Can Oscars provide ABC a lift?

The cast of Cirque du Soleil performs onstage during the 84th Annual Academy Awards.Ashley Judd in "Missing"Kristin Chenoweth in "GCB" Thanks to hit reality competish The Voice, the weeks No. 1 series in 18-49, NBC is currently ahead of ABC for the season. Big ratings for the Oscars on Sunday lifted ABC to a rare primetime ratings victory last week and, the net hopes, should help kickstart its spring sked. ABC doesn't benefit from monster football ratings like the other nets, so it relies on its entertainment series and the one-time shot of the Oscars to provide a jolt. Sunday's telecast of "The 84th Annual Academy Awards" averaged an 11.7 rating/27 share in adults 18-49 and 39.34 million viewers overall -- nearly double the net's highest-rated same-night demo score for any program this season (a 6.1 in premiere week for "Modern Family"). And the Alphabet used the kudocast to shine a light on its midseason hopefuls, which will roll out beginning Sunday with "GCB" followed by Thursday dramas "Missing" and "Scandal" and Wednesday comedy "Don't Trust the B in Apt. 23." ABC will need a good showing by one or two of them to catch or pass NBC and avoid falling into the basement for the season. The Peacock, aided by the Super Bowl and now with primetime's top demo draw in "The Voice," still holds a roughly 8% advantage on the Alphabet in adults 18-49 with nearly three months to go (2.68 rating to 2.49). Overall for the week of Feb. 20-26, ABC won rather easily in adults 18-49 with a 3.2 rating/9 share, followed by Fox (2.4/6), CBS (2.3/6), NBC (1.8/5), TNT (1.5/4) and Univision (1.4/4). For a second straight week, NBC showed double-digit gains while Fox fell off by double digits. ABC also prevailed in adults 25-54 (3.9/9 to 3.2/8 for CBS) and total viewers (10.7 million to 10.1 million for CBS). For ABC, the Academy Awards virtually matched last year's 18-49 score while growing 4% in total viewers (Daily Variety, Feb. 28). The show skewed older than usual (median age of 52.8 vs. 50.6 last year), faring best among key demos in women 25-54 (16.6 rating, up 7%) and worst in males 12-34 (6.2 rating, down 21%) While the Oscars continue to under-index among African-Americans (making up less than 8% of its audience), viewership among blacks was up 20% year to year (2.96 million vs. 2.47 million). Elsewhere for ABC last week, "Modern Family" (4.8/12, 11.54m) and "Grey's Anatomy" (3.1/8, 9.06m) hit season lows, but since they are the leaders in full-week DVR playback this season, it's hard to knock them too much. And Friday's "Shark Tank" remained strong (1.8/6, 5.86m), bouncing back to match its series high in the demo for a regular episode. Fox was down more than 30% from the same week a year ago (when it aired one extra hour of "American Idol"). The music talent show posted more declines and is looking much more mortal in its 11th season. Wednesday's two-hour seg (5.1/14, 16.10m) led the night but was merely the No. 3 series of the week in 18-49. CBS claimed the week's top scripted show in demos with "The Big Bang Theory" (5.3/16, 16.20m), which beat "American Idol" head to head by about 27%. Other standouts for the net included 10 p.m. dramas "Hawaii Five-0" (2.9/7, 10.40m) and "CSI" (2.9/8, 11.91m) as well as Thursday rookie "Person of Interest" (3.1/8, 14.56m), which tied "Grey's Anatomy" in 18-49 for the first time. NBC had the week's No. 1 series in 18-49 with Monday's "The Voice" (6.0/15, 16.04m); the show following it, "Smash" (2.3/6, 6.47m), dropped off some more in its third week but stabilized on Monday of the current week despite a softer "Voice" lead-in. On cable, AMC's "The Walking Dead" (3.8/9 in 18-49, 7.04m) was primetime's No. 1 drama despite facing the Academy Awards. On the same night, the NBA All-Star Game on TNT (3.3/9, 7.07m) was down 17% in the demo and 22% in total viewers vs. last year when it aired the week before the Oscars; one day earlier, "NBA All-Star Saturday Night" dominated the night for TNT (2.9/9, 6.24m). Discovery's "Gold Rush" wrapped its second season on a strong note (2.0/6 in 18-49, 5.06m) -- standing as Friday's No. 1 show in 18-49 as well as in all male demos; in men 18-49, it doubled up dramas "Grimm" and "Fringe" in men 18-34 (2.6/8 vs. 1.3/4). The second annual "Hall of Game Awards" on Cartoon Network, hosted by Shaquille O'Neal, drew 2.59 million viewers Monday -- including year-to-year gains of roughly 90% in boys 6-11 (to 886,000) and kids 2-11 (to 1.47 million). Also Monday, VH1's "Basketball Wives" (1.5/4 in 18-49, 2.54m) kicked off its fourth season by matching the franchise's top demo score. Contact Rick Kissell at rick.kissell@variety.com

