UPDATE: "Yes, I've left 'Heroes' to concentrate on my development. It's a bummer and I'm sad to go, but NBC wants me to focus on development, which is very exciting," Fuller told TVWeek's Vlada Gelman.
Bryan Fuller has apparently left "Heroes"-- again.
The writer/producer has quietly departed the NBC drama, just a few months after he returned to the show with much fanfare, a person familiar with the situation said. Fuller is now focusing on developing new projects as part of his overall deal with Universal Media Studios, the insider said, describing the move as something which took place "a while ago."
Ain't It Cool News first reported the possibility of a Fuller exit via the Twitter feed of one of its correspondents.
Fuller rejoined "Heroes" with much fanfare toward the end of last season. It's unclear why he's now opted to depart again.
Just a few days ago, Fuller seemed very upbeat about the upcoming fourth season of "Heroes."
"What I'm excited about with season four is getting everybody back to the basic principle of ordinary people in an extraordinary world and how these characters are relatable to us and what we would do if we were in their situations, and really grounding it in that conceit," Fuller told SciFiWire.com, a genre website owned by NBC Universal.
The story described Fuller as "happily committed to 'Heroes'," and said the writer was spending his free time developing a comic book tied to his late ABC drama "Pushing Daisies."
The only sign Fuller gave that indicated interest in another project was when he repeated his desire to work on a new "Star Trek" TV series.
"I'm hoping that by the time they're ready to do a television series that I am available and can participate, because, I mean, even if it's J.J. Abrams' team, I would love to join that team for a new 'Star Trek' series," Fuller said. "I think it would be a ball."
NBC is moving to "Heroes" to 8 p.m. Mondays this fall. It's widely expected the network will soon announce a finale timetable for the show, which could wrap as early as next spring.
Just days after his controversial MTV Movie Awards appearance, Bruno has been booked for "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien."
The alter ego of comic actor Sacha Baron Cohen will make his first late-night talk show appearance on behalf of his upcoming movie Thursday, June 25. Given Cohen's love of the shocking, don't be surprised if he makes "news" during his visit.
Other recent additions to "The Tonight Show" cast include Cameron Diaz (June 22), Lisa Kudrow and Elvis Costello (June 23) and Snoop Dogg (June 26).
The late-night race is getting closer. A lot closer.
"The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" beat "Late Show with David Letterman" Monday-- but just barely. According to major market overnight Nielsen numbers, "Conan" notched a 3.1/8, just ahead of "Letterman's" 3.0/8. It was easily the smallest margin of victory for O'Brien since he took over "Tonight" a week ago.
Letterman got a boost Monday from one of his most popular guests: Howard Stern. O'Brien, meanwhile, lacked major starpower, making due with David Duchovny and Anna Friel.
These are overnight household numbers, of course. NBC (and late night insiders) are looking to Thursday, when Nielsen releases the first demographic data on the new "Tonight." The hope at NBC is that while some older viewers might have left "Tonight" post-Jay Leno, younger viewers might be coming on board.
Lorne Michaels is now longer producing Conan O'Brien's late night antics-- but "The Tonight Show" is planning to showcase a number of "Saturday Night Live" alums in coming weeks.
No less than three ex-"SNL" cast members are scheduled to visit with O'Brien over the next two weeks, according to a guest lineup for "Tonight" released by NBC. The wave begins Monday when Eddie Murphy is set to be O'Brien's lead guest.
Later next week, former "Weekend Update" anchor Norm MacDonald has been booked for the June 11 edition of "Tonight." And the next night, June 12, longtime "SNL"-er Kevin Nealon is scheduled to stop by.
O'Brien, of course, did a stint as an "SNL" writer before he took over "Late Night."
"SNL" isn't the only sketch show supplying guests for O'Brien. Jamie Foxx, who first came to fame on "In Living Color," has been booked as both a guest and a musical performer on June 12.
