Papi Chulo's BLOG

UPFRONTS :: ABC Adds Two New Shows

ABC unveiled its 2008-2009 television schedule earlier this week ... and the schedule appears very similar to its 2007 fall schedule ... That is a testament to ABC's strong 2007-2008 television season ...

ABC officially announced the cancellations of ... Men In Trees, October Road, Big Shots, Women's Murder Club, Cashmere Mafia, Carpoolers, Cavemen, Miss/Guided, and Notes from the Underbelly ...

Freshman series that have been renewed for a second season include ... Samantha Who?, Eli Stone, Pushing Daisies, Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money ...

There are two new shows debuting in the fall ... Opportunity Knocks is a Extreme Makeover/Who Wants to Be a Millionaire-hybrid ... The game show will visit a contestants home and the contestants will play the game in their front yard ... The show will be hosted by J.D. Roth and is produced by Ashton Kutcher ...

The other new show is an American adaptation of the BBC drama Life on Mars ... The show features a detective from the present-day who travels back to the 1970s ...

For midseason ... ABC will debut The Goode Family ... an animated series from Mike Judge ... The Goode Family is obsessed with doing the "right" thing ... The show will air Tuesday nights once Dancing With the Stars ends its fall cycle ... Also on Tuesdays after DWTS ABC premieres Scrubs' final season ...

An untitled Ashton Kutcher/Tyra Banks beauty pageant will air at midseason ... as will a new edition of The Bachelor ... and new seasons of According to Jim, Primetime: What Would You Do? and LOST ...

Also likely returning are Dance War and Here Come the Newlyweds ...

Here is ABC's new schedule ...

:: MONDAYS ::
8:00 DANCING WITH THE STARS
9:30 SAMANTHA WHO?
10:00 BOSTON LEGAL/THE BACHELOR

:: TUESDAYS ::
8:00 OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
9:00 DANCING WITH THE STARS RESULTS SHOW / SCRUBS & THE GOODE FAMILY
10:00 ELI STONE

:: WEDNESDAY ::
8:00 PUSHING DAISIES
9:00 PRIVATE PRACTICE
10:00 DIRTY SEXY MONEY

:: THURSDAY ::
8:00 UGLY BETTY
9:00 GREY'S ANATOMY
10:00 LIFE ON MARS

:: FRIDAY ::
8:00 WIFE SWAP
9:00 SUPERNANNY
10:00 20/20

:: SATURDAY ::
8:00 SATURDAY NIGHT COLLEGE FOOTBALL / MOVIES

:: SUNDAY ::
7:00 AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS
8:00 EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION
9:00 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES
10:00 BROTHERS & SISTERS

~Papi Chulo~

Lucy Liu to Join "Dirty Sexy Money"

Lucy Liu is currently in negotiations to join the cast of ABC's Dirty Sexy Money as a series regular ...

Dirty Sexy Money is set to return in the fall after a strike-shortened season ...

Dirty Sexy Money stars Peter Krause, Donald Sutherland and Blair Underwood ...

~Papi Chulo~

ABC Renews 9 Series for '09

With the writers' strike pretty much over ... ABC is getting back to work ...

The network announced that nine fan (and advertiser) favorites will be returning in the fall with full-season renewals ... Grey's Anatomy ... LOST ... Ugly Betty ... Desperate Housewives ... Brothers & Sisters ... Private Practice ... Pushing Daisies ... Samantha Who? ... and Dirty Sexy Money ...

Stephen MacPherson (ABC Entertainment President): "The strength of our schedule this fall was unprecedented. We're looking forward to building on that success."

But for the remainder of the spring ... Grey's Anatomy ... Desperate Housewives ... LOST ... Brothers & Sisters ... Ugly Betty ... and Samantha Who? are definitely returning to the small screen ...

The fate of Boston Legal ... Men in Trees ... October Road ... and Women's Murder Club is in limbo ...

But it's pretty safe to say that Cavemen and Carpoolers are headed for official cancellation ...

As for the new midseason series ... Cashmere Mafia and Eli Stone ... Their fate is still undecided ...

~Papi Chulo~

Writers' Strike :: Almost Over ???

"We are 99.9 percent of the way there" ...

The New York Times ... The Associated Press ... E! News ... and TV Guide are all reporting that the major roadblocks between the striking Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have been eliminated ... Meaning that a tentative agreement could be made sometime this week ...

One of the most important issues has been the matter of revenues from Internet distribution ... and that breakthrough came Friday after two weeks of productive talks between both sides ...

