Tuck sniping FDR having a tranquilizer to avoid him from sealing the offer with Lauren is funny, the 2 males listening in on her behalf conversation about the subject together with her closest friend Trish (Chelsea Handler, painful) will get strange, an area filled with surveillance men watching her have sexual intercourse is actually creepy. The experience subplot, which handles a baddie performed byTil Schweiger who's out seeking revenge or something like that, is nonsensical and, worse, shot and edited this way - fight moments are sliced up beyond recognition, choreography impossible to follow along with. The film's two mobile phone industry's get together inside a sequence that handles to become disappointing in terms ofstunt-workand when it comes to solving its romantic conflict, inside a thrill-less vehicle chase. But whileThis Means Wardoesn't goal high when it comes to its very own ambitions (it can make Mr. & Mrs. Cruz andTrue Lies seem like works of astounding genius), it does not be put off by referencing the best. A lecture Lauren gives on why The Woman Vanishes is lesser Hitchcock does not appear in character, but a minimum of it isn't the attention-curler that's the later jerk towards the Godfatherin a nightclub scene. This is a bold option for an homage in almost any film, but specifically in one which frequently queues up "Me So Horny" like a joke whenever it cuts toTrish investing time together with her chubby husband in your own home. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.

Pilot Season: CBS Builds up Comedy From Married Bridesmaids Duo Melissa McCarthy, Ben Falcone

Ben Falcone and Melissa McCarthy CBS has acquired a comedy pilot from married Bridesmaids co-stars Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone. Exclusive: Bridesmaids' Ben Falcone heads to Happy Being The untitled project, put together by Ray Dorf and Falcone, focuses on one 37-year-some guy (Falcone) who handles to get rid of everything he's in tangible estate collapse and finds themselves home in your home where he was elevated - along with his parents. Mike & Molly's McCarthy is installed on co-executive-produce. Falcone, who referred to John the atmosphere marshal in Bridesmaids, will next show on ABC's Happy Being then NBC's Up With The Evening.

Syfy films circle 'Day 38'

Syfy Films is developing "Day 38" and is in early talks with McG and Mary Viola to produce, and Richard Farmer to direct the found-footage thriller. Project, scripted by Chris Rossi and Gabe Scott, was developed in-house at McG's Wonderland Sound and Vision with Farmer -- a noted commercial director whose latest campaigns include Sims, Activision and Nintendo. It's Wonderland's/McG's first partnership with Syfy. Story is told from the point of view of a group of stormchasers who face a Category 5 tornado and find themselves fighting off a force even greater than Mother Nature. Year-old SyFy Films, created as a venture between Universal and SyFy Ventures, made its first deal in October when it bought feature rights to George R.R. Martin's superhero anthology "Wild Cards" and tapped Melinda Snodgrass to pen the screenplay. Variety reported Friday that SyFy Films senior VP Gregory Noveck made the deal for "Day 38" with APA, which repped the writing team. McG directed "This Means War," which Fox opens Feb. 17. Scott wrote and directed "The Sentient," a nine-minute film with more than 80 vfx shots that was set up in November with Quincy Pictures with the aim of making a full-length feature. Crew included Oscar nominees Randy Kerber as composer, Scott E. Anderson on VFX and Rick Kline as sound mixer. Scott is managed by Dave Brown of Artist International. Rossi's managed by Jennifer Levine at Untitled Entertainment. Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com