Here's the full list of guests who've been announced to appear on "Tonight" over the next two weeks:
Monday, June 8: David Duchovny and Anna Friel
Tuesday, June 9: Eddie Murphy and musical guest Bonnie Raitt & Taj Majal
Wednesday, June 10: Dane Cook, Steven Ho and musical guest Rancid
hursday, June 11: Norm MacDonald ,Jim Gaffigan and musical guest Neko Case
Friday, June 12: Jamie Foxx, Kevin Nealon and music by Jamie Foxx
Monday, June 15: Joe Torre and musical guest Spinal Tap
Tuesday, June 16: Larry David, Lauren Conrad and musical guest Gavin Rossdale
Wednesday, June 17: William Shatner, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and musical guest Incubus
Thursday, June 18: Features musical guest The Dead Weather
Friday, June 19: Features musical guest Holly Williams
Three nights in, Conan O'Brien is still dominating late-night-- but his margin of victory is, predictably, shrinking.
Wednesday's "Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" earned a 4.3 rating/11 share in Nielsen's metered markets. That easily topped CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman" (2.8/7) and ABC's combo of "Nightline" (2.7/6) and "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (1.2/4).
But here's where the nattering nabobs will start...na-bobbing.
Conan dropped another (roughly) 15 percent from Tuesday to Wednesday. And his Wednesday number was up just 10 percent over Jay Leno's second quarter average as host of "Tonight."
So, yes, the late night race is tightening. Rubberneckers who came to Monday and Tuesday night's shows have started paying attention to their own late night lanes again, with some deciding, "There's nothing to see here, I'm gonna move along."
And yet, as NBC notes, O'Brien has still dramatically expanded his audience (he's up 65 percent over what his final "Late Night" earned). Buzz for the show is also good, with O'Brien-related postings accounting for half the trending topics on Twitter at one point Wednesday.
(OK, I admit the Trending Topics on Twitter bullet point is already becoming annoying when used by publicists to explain away disappointing Nielsen data. But since NBC didn't include it in its official ratings spin, I'm going to include it. Cope.)
The most important thing to remember about these early ratings: They're household numbers, not demos. O'Brien may very well be turning off some older fans of "Tonight," but if he's bringing in new eyeballs (of any age), NBC will be very happy.
That demo information, by the way, is set to be released a week from today.
TV critics aren't generally fans of reality shows. But NBC's reality megaseries "I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!" is generating particularly harsh scorn from a different subset of the media scribe tribe: reporters.
Within the last few hours, two well-known Reporters Who Cover Television have taken slams at NBC's much-promoted summer series. Their problem isn't so much with the show's content, but with the "controversy" surrounding the on-again, off-again participation of "stars" Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt (aka "Speidi").
The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd is positively scathing in his critique of "IAC-GMOOH!" over on his blog, The Live Feed. He slams the whole concept as "an increasingly awkward con job" and takes NBC executives Ben Silverman and Paul Telegdy to task for their participation in the melodrama surrounding the Speidi chronicles.
"Can you imagine Coach from 'Survivor' getting Les Moonves on the horn? Melissa Rycroft on a 'Dancing With the Stars' results show calling Steve McPherson for a pep talk?" Hibberd rants, referring to Pratt's on-air communication with Silverman. "Scripted or unscripted, it was odd."
Actually, it seems pretty logical to me that Speidi would have Silverman on speed dial. Silverman's life has long resembled an episode of "Entourage," and Speidi are very much a part of the under-40 Hollywood mafia. (That said: Yeah, it was all probably planned).
Hibberd -- who broke the news of "IAC-GMOOH!'s" revival back in February-- is even grouchier with Telegdy.
Matt Drudge is currently having much fun with the videoclip below from last night's Brian Williams exclusive with President Obama.
"NBCNEWS ANCHOR BOWS BEFORE PRESIDENT?," Drudge asks. It looks more like a healthy nod to us, but judge for yourself.
Oh, Internet!
UPDATE: Early numbers from Nielsen show Williams' White House special won its 9 p.m. hour, with a 2.6/7 in adults 18-49. That was the second highest-rated show of the night, behind only NBC's "Law & Order: SVU." Among all viewers, the Obama special attracted a little over 9 million pairs of eyeballs.
