"L&O" now down two

Link: AP - Dennis Farina to Leave 'Law & Order'.

With the killing off of the latest leggy ADA in the season finale, that means there will be two holes to fill in the show's cast.

Besides, of course, the permanent hole they'll never be able to fill.

UPDAte, courtesy Hollywood Reporter: Milena Govich, who co-starred in "Conviction," Dick Wolf's midseason drama for NBC, has come on board Wolf's flagship "L&O" series.

Musical chairs - the music stops

Charlie Gibson is in at "World News." Katie Couric is out at "Today."

Link: TheWorldNewser.

Funny scene of the morning: Watching the end of the farewell to Couric on the "Today Show," followed immediately by a promo for the next day's show ... featuring the two "American Idol" finalists. Rumor has it there may be some shows this fall for the "Today Show" to promote that are actually on NBC.

"24" meets "Groundhog Day"

No, I'm not talking about the new Taye Diggs show. Fox is sending "24" reruns to its perennial Night of Death, Fridays, starting June 16.

Brothers in harm's way

The CBS sound man killed this weekend in Iraq was once embedded with injured ABC newsman Bob Woodruff. He seemed to love danger and travel - he recently shared an Edward R. Murrow award for coverage of the Pakistani earthquake.

But Iraq is out of hand. Already, 30 more journalists have died in that country than were killed in 22 years of fighting in Vietnam, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Who's gonna save summer?

Step aside, ma'am - here comes "Rescue Me."

Link: Kansas City Star | 05/30/2006 | ‘Rescue’ is en fuego.

Indianapolis 500

Remember Chris Economaki, a fixture of ABC's "Wide World of Sports" in the 1970s calling the Indy 500 and races from a piddling little circuit known back then as "stock cars"?

They're naming the Indy Speedway press box after him. I approve.

Link: Indianapolis 500: Economaki honored.

Reality imitates art

B&C's John Eggerton noticed that the stars of "Tuesday Night Book Club," a CBS reality series airing this summer, bear an uncanny resemblance to the stars of a hit scripted show on another network ...

Link: Desperate Bookworms | BCBeat.

"Studio 60" shuffle

Right on time:

Please join NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly and Executive Vice President, Program Planning & Scheduling, Mitch Metcalf for a conference call to discuss the NBC Primetime Schedule.

Specifically, Thursday nights against "Grey's Anatomy" and "CSI."

UPDATE: Just about everything changed nights except Sunday Night Football. Read on.

All that was missing was Roy Orbison singing "It's oooooverrrr"

Link: Kansas City Star | 05/25/2006 | ‘Idol’ wave engulfs TV as fans flock to finale.

Best "Idol" finale ever.

Odds favor Taylor

Link: Barnhart: Taylor has the edge.

Andy Dehnart has the full rundown of who the other critics are picking.

This is how AMC died, too

Perhaps nothing to be worried about, but a subject line like this fills me with the dread:

Turner Classic Movies Broadens Viewer Base with Innovative Programming Initiatives

From bad to worse...

Think closed captioning is getting more illiterate by the day? Wonder whatever happened to TV described for the visually impaired?  Hoping the Internet might be an improvement on plain old television?

Don't hold your breath. As accessibility maven Joe Clark writes, things are about to get even worse for people with disabilities ... on the Web:

Link: A List Apart: To Hell with WCAG 2.

It's a long, technical article. And yet, because Joe is so blunt in his complaints, even a layperson like me can read it and appreciate what kind of a future mess the multimedia Web is going to become.

"IDOL": ANNA ONE ANNA TWO

Here we go.  The big finish between two people who may or may not go on to successful recording careers.

Full TV Barn coverage:

• Now hear this (Barnhart)
• Looking back and forward on Season 5
• TV Barn's "Idol" blog - vote in the poll!

OH YEAH: Charlie Gibson's taking over the now-third-place "ABC World News Tonight." He had to.

E! takes credit for saving "One Tree"

My take on the renewal of some low-rated shows by the CW is that the network is gambling on established, if little-known, names over the MyNetworkTV strategy, which is to roll out a bunch of new shows nobody's heard of. Nonetheless, E! Online is basking in what glory there is in "One Tree's" reprieve.

