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Ratings: Fox Wins With ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ as NBC’s ‘Save Me’ Doesn’t Deliver

On the first night of the summer TV season, Fox won on the strength of "Hell's Kitchen" as NBC's "Save Me" didn't deliver, according to preliminary numbers.

Fox topped the night in the key 18-49 demographic with a 1.7 rating/6 share, and placed third in total viewers with 4.3 million. Airing at 8 p.m., "Hell's Kitchen" was the second highest-rated show of the night with a 2.1/7 and had 5.5 million total viewers. New gameshow "Does Someone Have to Go" premiered at 9 to a 1.3/4 and 3.1 million total viewers.

CBS came in second with a 1.4/4 and was first in total viewers with 6.6 million, even though it ran repeats. Notably, its "Big Bang Theory" repeat topped the night with a 2.2/8 and 8.8 million total viewers.

Univision took the No. 3 spot for the evening in ratings with a 1.3/4 and was fourth in total viewers with 3.4 million.

ABC was fourth in the demo with a 1.2/4, but placed second for total viewers with 5.3 million. At 8, "Wipeout" earned a 1.2/4, a 20 percent rise over last week's episode, and had 4.1 million total viewers. New series "Motive" and the returning "Rookie Blue" also had a 1.2/4. "Motive" had 5.9 million total viewers and "Rookie Blue" had 6 million. The 1.2 rating was a premiere low for "Rookie Blue."

NBC took the fifth spot for both the key demo and total viewers, earning a .8/3 and 2.6 million total viewers, respectively. At 8, "Save Me" averaged a .7/3 and 3.2 million total viewers. At 8:30, it had a .7/2 and 3 million total viewers. It was NBC's lowest-rated series premiere since "Saving Hope" last June. After an hour of repeats, "Hannibal" at 10 tied a series low with a 1.0/3. It had 2.7 million total viewers.

Box Office: ‘Fast & Furious 6′ Nets $6.5M in Late Night Shows

"Fast & the Furious 6" is off to a roaring start at the box office, earning $6.5 million in late night shows on Thursday in what is shaping up to be one of the biggest Memorial Day weekends in movie history.

That figure is a franchise best and easily tops the $3.8 million that "Fast Five," the previous installment in the cars and criminals series, earned two years ago in its midnight showings.

It is also more than double the $3.1 million that "The Hangover Part III" earned in late night screenings this week.

Also read: 6 Lessons Hollywood Needs to Learn From 'The Fast & The Furious'

The two sequels are squaring off against each other in a fiercely competitive weekend at the multiplexes. Fox's animated "Epic" will also debut over the weekend and "Star Trek Into Darkness" and "Iron Man 3" are expected to continue drawing crowds.

Despite the plethora of entertainment options, box office analysts project "Fast & Furious 6" will cross the finish line in first place, drawing a weekend haul of $80 million or more. "The Hangover Part III" is projected to generate $75 million over the long weekend.

As a sign of how intense the fight for ticketbuyers could grow over the holiday, Fandango reports that this weekend is on track to be its biggest Memorial Day weekend ever in terms of ticket sales. Its previous best was in 2011 when "The Hangover Part II" went head to head with "Kung Fu Panda 2."

Also read: How an Extreme Movie Makeover Saved 'Fast & Furious' From Going Direct to DVD

Fandango also reports that "Fast & the Furious 6" is currently selling 53 percent more tickets than "The Hangover Part III."

Universal Pictures will expand "Fast & the Furious 6" to 3,659 theaters domestically, a tick higher than the 3,555 theaters nationwide that will be screening "The Hangover Part III."

Universal is also casting its gaze abroad in search of profits. The studio is rolling out in "Fast & the Furious 6" several international markets on Friday, including 62 Imax theaters in 21 territories.

"Fast and Furious 6" brings back Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Dwayne Johnson along with director Justin Lin, who has overseen four of the franchise's films. It also revives fan-favorite Michelle Rodriguez, who was killed off in an earlier segment.

The Art of Alzheimer’s

 

I knew something was up with Mom when her usually meticulous grooming began to fail. Daily applications of Oil of Olay that was the foundation for her porcelain complexion seemed to have been abandoned. Crisply ironed blouses began to show wrinkles and clues to what she had eaten that morning.

There was something up with Mom. Either she was losing her marbles, or morphing into Janis Joplin. She never touched Jack Daniels and couldn't sing the blues to save herself, so it became evident that something was wrong.

Mom's downward spiral into dementia, and in all probability Alzheimer's, was punctuated by periods of brilliance. The brain seems to have an uncanny ability to radiate a hidden awareness as if to shake a fist at the threat of shut down. It's like a star that goes supernova before it is extinguished. All the energy and recollections of a great life lived surface to say goodbye in a final blinding gasp of love and remembrance.

So it was with my mother. She would recollect in excruciating detail the pattern of the blanket that she held as a child. She would describe the smells of the decrepit courtyard of her families Brooklyn tenement in a Shakespearean cadence. She would gaze on other men with lust and fire, and if I did not hold her hand tightly enough, would approach them and tell them exactly how handsome they were.

She had shed the super ego that Freud described and saw life as a child -- unrestricted by the shackles of correctness and demeanor. She sat in wonder at movies, in awe of the technology and performances until she dozed off. She would listen to music and let herself be transported by Perry Como and Judy Garland to another time.

As a witness to the breakdown of her faculties, I marveled at how unrestricted she had become. Alzheimer's seems to attack the defenses first. The personality becomes decimated at a later date. That's when the heartbreak sets in.

I was brought back to this experience last night at the Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theatre in North Hollywood, when I sat in the audience for "Putting on the Shorts," a series of one-act plays running through May 29. Kevin Dobson directed one vignette called "Not Dead Yet" by Patricia Wakely Wolf that in about 10 minutes explored the complexities and joys of a mother daughter relationship that was threatened by Alzheimer's.

The scene started out with the daughter, played by Katelyn Ann Clark picking up a guitar and playing the opening chords to "Something by George Harrison. Sinatra described "Something" as "one of the most beautiful love songs ever written."

The undertone of the song however is about doubt and uncertainty. That significance was not lost on me.

The art of theater was never so meaningful and real. Layers were peeled away as these two women danced in a verbal pas de deux. Irene Chapman's portrayal of the elderly woman who is at the cusp of the realization that she has Alzheimer's was powerful. She was one minute mother, the next child. As her only caregiver, the daughter's duality in roles was blurred as she efforted to provide reassurance to her mother while attempting to offer comfort and solace to herself.

The daughter was cognizant that there was no cure. Things were going to get bad. The mother, however, only hinted briefly at the realization, and then turned to her daughter to talk of Oreos. The mother's last line was, "I don't want to be like that."

At that point, the daughter reached again for the guitar -- an inanimate object that provided calm to the daughter as she navigated the turbulence that being both daughter and caregiver creates. She could offer her mother no reassurances. Her life was about to change significantly, their mother/daughter relationship was about to end on a conscious level. What was left was the culmination of their years, and they explored it with absolute brilliance and honesty.

Magnificent. "Not Dead Yet" showed another side to the tragedy that is Alzheimer's. It showed two people trying to bind together the fragmenting of a relationship that is being torn apart by disease.

And therein lies the art. Alzheimer's is scurrilous in the devastation that it causes, yet it comes first as an announcement not on perfumed stationery, but on the fetid breath of the Grim Reaper. No cure, no future -- but you do have time to say your goodbyes. What ensues while dealing with the shock and the darkness that is on the horizon, is life.

There is humor, tragedy -- relationships are forged, ended. Roles are reversed, and the disease slowly lowers the curtain. Those who survive are witness to some strange s--t -- everything from moments of clarity that surface briefly, to personal feelings of abandonment by loved ones who succumb to the disease -- and sometimes forge intimate relationships with other sufferers. The caregiver becomes the shadow.

Alzheimer's shows no mercy.

I had thought I found a cure for it. Mom was uncommunicative, silent in her repose and behind her closed eyes she was hooked up to my iPod, listening to her favorites -- Andy Williams, Perry Como, Judy Garland. One of my kids Megadeath tunes was inadvertently placed in the queue. Since Mom was hard of hearing, the volume was up.