Two days into his new gig, Conan O'Brien is still the king of late-night ratings.
While predictably down from Monday's much-hyped debut, Tuesday's second edition of "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" averaged a stll-strong 5.0 rating/12 share in metered market overnight Nielsen ratings.
That's the highest Tuesday overnight for "Tonight" since Feb. 27, 2007, and 28 percent better than what Jay Leno had been averaging on Tuesdays during the last three months. It was also good enough to outrate "Late Show with David Letterman" (3.0/7, up a tad from Monday) and "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (1.2/4, flat night-to-night).
Compared to Monday's first outing, O'Brien lost around a quarter of his audience, dropping from a 7.1 overnight rating. Tom Hanks was O'Brien's main guest Tuesday.
O'Brien continues to be a boon for the rest of NBC's after-hours lineup. "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" (2.1/7) was up 24 percent over its second quarter average, soundly spanking CBS's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson."
NBC even included "Last Call with Carson Daly" (1.3/6) in its ratings spin Tuesday, duly noting that show's 30 percent bump over its second quarter average.
New "Tonight Show" host Conan O'Brien got off to a rousing ratings start Monday, crushing CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman" and generating strong sampling.
O'Brien's debut notched a 7.1 rating/17 share in Nielsen's 56 overnight metered markets, the best Monday metered markets for the "Tonight" franchise in four years. "Tonight" outdrew "Late Show" (2.8/7) by a wide margin, and beat the combined average of the CBS broadcast and a repeat of ABC's "Nightline" (2.7/6)/ "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (1.2/4) by 154 percent, NBC said.
Compared to what "Tonight" had been averaging in the most recent quarter, O'Brien boosted ratings by 82 percent. He also improved on his final edition of "Late Night" (2.6/8) by 173 percent.
Overall, NBC said O'Brien's debut gave "Tonight" its seventh-highest Monday overnight ratings since Jay Leno arrived in 1992. It also boosted "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" (2.5/9) to its best overnight numbers ever.
O'Brien didn't outdraw Leno's Friday farewell. Last week's swan song averaged an 8.8 overnight rating, according to Nielsen.
Overnight ratings aren't the most reliable gauge of a show's true performance, since they don't measure what counts most to network executives: Demographic performance. However, O'Brien's healthy households debut bodes well for how he's likely to do when adults 18-49 numbers come out later.
Conan O'Brien opened his first "Late Night" in 1993 with a very funny bit in which he strolled around Manhattan while the entire city reminded him he was no David Letterman.
Last week, I was fortunate enough to get a tour of O'Brien's "Tonight Show" set and offices. When I was in his office, I noticed that on the bulletin board where future guests and sketches are tracked, an index card stated simply, "Conan Runs Across America."
I had a feeling O'Brien was planning a subtle call back to his last First Night, and sure enough, he didn't disappoint. The video is below.
Meanwhile, "The Tonight Show" is in very good hands, indeed.
TV MoJoe tries to make sense of the vast video universe of the 21st century, with a particular focus on the people and programming that populate the five much-maligned broadcast networks. Cable, online and TV on DVD won’t be ignored, either—and if some news breaks out every once in a while, so be it. It’s written by Josef Adalian, deputy editor and columnist for TVWeek.
A candid Q&A with Steve McPherson. He's not happy with Nielsen.
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NOW PLAYING: There have been plenty of amazing TV finales, but the final six minutes of "Six Feet Under" grabbed me in a way I didn't expect. It showed the randomness of life and reminded us of how we can never predict just what will come next. Plus, it's all set to the tune of Sia's powerful "Breathe Me." It's a fitting coda as TVMoJoe on TVWeek comes to an end.
TV MoJoe tries to make sense of the vast video universe of the 21st century, with a particular focus on the people and programming that populate the five much-maligned broadcast networks. Cable, online and TV on DVD won’t be ignored, either—and if some news breaks out every once in a while, so be it. It’s written by Josef Adalian, deputy editor and columnist for TVWeek.
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