Alan Ball Steps Down as Showrunner of True Blood for Season 6

It was the best of times and it was the worst of times on last week's Parenthood. Jasmine (Joy Bryant) professed her love for Crosby (Dax Shepard), just as his sister, Julia, (Erika Christensen) learned the heart-breaking news that she was not going to be a mother again. And don't push those tissue boxes away just yet. "I'm really proud of the finale. It was one of those episodes where so many things come together and it's got good humor, it's emotional," showrunner Jason Katims tells TVGuide.com. "It's a nice mix of seeing some things come to a really satisfying ending and on the other hand, opening up... Read More > Other Links From TVGuide.com Erika ChristensenJason RitterJoy BryantLauren GrahamPeter KrauseRobert GreenblattJason KatimsParenthood

Oscar Flashback: Best Picture Nominees Of fifty years Ago Get New Existence

Hollywood remains busy this seasoncelebrating the Academy Award nominees to find the best Picture. Of 1961. Clearly there is lots ofattention paid out towardthe nine nominees to find the best Picture of 2011 too but the amount of of those are we able to be talking about but nonetheless watching on large or little screens fifty years from now? Would they manage to offer the same endurance and influence that Oscar’s crop of bestpicture nominees within the Academy’s 34th year? Consider the nominees. West Side Story, Judgment At Nuremberg, The Hustler, The Guns Of Navarone, Fanny. So when there has been nine nominees because you will find this year, this list most likely may have incorporated Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Splendor Inside The Grass, El Cid and La Dolce Vita. In 2062 whatwill we be saying aboutThe Artist, The Descendants, Moneyball, Hugo, Evening amount of time in Paris, The Tree of Existence, Very Noisy and very Close, War Equine andThe Help? Maybe there's major corrections, elaborate boxedhome entertainment sets, hands and footprint occasions at Grauman’s Chinese, specialevenings within the Academy,new books devoted for their dissection, Broadway adaptations? Well people are exactly a couple of of the methods the remains remembering the Oscar-laden sounding 󈨁. West Side Story was the season’s large champion , producing 11 nominations and winning 10 including Best Picture, a substantial sweep for your musical that recently loved a effective Broadway revival and contains been chronicled in more detail in the recent book, Something’s Coming, Something Good: West Side Story as well as the American Imagination by Misha Berson. The filmgrossed an thought $43 million (just like $300 million today) andaccording for the book is rated by American Film Institute one of the two finest musicals available , second only to Singin’ Even Though It Is Pouring down rain.MGMhas released a more elaborate 4-Disc50th anniversary Blu Ray package tocelebrate the film and, fifty years after its opening Russ Tamblyn, who carried out Lick additionally to Supporting Oscar individuals who win George Chakiris (Bernardo) and Rita Moreno (Anita) got their hands and feet prints in November at theChinese theatrewhere the film initially opened up. According to Berson , “Since the 1961 release, the film has maintained its status becoming an all pervading classic together with a combination-cultural, universal crowd pleaser. Inside the second decade in the twenty -first century, it’s still frequently examined at film festivals at repetition cinemas focusing in classic movies”. Consider Judgment At Nuremberg, Stanley Kramer’s effective think about the Holocaust as seen using the prism in the famous Nuremberg Nazi tests. It absolutely was almost uncommon to handle that subject within the timein this kind of large , all-star Hollywood movie and ittoo received 11 Oscar nominations, winning two for Abby Mann’s adaptation of his Playhouse 90 TV play and greatest Actor Maximilian Schell. The film co-starred Spencer Tracy,Burt Lancaster,Montgomery Clift, Judy Garland, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich while others.On October the Academy of motion Picture Arts & Sciences honored it getting a unique 50th anniversary evening that Schell travelled in from Europe. Only at that screening Rabbi Marvin Heir referred to as film ” a trailblazer andSchell told tales of the making. Tom Brokaw, Alec Baldwin and co-star William Shatner brought recorded remembrances in the daring film that Heir saluted due to its “genius from the director and cast”. Consider The Guns of Navarone. Request any kid who had been elevated circa 󈨁 which probably tops this list of favorite adventure movies – ever. Gregory Peck , David Niven and Anthony Quinn starred inside the sensational World War Ii -set epic which has been thoroughly digitally restored by Columbia now just released on Blu Ray in recognition of the 50th. American Cinematheque situated a worldwide premiere screening in the restoration on October 21st within the Egyptian in Hollywood. It received 7 Oscar nominations including Best Picture and won for Effects. Consider The Hustler. In their just released autobiography co-star Piper Laurie produces of her disppointment while using film. She's possibly the only person. It remains a classic, acquired nine nominations including Best Picture, Laurie to find the best Actress (which she terms “unbelievable”), Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason and George C. Scott (they declined) and won for Black & White-colored Art Direction and Cinematography. It even sparked a follow-up 25 years or so later , The Color of money that finally did win Newman an Oscar as’Fast EddieFelson’.Fox released The Hustler recently in the pristine Blu-ray edition and Warrior director Gavin O’Connor has co-written a stage adaptation to think about to Broadway later this year co-starring Renee Zellweger. The fifth nominee Fanny (5 nominations)was an attempt from director Joshua Logan to recapture the miracle of 1958′s large Oscar champion, Gigi, by reteaming its stars Leslie Caron and Maurice Chevalier alongwith Best Actor nominee Charles Boyeris alone in the 󈨁 crop being largely neglected. Just a little distributor finally has put the original Warner Bros. release on DVD and Caron described it remains a person favorite but what film prints exist aren't in great shape. It is good to find out that certain restored. It's 1961′s forgotten treasure. Ironically possibly most likely probably the most lasting and beloved movie of 1961, Breakfast At Tiffany’s , wasn't a Best Picture nominee at allbut did manage 5 nominations includinga Best Actress jerk for Katherine Hepburn and won for Original Score which is legendary song , Moon River. The form and designs inside the film are actually forever copiedits constantly selling out revival house tests andParmount just launched it on Blu-ray and recently opened up a substantial restoration within the Academy and TCM Classic Film Festival. Several recentbooks are actually written recently on its making including Mike Wasson’s Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. and Sarah Gristwood’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s The Condition 50th Anniversary Companion. It's been the subject of the 90′s rock hit, “Breakfast atTiffany’s” with the band Dark Blue Something. Will any 2011′s selection understand this kind of love and attention and attention half-century from now? I'm going to be writing a follow-around this informative article in 2064. Stay up-to-date.