Then her eyes tightened, and burst open. The first power chords of "Gears of War" lit her up and caused a brief instant of clarity. Her mouth opened and I'm sure I heard her scream: WTF??

Her return was brief, and wasn't worth the mess it caused.

 

Cannes: Jerry Lewis Skewered for Latest Bad-Taste, Sexist Remarks

Somebody send Jerry Lewis a copy of "Bridesmaids" stat, because the octogenarian comedian still doesn't think women are funny.

The reaction to his latest bad-taste, sexist remarks at a Cannes press conference was swift -- and fierce. 

Basking in the reflected glow of France's somewhat inexplicable love of all thing "Nutty Professor," Lewis raised eyebrows Thursday by reiterating that in his mind, girls just can't slip on a banana peel as expertly as the fellas.

Also read: Good Morning, Cannes: Father Figures, Funny Men and Teen Lesbians

In particular, he said he did not enjoy seeing women do broad comedy. "I can't see women doing that. It bothers me," said Lewis, who was on hand at the Riviera festival for a screening of his new film "Max Rose."

Then, to make matters worse, when pressed about which female comics he finds amusing, the 87-year old Lewis evinced a keen knowledge of current cinematic icons, quipping in his usual bad taste, "Cary Grant and Burt Reynolds."

Not a lot of folks found Lewis amusing. 

Jezebel weighed in with a cudgel, entitling its piece on Lewis' comments, "Crusty Old Dickhead Jerry Lewis Still Doesn't Like Female Comedians" and labeling him a "superannuated comic misogynist."

On Twitter, comedian Rob Delaney referenced Lewis' long association with telethons by joking, "In his defense, Lucille Ball did invent muscular dystrophy," while Michael Ian Black asked, "okay but what is Jerry Lewis's opinion on plushies?"

Lewis' impolitic views aren't surprising. The comic has a history of making sexist and homophobic comments.

At the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in 1998, for instance, he said, ''I don't like any female comedians. A woman doing comedy doesn't offend me, but ... I think of her as a producing machine that brings babies in the world.''

That earned Lewis a sharp rebuke from Judd Apatow.

"Jerry Lewis once said that he didn't think women were funny, so I'd just like to say, with all respect, 'Fuck you!'" Apatow said while accepting a Critics Choice Award in 2012 for producing "Bridesmaids."

He's been even more out of step with current views on gay rights. While appearing on Australian television in 2008, he dismissed the country's favorite sport, by saying, "Oh, cricket? It's a fag game." He used the same slur on a 2007 telethon to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

It's not clear if he has a favorite gay comedian. Burt Reynolds?

 

BBC’s Jana Bennett To Run Bio And LMN As Part Of Nancy Dubuc’s A+E Rebuilding Plans

EXCLUSIVE: Nancy Dubuc is not wasting any time putting her stamp on A+E Networks. While she doesn’t officially transition into her new role as president and CEO of the company until June 1, I hear Dubuc already is working on plans for the brands. With A&E and History in top shape and Lifetime well into the rebuilding process, Dubuc is focusing her attention on the group’s next tier of networks, Bio, LMN and H2. As part of her turnaround plans, I’ve learned that veteran BBC executive Jana Bennett, who helped usher TLC into mainstream programming in the early 2000s, has been tapped to run LMN and Bio. (Dirk Hoogstra is in charge of H2.) Bennett spent more than 30 years working for the BBC, most recently as president of worldwide networks and the global BBC iPlayer for the corporation’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, a position she held until departing late last year. In the US, Bennett is best known for her three-year stint as EVP and general manager of Discovery Communications’ then-The Learning Channel, where she shepherded the channel’s transformation and ratings growth by introducing reality and home makeover shows, some based on British formats, under the slogan Life Unscripted. They included such audience pleasers as Junkyard Wars and Trading Spaces. Bennett left in 2002 to return to London as director of ... Read More »

RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Hannibal’ Hits Low, ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Rises, ‘Save Me’ & ‘Does Someone Have To Go?’ Debut Low