The worst show you'll never see

The only event this weekend that was more poorly reviewed than "The DaVinci Code" was the Fox upfront presentation. The Wall Street Journal reports that some wag said people who endured the two-and-a-half-hour sweat-a-thon should have been issued buttons saying "I Survived the Fox Upfront." It was panned in the trades.  And TV Barn called it "Worst. Upfront. Ever."

And, just like "The Da Vinci Code," it don't mean a thing that it lacked any swing.  Fox is expected to have a jim-dandy upfront sales season this month, buoyed by its record-setting ratings year and a slate of mostly compatible shows on tap for next season.

Paul Harris and I chatted about the upfronts (again) this afternoon on KMOX.

For more on the 2006 upfronts, scroll down or go to TVBarn.com.

How not to get press attention

The Writers Guild of America decided to hold a press event last week in New York -- tied to the upfronts -- to call attention to the shabby treatment of writers when it comes to product placements in programs.

Only one thing ... they forgot to invite most of the press.  I found out an hour before the event, and since I was on deadline, warn't no chance of my attending even though the subject was obviously near and dear to me.

Nor was the AP invited.  Dave Bauder found out by reading an item somewhere else. Well, at least someone thought to call the LA Times:

Link: TV Trend Triggers Concerns - Los Angeles Times.

Perhaps someone based in LA.  Hey, if you're going to place your product anywhere ...

THE 2006 UPFRONTS

I'm in New York, and if you read everything I link to here, you'll start to feel like you're right here with me, attending every network upfront presentation, screening the trailers, gauging the crowd reaction (and your own) to the new shows that the networks think we the people will want to catch come fall.

NBC Upfronts, from the sixth row
Tom Heald's NBC upfronts haiku
TV Barn Radio: First impressions of NBC
Bianculli story on NBC, with grid
ABC's announcement (PR)
Tom's ABC shows haiku
Previewing the new NBC shows
ABC Upfronts, from the press spillover room
Previewing the new ABC shows
CBS's announcement (PR)
Tom's CBS shows haiku 
Breakfast with Les at CBS
CBS Upfronts, from the fourth row
Previewing the new CBS shows
The CW's announcement (PR)
Tom's CW shows haiku
The CW Upfronts, from MSG
Fox's announcement (PR)
Tom Heald's Fox shows haiku
 

SPECIAL REPORT: The worst upfront ever!

In print: NBC gets funny for fall
In print: Thursday now 'Grey's' day
In print: CBS jumps for 'Shark'
In print: Fox, rhymes with Xerox

IN SUMMARY: Most promising pilots of the week
AND: What did we learn?

Laurel Krahn's fall season grid

AUDIO: Paul Harris and I chat about the upfronts on KMOX.

Still to come:
Previewing the new Fox shows (Monday)

Past years' upfronts coverage: 2005 | 2004

And presenting ... the NEW CW logo:

In animations, the C begins as an E and has an N attached to it, so the animation goes from NEW to CW.  Pretty much taken out of the MTV Networks playbook, but hey, they're no longer in the corporate family, so all's fair, right?

The town so nice, they feed the mice!

All next week I will be reporting often from New York City. It's upfronts time.

To accompany my preview (see below) of the 2006 network upfront presentations -- which start Monday with NBC at Radio City Music Hall -- I chatted with Bill Carter. He's the New York Times TV writer whose new book, Desperate Networks, tells the surprisingly turbulent backstories of a half-dozen monster hit shows and how they somehow, against all odds, made it onto the prime time schedule.

The reason I talked with Bill is that, (a) I loved his book, and (b) he opened both Desperate Networks and his previous book, The Late Shift, at a network upfront.

Here's an edited podcast of our chat: Bill_Carter.mp3

Nikki Finke has the latest pilot rundown (except of course for CBS, whose battening-down of leaks would make Donald Rumsfeld proud):

Link - Deadline Hollywood Daily.

Most surprising news from there? I suppose it would be the renewal of "What About Brian?" Also I'm a little surprised to see Tina Fey in the running, though perhaps the show she is pitching has less to do with "Studio 60," the Aaron Sorkin number NBC has already picked up, than we'd been led to believe.

My leader piece from today's Star is on the jump.

Two reasons to swear

First, we learn that "Deadwood" may be done at HBO.

Second, the President's interrupting prime time again.

It's almost time ...

... for "Sopranos" to hand off to "Deadwood."

And then go wash its hands.