The Colbert Are Accountable To Resume Monday

A Comedy Central spokesperson has confirmed the Colbert Report will air originals again beginning Monday “as initially scheduled.” The show’s website includes the agenda for the approaching week, including visitors Nancy Pelosi and Placido Domingo.The faux-news show starring required an unplanned hiatus beginning on Wednesday, when ticketholders to that particular evening’staping were informed that instances of the show have been canceled because of unforeseen conditions not less than the relaxation each week. There have been gossips Colbert walked away to look after his ill mother, however the network never gave grounds for that stoppage. Colbert did publish on Twitter on Friday: “My family and I must thank everybody that has offered their ideas and hopes. We're grateful and touched because of your concern.”

'Stick Fly' to shut

Broadway play "Stick Fly," which has not handled to stay with Broadway auds, will shutter later this month. New abide by Lydia R. Gemstone gained lukewarm-to-reviews that are positive, but despite a cast of identifiable faces along with a creating assist from Alicia Secrets, the development demonstrated not able to sustain B.O. inside a Broadway season which has formed as much as be abnormally crowded with new plays. Because the show started previews November. 20, weekly B.O. only has rare capped $300,000. In recent days, weekly attendance has hovered in the plethora of 60%. Dule Hill, Mekhi Pfifer, Tracie Thomas, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Rosie Benton and Condola Rashad star inside a staging helmed by Kenny Leon, whose Rialto manufacture of Samuel L. Jackson-Angela Bassett topliner "The Mountaintop" appeared its run recently. "Stick Fly," in regards to a well-to-do Black family investing a weekend at their summer time home in Martha's Winery, required a circuitous path to Broadway, bowing in Chicago in 2006. The title continued being frequently created at U.S. regionals in metropolitan areas including L.A. and Princeton just before a Leon-helmed co-production from Boston's Huntington Theater and D.C.'s Arena Stage. Broadway version of this co-production develops from a creating team which includes Nelle Nugent, Secrets, Samuel Nappi, Reuben Cannon, Charles Salameno and also the Huntington, amongst others. "Stick Fly" shuts February. 26 in the Cort Theater. Contact Gordon Cox at gordon.cox@variety.com

Magnolia acquires 'Marley' doc

Magnolia Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to "Marley," director Kevin Macdonald's documentary about musician Bob Marley. "Marley" will have its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival and its North American premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, in March. Pic's produced by Steve Bing via Shangri-La Entertainment and Charles Steel and exec produced by Bob's son Ziggy Marley and Island Records founder Chris Blackwell. Marley recorded most of his music on Island from 1972 until his death in 1981. The film will open in theaters on April 20, launching day and date with all VOD and digital platforms. VH1 has come onboard to license the first TV window for the film as part of its VH1 Rock Doc franchise. "Marley" is touted as the first film for which the reggae music pioneer's family has authorized the use of their own private archives. Macdonald came on to the project a year ago. His credits include docus "One Day in September" and "Touching the Void." The authorized docu has been in the works since early 2008, when Martin Scorsese announced he'd direct it as a follow-up to his Rolling Stones concert pic "Shine a Light," but he subsequently dropped out due to scheduling. Jonathan Demme took over the project but also dropped out. "This documentary is the ultimate revelation of my father's life," said Ziggy Marley. "The family is proud to be able to have the world finally experience this emotional journey." The deal was negotiated for Magnolia by senior VP of acquisitions Dori Begley and head of business affairs Chris Matson and for VH1 by Ben Zurier and Brad Abramson with Liesl Copland of WME Global on behalf of the filmmakers. Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com