The 2012-2013 TV season ended on Wednesday and here comes the new shows. With the exception of season winner CBS, who ran repeats last night, everyone had a premiere on Thursday. Having said that, CBS’s The Big Bang Theory (2.2/6) was the highest rated and most watched show of the night with 8.84 million viewers. On NBC, the long delayed Save Me finally saw the light of day with a double debut. The series stars Anne Heche as a suburban housewife who becomes a conduit for the Divine. With an early series pick up last May, the comedy was originally scheduled for midseason but has ended up in the burnoff slot with duel episodes over the early summer. Both the 8 PM premiere and the 8:30 PM episode last night got a 0.7/3. That’s the lowest series debut NBC has had since the 0.7/2 Saving Hope received on June 7, 2012. Hannibal (1.0/3) was the only other original on NBC on Thursday. Hitting a season low. The freshman Silence of The Lambs prequel was down 9% from last week’s show, which was abbreviated because of The Office series finale running to 10:15 PM. Related:  2012-2013 Season Network Rankings Full 2012-2013 TV Season Series Rankings With American Idol having wrapped its latest season, Fox debuted its new workplace reality ... Read More »

Mark Burnett on ‘Voice’ Win Over ‘Idol’: ‘It’s a Kinder Show’ (Exclusive)

"The Voice" executive producer Mark Burnett says he believes his show beat "Idol" for the first time this season in part because "it's a kinder show" with coaches who are "very, very current."

Everyone involved in "The Voice" has avoided comparisons with Fox's "American Idol," but that's changing now that the season is over and "The Voice" is on top.

"Amazing. Absolutely amazing," Burnett said in an interview with TheWrap. "I felt that in the first three seasons the audience had gravitated toward 'The Voice' mainly because it's a kinder show. There's no humiliation on it. I feel that that's very, very important with audiences. And also our coaches are very, very current in their careers. I feel like it's become young America's favorite show."

Burnett also explained why he's avoided making ratings predictions about "The Voice" and "Idol."

"I was very hopeful that we would do better," he said. "You never want to go out there and say anything at the beginning of the season, because you never know, do you?"

Both nights of Burnett's NBC singing competition have beat both nights of "Idol" in the key 18-49 demographic, but there's one asterisk: "The Voice" spring cycle is still going, with the season finale airing June 18. "The Voice" has averaged a 5.1 rating in the demo on Mondays and a 4.7 on Tuesdays. "Idol" has averaged a 4.6 on Wednesday and 4.3 on Thursday.

"Idol" leads "The Voice" in total viewers, averaging 15 million on Wednesdays and 14.6 million on Thursdays. "The Voice" averages 14.2 million on Mondays and 13.3 million on Tuesdays.

"Idol" was the top show on television for eight years, finally falling to NBC's "Sunday Night Football" in the 2011-12 season.

It's been a very good season for Burnett, whose other hits include "Survivor," "Celebrity Apprentice" and "Shark Tank": The project closest to his heart, "The Bible," a miniseries he produced with wife Roma Downey, set ratings records for History.

Additionally, "The Voice," "Survivor" and "Shark Tank" each received a Critics' Choice Television Awards nomination on Thursday.

Unface.me Is A Gossip Girl-Style Social Service For Anonymously Trolling Your Friends

Russian startup Unface.me has created a new social network inspired by the Gossip Girl TV series which lets users create an alter ego to -- let's face it -- troll their friends, or even post even worst types of gossip entirely anonymously. The site connects with Facebook and Russian social network VKontakte so it can pull in users' genuine friend networks, then let them dish salacious gossip.

Facebook’s Head Of Brand Design Paul Adams Joins Customer Outreach Startup Intercom

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Stephen Colbert Is ‘Not a Fan’ of Obama, Is a Big Fan of Drone Use (Video)

Stephen Colbert opened his Thursday night "Colbert Report" monologue by saying, "Folks, I've got a confession to make: I'm no fan of Barack Obama. There I said it -- somebody had to."

Colbert continued, "But I am a fan of how he's handled the War on Terror, by following the exact same policies laid out by President Bush, who followed the exact same policies laid out by President Cheney."

Colbert was referring to the ongoing controversy over drone use. He defends the 2001 congressional resolution called the "Authorization for Use of Military Force," which Obama wants to repeal. Colbert calls the resolution, "A svelte 60 words of eternal war-justifying deliciousness."

Also read: Stephen Colbert's Sister, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, Loses to Mark Sanford in S.C. House Race

With the AUMF in place, no one is safe outside of Colbert Nation -- not even the heavenly St. Peter, of whom Colbert has his suspicions about from his time spent in the Middle East 2,000 years ago. The monologue then seamlessly switched to discussion of Ryan Gosling and Matthew McConaughey's abs, as only Colbert can do.

Finally, the America-loving host introduced us to what is sure to become a new favorite linking-terrorists-to-9/11 game, "6 Degrees of Guys Who Don't Eat Bacon." The game is sure to revolutionize the justifcation of drone use -- Just don't play it out in public.

Watch below:

 

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Cannes: Art Institute Of Chicago Student Wins Cinéfondation’s Top Honor

As things wind down here on the Croisette, prizes are starting to roll out across the various sections. Last night was Critics’ Week and later today we’ll have the Directors’ Fortnight winners. The Cinéfondation jury, led by president Jane Campion, has just released its top picks for this year. The selection is made up of 18 student films with the winners taking €15,000 for first prize, €11,250 for second and €7,500 for third. The director of first prize winner, in this case Art Institute of Chicago student Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, is also guaranteed their first feature will be presented in Cannes. Her winning short film Needle is about a girl who goes to have her ears pierced, provoking a quarrel between her parents that overwhelms the situation. Click over for the full list of winners: FIRST PRIZE Needle, dir: Anahita Ghazvinizadeh The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA SECOND PRIZE Waiting For The Thaw, dir: Sarah Hirtt INSAS, Belgium JOINT THIRD PRIZE In The Fishbowl, dir: Tudor Cristian Jurgiu UNATC, Romania Pandas, dir: Matúš Vizar FAMU, Czech Republic

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Jennifer Hudson: Confirmed as New American Idol Judge

According to E! News, it's official:

Jennifer Hudson will judge American Idol Season 13.

As previously reported, producers are looking to make major changes to the competition (following dismal Season 12 ratings) and are nearing deals with a number of American Idol alums to comprise next year's panel.

Hudson is the first to sign on the dotted line.

E! also claims Kelly Clarkson will be next and the third spot will go to either Adam Lambert or Clay Aiken.

Hudson is not an Idol champion, of course, but she has gone on to an incredible career, one highlighted by her 2006 Oscar victory for Best Supporting Actress for Dreamgirls.

Is she a good selection as judge?

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Two VMware executives have left to join Redpoint Ventures to help the firm extend its reach into the enterprise and mobile markets. Their leaving marks a string of recent VMware departures, following the Pivotal spinout of several of the two companies’ product groups. Both executives joining Redpoint had important roles at VMware. Javier Soltero  was responsible for driving advanced development and strategy for application level cloud services. Soltero joined VMware after the acquisition of SpringSource in 2009. Three months prior, SpringSource, a Java framework, had acquired Hyperic, a large-scale web infrastructure management software provider. Soltero was co-founder and CEO of the company. Soltero has some Internet chops that date back to the earliest days of the web. Early in his career, Soltero worked at Netscape, where he was responsible for early Internet messaging, application servers and e-commerce technologies. Kevin Henrikson joined Zimbra in 2005 and worked there until Yahoo! acquired the company in 2007. In 2010, VMware acquired Zimbra, where Henrikson directed Zimbra’s engineering and development roadmap planning and execution, including potential company acquisitions. He holds a published patent and a filed patent in conjunction with his work at Zimbra. A number of VMware executives have left the company in the past year. Last week, Microsoft hired Patrick Chanezon who recently left VMware to join Microsoft as its director of enterprise evangelism. Dave McCrory also recently left VMware to join Warner Brothers. He served as one of the chief developers of VMware’s Cloud Foundry, the platform as a service. And in January, CTO Steve Herrod left to join General Catalyst as a managing director investing and supporting early-stage enterprise companies.