The Lowdown on NBC's Smash: Weighing the Hype versus. the truth

Smash, Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty Because of NBC's relentless marketing and PR campaign, expensive is already known about Smash, a large-risk series about the building of a Lana Turner musical. At the middle of the sudsy backstage drama is American Idol's Katharine McPhee, who stars being an ingénue pitted against a far more seasoned Broadway chorus girl to experience the legendary blonde. When the premise sounds hopelessly niche for any broadcast network in desperate will need a hit (thespians! show tunes! jazz hands!), both NBC and experts high in series happen to be spending so much time to modify your mind. Advanced word on Smash is the fact that it is the anti-Glee (particularly if you've fed up with that show's pop song-happy chorus of high schoolers), Free Airline Wing but on Broadway (in the event you miss Aaron Sorkin's determining feeling of a place of work), and a game title-changer for NBC (should you went bananas for that first episode, which NBC tested in theaters making on-demand an internet-based days before Monday's official premiere). Watch Smash at this time - then inform us what you believe! Could it be all just hyperbole? TVGuide.com viewed the show's first four episodes, and grilled the designers, songwriters and cast of Smash, to provide you with the reduced lower on what you could really expect: Nobody automatically bursts into song. Smash itself is not a musical. Figures aren't "singing their feelings while missing lower halls," describes series songwriter-composer Marc Shaiman. However in trying to help keep things grounded the truth is, the figures do visit one lounge/club/karaoke bar per episode to be able to belt off-stage. Whether that device continues past the 4th episode remains to appear, however the producers happen to be arranging the authority to change their mind: Shaiman and writing partner Scott Wittman accepted they're dying to locate a real method for Anjelica Huston, who plays producer from the Marilyn musical, to sing. "I simply snuck served by them and that we did a recording of something," Huston revealed. "I've got a kind of lengthy good reputation for singing generally, I only get it done within the shower, but I enjoy sing." But Smash is extremely inside Broadway. The plotlines -- here is where individuals West Wing evaluations are available in - revolve entirely round the politics and inner workings from the theater biz: the brutal auditions, creative clashes, endless rehearsals, diva rivalries. NY Publish theater critic Michael Riedel will get title-checked because the "Napoleonic little Nazi" villain within the first episode (and he's thrilled about this!) and real-existence theater traders drop set for cameos. Huston thinks it is a provocative inside take a look at existence around the Great Whitened Way: "The main one factor I am absolutely convinced about is the fact that everyone loves to become inside, whether or not they reside in Middle America or otherwise. People prefer to be aware of amounts," she stated. "Additionally they prefer to know who's sleeping with whom. It is a sophisticated cleaning soap." Uma Thurman takes happens for five-episode arc on NBC's Smash The behind-the-moments drama is much more sudsy than serious. Around Smash's creative team (executive producers Steven Spielberg, Shaiman and Wittman, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and creator Theresa Rebeck -- all diligent theater folk) want the series to become authentic towards the biz, it appears more essential they "placed on a show" themselves. Think about the breezy way Entourage did showbiz, less the annotated notes-needed way Luck does horseracing. The resulting tone is mainly light and fun, and just from time to time melodramatic. In Smash, among the assistants focusing on the musical is definitely an eavedropping spy the director is really a swaggering ego incarnate who puts the progresses both potential Marilyns producer loves to toss Manhattans when confronted with her soon-to-be ex and among the songwriters is attempting to make time for you to adopt a Chinese baby together with her husband while sorting through her feelings about getting had cheating and among the stars within the show. Megan Hilty, who plays among the stars up for negligence Marilyn, states the theater world just is actually "very incestuous, and incredibly gossipy." "You feel a household cooperating, but that is a consequence," she stated. Pricier Glee-sized music sales, or fanfare. Smash dabbles in radio hits - Christina Aguilera, Bruno Mars, Michael Buble, Adele, Barbara Underwood, Gretchen Wilson and Blondie covers are included with original show tunes about Lana Turner - although not within the poppy radio-friendly type of the Fox hit. Also unlike Glee, Smash is really a 10 pm show targeted at grown ups, not teens who may send tunes in the iTunes charts. You are able to color us shocked when the Smash music sells a fraction along with the Glee covers do. Lana Turner is kind of near the point. The simple truth is no series producers considered themselves well-experienced in most things Norma Jean before they made the decision to create her the topic of the musical. Rebeck states Wittman pitched Monroe throughout a brainstorm meeting, and she or he wasn't initially excited. "I stated, 'Oh, I'm not sure,'" Rebeck recalls, recalling a Marilyn musical that notoriously flopped on Broadway in 1983. But because they started to analyze and discover the film icon, they agreed that they brought a "very theatrical, very eventful existence." "Eventually I'd a minute where I finally stated, 'I'm unsure I'm able to write an excellent musical about Marilyn, but I know I possibly could write an excellent tv program about people attempting to write an excellent musical about Marilyn.'" Bernadette Peters and Nick Jonas to guest-star on Smash Acting is not Katharine McPhee's plan b. The good thing is among a cast of pros, a number of whom come direct in the Broadway stage, she does not stick out as eco-friendly. Works out acting is not just another route to fame for that 27-year-old La native who emerged second to Taylor Hicks on Idol. "I have always had lots of theater and musical theater during my existence," McPhee states. She carried out in plays and musicals throughout senior high school, and analyzed theater attending college "for 3 semesters before I dropped to get into acting, to become a superstar!" she states, laughing. "Oh, the dream appeared very easy within the moment." You shouldn't be fooled by Mount McPhee -- casting Marilyn normally takes the majority of the first season. To listen to the theater veterinarians tell it, leading roles aren't so easily won -- spoiler alert: later within the first season, watch out for Uma Thurman in the future in like a superstar also competing to experience Marilyn -- so don't read an excessive amount of in to the special attention McPhee's been getting. States Christian Borle, who plays among the musical's songwriters: "That's something which drives theater people crazy. Whether they can generate a star, they'll. It is a question of cash. They require individuals to buy tickets." Hilty states she has been edged out before. "I can not let you know the number of occasions I have done blood pressure measurements and training courses for projects wanting to visit Broadway. You allow your existence into it and also at the finish from the development, they are like, 'We adore you. You are perfect. Nobody could do that much better than you. But we want a star.'" It takes several show to show around NBC's rankings worries, but it is still not so good news if Smash underperforms. In The month of january, NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt stated Smash wasn't a "make-or-break show" for that 4th-place network. But tepid applause certainly will not be great thinking about the failures from the Playboy Club, Prime Suspect and nearly dead The Firm, and merely OK viewership for Law & Order: SVU, Grimm and Being a parent. Adding pressure towards the performance of Smash is NBC's other, perhaps more risky, mid-season series Awake, a somber drama in regards to a guy residing in a fractured reality following a fatal vehicle crash. That demonstrate is not getting half the promotion Smash did. And today, a promo featuring the casts famous NBC's shows - even Jesse Trump! - collected to advertise Smash: