The Return of My Annual Fall TV Network Presidents Survey

It’s the return of my annual Fall TV Network Presidents survey! I asked 18 programmers — from Netflix, ABC/Hulu, NBC, CBS, Fox, The CW, TBS/TNT/TruTV, HBO/HBO Max, Showtime, FX, A+E, Freeform, AMC, Discovery, Paramount Plus, Epix all included — the think that irks them the most about the biz; what show they’d steal from a rival; their potential sleeper hit; their pandemic hobby and more. See all answers here.

And we got 13 of them on to this chart, which ran in the most recent issue of Variety. Click to make it larger:

KCRW's The Spin-Off: "Fargo" Creator Noah Hawley Has Too Much To Do

On the latest edition of KCRW's The Spin-Off, Joe and I talk to "Fargo's" Noah Hawley about his busy schedule:

Noah Hawley calls himself a “20 year overnight success.” The busy writer-producer is also a novelist, whose most recent book, Before the Fall, will also be adapted as a screenplay for Sony, written by Hawley himself.

Hawley joins us to talk about the difference between writing for film and television, reflects on his career in the TV industry and tells us why he has no plans to ever going back to working on a broadcast network.

Now he's got a deal with FX and several projects in the pipeline there. He shares what he can about the upcoming X-Men series, Legion, and season three of Fargo.

Listen below!

MIKE ON KCRW: Bantering About Fall TV, FX and NFL on "The Business"

On this week's episode of KCRW's The Business, host Kim Masters and I tackle in the showbiz banter:

- Fall TV is in full swing this week. Networks are hoping advertisers will pay attention to not just how many people tune in live, but also to viewers catching up a few days later on their DVRs.

- FX CEO John Landgraf says they’re probably doing away with the 10-90 plan.

- Rihanna’s version of “Run This Town” will no longer be a part of CBS’s Thursday Night Football.

Listen below!

Live from the Paley Center, Interviewing the Cast and Producer of FX's "The Bridge"

One of the most stylishly interesting shows on TV, FX's "The Bridge" returns for season 2 on July 9 with a new focus and tweaked story style. Gone is season 1's serial killer mystery, which was based on the first season of the Swedish/Danish show "Bron," which "The Bridge" was based on. For season 2, executive producer Ellwood Reid is diving deep into the mystery and intrigue of live on the U.S./Mexico border. Joining stars Demian Bichir and Diane Kruger this season are Franka Potente as a brutal, evil character who may or may not be carrying out missions for a drug cartel leader. Meanwhile, Bichir's character, the troubled Mexican police detective Marco, finds himself still grieving for his late son as he walks an even tighter line between doing what's right and giving in to the powerful forces of the cartel. Matthew Lillard and Emily Rios also star as intrepid reporters for an El Paso newspaper, and the two of them get a little too close to the truth. Ted Levine stars as the police chief and boss of Kruger's character, Sonya, who strikes up a bizarre relatonship with the brother of her sister's killer.



Yep, a lot of stuff to digest. Tuesday night I moderated a Paley Center conversation with Reid, Bichir, Kruger, Lillard, Rios and Levine as we talked in depth about the show, its changes and what to expect. Reid has a clear vision for the show, especially now that season 2 was created from scratch (as opposed to being adapted from "Bron"). I've seen the first two episodes of season 2, and I'm looking forward to checking out more.

Here are more pics from last night's panel (credit: Michael Bulbenko for The Paley Center for Media):

Live from the TV Academy Theater: FX's "Fargo" Holds an Emmy Panel (PICS)

Moderate an Emmy panel for one of the best new shows on TV, FX's "Fargo"? You betcha! On Tuesday night, Maria and I headed over to the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in North Hollywood, where I conducted a Q&A with stars Billy Bob Thornton, Allison Tolman, Colin Hanks and Bob Odenkirk (above) as well as actor Keith Carradine and executive producers Noah Hawley and Warren Littlefield.



(Above, me and Billy Bob.) Conversation ranged from how Hawley came to create a new series that featured the tone of the "Fargo" feature but focuses on new characters. We also touched on the accents required to play Minnesotans; the cold weather up in Calgary, where the show shoots; why Billy Bob decided to return to television; and much much more.



One of the best highlights was hearing about the true overnight success story of Allison Tolman. This is her first real TV role -- and it's a big one. She was still working in an office when she was cast.



Meanwhile, we all got a good laugh when it finally dawned on Billy Bob why the names "Keith and Allison" sounded so familiar to him. (Keith Allison was in the band Paul Revere and the Raiders.) It had been bugging him for months, and he finally figured it out on stage.



Empty Academy theater before the panel



Cell phone pics by Maria; professional pics by Patrick McElhenney/FX

Below, here's video of FX's Eric Schreier introducing me, then me introducing the panelists:

Too Much TV? Here's Why Your DVR Is Clogged

Too much TV? Via FX: Basic cable aired 16 original scripted series in 2002. In 2013, it was 114. A gain of 613%!



You may remember I wrote about this "Too Much TV" question last year ("As More Networks Develop Series, Is There Too Much TV?").