But what does this mean for our favorite shows?

Well with a tentative agreement between the WGA and the AMPTP ... television shows could go back into production ... So far the folks over at Grey's Anatomy have said that with this tentative agreement they expect to resume production in early March ... The plan is to shoot four or five episodes to air in April and May ... The same is said to be happening to Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters ...

Freshman series that have already been given full-season pickups (like ABC's Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, and Samantha Who?) will more than likely restart production over the summer ahead of the fall season ...

CBS, NBC and FOX will more than likely follow ABC's move ... Hits will return ASAP and new series will return in the fall ...

The fate of serialized programming (like LOST, Heroes and 24) remains unclear ...

~Papi Chulo~

19th Annual GLAAD Media Award Nominations

ABC leads the pack at the 19th Annual GLAAD Media Awards ... the network has the most nominations for the awards that are prestented to positive portrayals of gay and lesbian issues on television ... ABC has picked up nominations for Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, Boston Legal, Dirty Sexy Money and Greek ...

GLAAD will pay tribute during the ceremony to two of the organization's favorite musical acts ... Janet Jackson and Rufus Wainwright ... They are named special honorees along with late pioneering photographer Herb Ritts ... LOGO president Brian Graden ... actor and activist Wilson Cruz ... The L Word writer/producer Ilene Chaiker ... and political activist/author/blogger David Mixner ...

The ceremony will take place on March 17 in New York's Marriott Marquis ...

Here's a brief rundown of the some of the key nominees for the GLAAD Media Awards ...

65th Annual Golden Globe Nominations

Golden Globe nominations were announced today ...

The prestigious awards show is usually viewed as a sneak peek at what may occur on Oscar Night ...

The awards will be telecast on Jan. 13 on NBC ...

Here is a complete list of the nominees ...

"Dirty Sexy Money" Gets a FULL Season!

ABC has officially ordered the "back nine" of Dirty Sexy Money ...

This means that in addition the initial order of 13 episodes ... the campy soapy now has an order for a full season of 22 episodes ...

The show has been a consistent in its ratings ... and retains a large chunk of Private Practice's viewers ...

Congratulations to the Dirty Sexy Money crew ... This has got to be one of the most addictive new series ...

Here's to the writers' strike coming to a close soon ... So that we can continue this wonderfully engaging story ...

~Papi Chulo~

Is Hollywood No Longer "Gay Friendly" ???

The number of gay regular characters on scripted network television shows has dropped to 1.1% ... Oddly enough the amount of gay characters on cable has risen ... Yet in the couple of years after Brokeback Mountain swept the Oscar nominations ... and nearly won Best Picture ... There has been a huge void in gay cinema ...

With reality television always featuring at least one gay contestant ... and prime time programming (such as: Ugly Betty, Brothers & Sisters, Dirty Sexy Money, and Desperate Housewives) featuring prominent gay characters (in either regular or recurring status) ... Why hasn't Hollywood greenlit a film with a gay lead character?

Entertainment Weekly explores why there hasn't been a rush to create another mainstream hit gay feature ... Brokeback Mountain was a cultural phenomenon ... It dominated the critics' awards and grossed $178 million worldwide ... What made the movie truly a movie of importance is that it proved that straight audiences could watch a movie that had a same sex couple as its protagonists ... The movie was a hit from big cities to small rural towns in Oklahoma and Ohio ...

Writers' Strike :: To Cut Television Season Short?

The WGA strike is certainly putting a damper on us TV viewers ... It appears that the current television season is going to be cut drastically short for all of our favorites shows ...

So far ... the strike has killed the planned Heroes: Origins spin-off ...

The strike has also forced the creators of Heroes ... Pushing Daisies ... and Men in Trees to re-edit the last episode produced to make it suit as a season finale of their respective series ...

Here is a list of how many "fresh" episodes are left of the television series covered in this blog ...

Boston Legal: Fifteen episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are nine left.

Desperate Housewives: Ten episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are four left.

Grey's Anatomy: Eleven episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are four left.

Lost: Eighth episodes will be produced. None have aired yet, so there eight episodes left.

Private Practice: Ten or 11 episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are four or five left.

Pushing Daisies: Nine episodes will be produced. Five episodes have aired, so there are four left.

Samantha Who?: Twelve episodes will be produced. Four episodes have aired, so there are eight left.

Ugly Betty: Twelve or 13 episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are five or six left.

And ... here is a list of the rest of the currently airing shows ... and how many "fresh" episodes they have left ...