This is my in-laws’ dog Roger, a good boy, next to a little stuffed dog.
Photo by Rick Porter
There’s just really not a lot to say about the weekly ratings this week. It’s the middle of August. Even the summer shows that are in original shows are at the late-middle stages of their runs, and not a lot is exciting. It’s nice that Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is having a good run for ABC, I guess (see the first asterisk below the primetime chart), but I really can’t squeeze more than a couple sentences out of that.
So let’s round up some news from the first part of the week, and then we’ll get to the charts. Cool? Cool.
• Starting with the weirdest one: FX has ordered a sort-of spinoff of Sons of Anarchy called Legends. Charlie Hunnam is the creator, and most of the show’s core cast will return — even though most of their characters were dead by the time the show ended. So how will that work. Well, according to FX: “When the cast of Sons of Anarchy reunites at a fan convention after more than a decade, the line between life and art blurs as the fractured brotherhood finds itself up against a real-world threat more dangerous than anything they ever faced in their show.” So, somewhere between BH90210, the meta-revival of Beverly Hills, 90210 from a few years ago, and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare? Is the dangerous real-world threat SoA creator Kurt Sutter, who’s apparently not involved creatively? (Though given that Katey Sagal, Sutter’s real-life wife, is in the cast, he’s at least aware of the show and perhaps gave an informal thumbs up.)
• Hulu has ordered a second season of Good American Family, turning the show into an anthology series. The same creative team (including Ellen Pompeo as an executive producer) is involved, and the season two story will be that of Lorena Bobbitt. (Personally, not eager to see the circus around that case dramatized.)
• Apple TV released a very, very long list of guest actors for the second season of Murderbot, due next year.
• David E. Kelley’s next show is … a live-streamed, slow TV nature series called Live Migrations. It began today and will follow animal migrations in real time, beginning with sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay, Alaska. You can watch it here. As I type, cameras above and below the surface of a stream are showing an increasing number of fish hanging out. Presumably more are on the way. It’s pretty soothing, I have to say.
• ESPN co-founder Bill Rasmussen died earlier this week at age 93. It is probably an understatement to say he changed the face of TV sports, and TV in general, with his little start-up cable channel in Bristol, Conn.
The top network and cable shows for last week are below, followed by the top 10 sports telecasts. Streaming ratings will come in a separate newsletter tomorrow evening.