VIDEO: Mike Grills Top TV Execs on The State of The Industry at HRTS

A few weeks ago I moderated the Hollywood Radio and Television Society's kick off luncheon for the 2013-14 TV season. The "State of the Industry" luncheon featured NBC's Ted Harbert, FX's John Landgraf, HBO's Michael Lombardo, MagnaGlobal's Tim Spengler and Hulu's Andy Forssell. We had a lively chat that ranged from the new ways people now watch TV, how TV development is getting crowded with so many new players, and whether Netflix is helping or hurting the biz. HRTS just posted the video, so in honor of the new fall TV season, watch on:



Here are a few more pics from the panel:

Billboard Crowns The Song of the Summer 2013. And The Winner Is... (VIDEO)

Billboard has named "Blurred Lines," by Robin Thicke feat. T.I. and Pharrell, the song of the summer. Despite a valiant fight by Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" and Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive," Billboard says it wasn't even a contest:

"Lines" took hold of the top rank on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of June 22 for its first of 12 frames at No. 1. (It cedes the summit to Katy Perry's "Roar" this week.) It ties two other songs for the most weeks tallied at No. 1 on the Hot 100 encompassing charts covering Memorial Day through Labor Day: Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together," the top summer song of 2005, which collected 12 of its 14 total weeks on top in that span, and Brandy & Monica's "The Boy Is Mine," which notched 12 of its 13 weeks at No. 1 in the Songs of the Summer chart's tracking period in 1998.

"Lines" has dominated multiple charts over the summer. In addition to its Hot 100 reign, it set the record for the highest weekly audience (228.9 million, according to Nielsen BDS) in the 23-year history of Billboard's Radio Songs chart, passing Carey's "Belong" (212.2 million). It leads the list for a ninth frame this week. The song also scored the Hot 100's top Airplay Gainer award for a record 10 weeks.

Looks like it wasn't even close. In our unofficial Franklin Avenue poll, "Get Lucky" dominated:



At last week's FXX network launch party, Thicke himself performed to a pumped-up industry crowd, and of course, he saved the big hit for last. Here are two Vines I made of it:



And some Blurred Pics from the party:

MIKE ON RADIO: Talking Box Office, Star Salaries and Millennial TV on KCRW's The Business

While host Kim Masters is on vacation, the Los Angeles Times' John Horn and I took over this week's "Banter" on KCRW's The Business. Among our topics: TV Guide Magazine's annual salary survey. Here's the full roster of this week's chat:

- The independent movies of Summer, 2013 -- like Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine and Lee Daniels' The Butler-- that could teach the movie studios a thing or two.
- TV's highest paid stars. Hint: Jon Stewart & Judge Judy
- Three new channels target Millennials -- Pivot from Participant Media, Revolt from Sean "Diddy" Combs and FXX, an offshoot of FX

Listen now:

For Sale: The "American Horror Story" House

Got $12 million sitting around? The beautiful house seen in FX's "American Horror Story" is on the block -- and don't worry, a homicidal clown baby doesn't really live in the basement -- that we know of. The house will be featured in an episode of Syfy's "Hollywood Treasure," airing next Tuesday, May 29 at 10 p.m. Here's some detail on the house, which is being marketed by Profiles in History and Beverly Hills' Rodeo Realty:

Construction of the house began in 1904 and was completed in 1908. The Catholic Church added a chapel addition in 1954. The house sits on approximately 3/4 an acre and is around 12,000 square feet. The home was built by renowned architect Alfred Rosenheim and is currently a designated historic monument. The house will be going on the market for $12,000,000.00.

The house is located in the Country Club Park/Arlington Heights section of the city. When Curbed LA wrote about the house back in January 2011, before its superstardom, it was on the market for $4.5 million. That's quite a markup.

It's Always Sunny at the Troubadour

(Flickr pic by Armst.)

Day Man (Aah-aah-aah)
Fighter of the Night Man (Aah-aah-aah)
Champion of the sun (Aah-aah-aah)
You're a master of karate
And friendship for everyone

I've had "Dayman" and "Nightman" stuck in my head for days now, thanks to Friday night's special "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" performance at the Troubadour (they did a second show on Saturday as well).

It was an interesting experiment: The cast of FX's always irreverent "Sunny" hit the stage to re-enact this past November's season finale, "The Nightman Cometh."

The episode revolved around a horribly, horribly inappropriate (is there any other way with "Sunny"?) musical written by Charlie (Charlie Day) -- and performed by everyone from Paddy's bar. Inappropriate, I should add, but hysterical. (The whole musical itself was actually a call back to an earlier episode, the infamous "Sweet Dee Is Dating a Retarded Person," when Charlie first reveals the lyrics, culled from his slightly messed up mind.)

Here's how "The Nightman Cometh" opened on TV, as Charlie tells the gang that he wrote a musical -- and they don't understand:



Danny DeVito (Frank), Charlie Day (Charlie), Glenn Howerton (Dennis), Rob McElhenney (Mac), Kaitlin Olson (Dee) and recurring stars Mary Elizabeth Ellis (the Waitress) and Artemis Pebdani (Artemis) all performed at the Troubadour show, which lasted about an hour. The crowd was clearly made up of fans: Some were repeating lines from the episode, and everyone joined in to sing the musical's big number.

Day Man (Aah-aah-aah)
Fighter of the Night Man (Aah-aah-aah)
Champion of the sun (Aah-aah-aah)
You're a master of karate
And friendship for everyone

It's Always Sunny in North Hollywood

There I am with new pals Danny DeVito and Rhea Pearlman, Tuesday night at the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences headquarters in North Hollywood.

I was there to moderate a panel on FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," one of my favorite half-hours on TV. (We've listed it down below as a "favorite thing" for years).

DeVito, who plays Frank Reynolds, was there, as were Kaitlin Olson (Dee Reynolds), Rob McElhenney (Mac), Charlie Day (Charlie Kelly) and Glenn Howerton (Dennis Reynolds).

It was a great panel, with lots of laughs. We touched on all sorts of topics regarding the show, and screened the episode "Sweet Dee Is Dating a Retarded Person." Below, a shot of me with Charlie: