Antenna TV Acquires Johnny Carson for January 2016; Adult Swim Orders 3rd Season of Rick and Morty

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Antenna TV Acquires Johnny Carson for January 2016; Adult Swim Orders 3rd Season of Rick and Morty

"Here's Johnny!" Tribune Broadcasting today announced a multi-year agreement with Carson Entertainment Group to broadcast Johnny Carson on Antenna TV, Tribune Broadcasting's multicast network, beginning January 1, 2016. Antenna TV airs in 102 markets across the United States, reaching 78% of all television households. Antenna TV, available in all of the country's Top 20 TV markets, will tuck America in each weeknight, with a 60-minute classic Carson episode airing at 11pm ET/8pm PT, with a rebroadcast at 2am ET/11pm PT. On weekends, Antenna TV will run 90-minute episodes at 10pm ET/7pm PT, with a rebroadcast at 1:30am/ET 10:30pm PT. This is the first time the Carson episodes will air in a strip since he went off the air in 1992. These will NOT be clip shows, as they will be full length episodes!

Twenty-three years after retiring from The Tonight Show -- and a decade after his death -- Johnny Carson remains TV's most popular late-night talk show host, the gold-standard for late-night television. In his three decades as host, he interviewed some 25,000 guests; celebrities like David Letterman, Jay Leno, Eddie Murphy and Jim Carrey; and comedians like Jerry Seinfeld, Ellen DeGeneres, Tim Allen and Drew Carey, all of whom got their start on Carson's stage. Antenna TV will unlock the vaults to bring viewers the most popular full-length episodes from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, which have not aired on television since, including Jackie Gleason's only appearance on the show, a joint appearance by Don Rickles and Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart, Myrtle the Potato Chip Lady and Barney Odum and his tree-climbing dog. You'll also see stars of Antenna TV like John Ritter (Three's Company). Beginning January 1, 2016, "Carnac the Magnificent," "Art Fern," "Aunt Blabby" and all of Carson's classic characters will return to late night television via Antenna TV. We will have much more info on this to come, but this is HUGE news and it will be great to see interviews with these stars again!

Rick and Morty

Adult Swim has announced that they are ordering more intergalactic adventures with the season three pickup of the original hit animated comedy series, Rick and Morty. New episodes of the series air Sundays at 11:30pm ET/PT. The series' season two premiere on Sunday, July 26, ranked #1 in its time period among all key adults and men and charted triple-digit delivery gains over its prior season premiere (P18-24 +154%, P18-34 +117%, P18-49 +121%). The television audience continued to grow in the series' second week, charting week-over-week gains of up to 27% among all key demos. The season two premiere of Rick and Morty fueled Adult Swim's video streams in July'15, with an overall total of 29.7M streams, up +12% month-to-month. (Source: Nielsen Media Research Data, Omniture and YouTube Analytics)

Created and executive produced by Dan Harmon (Community) and Justin Roiland (Adventure Time), the half-hour animated series airing on Sundays at 11:30pm ET/PT follows a sociopathic genius scientist who drags his inherently timid grandson on insanely dangerous adventures across the universe. In season two, Rick Sanchez (Justin Roiland) is still living with his daughter Beth's (Sarah Chalke) family and causing more trouble than ever. This season the rest of the family, his son-in-law Jerry (Chris Parnell), grand-daughter Summer (Spencer Grammer) and grand-son Morty (Justin Roiland) are dragged into Rick's intergalactic adventures, as he faces new threats and mysteries of his secret past are revealed. Can the family survive Rick's insanity and all the chaos the universe throws at them?

Sitcoms Airing Tonight

Tuesday, November 12

The Conners - "Tempest in a Stew Pot" (ABC, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Jackie and Becky pitch their business plan to Darlene in hopes of getting the Lunch Box back, but Darlene’s decision leads to hostility among the three. Meanwhile, Dan bans Odessa from the house, causing a rift with Harris; and Mark makes extensive Thanksgiving plans that may inevitably fall apart.

Bless This Mess - "The Visit" (ABC, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Donna springs a last-minute trip to Nebraska on Mike and Rio, which she claims is to relax, but Mike and Rio soon find out she has other plans in mind when she steps into competitive mode to get them to participate in the harvest. Meanwhile, Constance’s son Brandon is driving her crazy working at the store, so she pawns him off on Rudy.

mixed-ish - "Puttin' on the Ritz" (ABC, 9:00PM ET/PT)
The kids are excited to learn more about their grandad after Harrison invites the crew to family day at his country club. Although Paul thinks it’s a bad idea, he is eventually overruled. Meanwhile, Alicia attempts to fit in at the country club but ends up fighting with Denise about keeping it real.

black-ish - "Daughters for Dummies" (ABC, 9:30PM ET/PT)
When Dre realizes that his relationship with Diane has been distant, he plans some daddy-daughter bonding sessions, but the plans backfire when he realizes the interest is one-sided. Meanwhile, Bow covers for Junior at his ChoreBoar gig.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of November 11)

Tuesday, November 12

Patrick Stewart (Blunt Talk) - Catch Patrick on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Da'Vine Joy Randolph (People of Earth) - Da'Vine appears on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Kristen Bell (The Good Place) - Kristen visits The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC. She also talks about Frozen 2 on ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9am and on The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
Laurie Metcalf (The Conners/Roseanne/The McCarthys/Getting On/The Norm Show) - Laurie stops by The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Jenny Slate (Married/Parks and Recreation/Bob's Burgers) - Jenny is a guest on The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Rob Schneider (Real Rob/Rob) and Esther Povitsky (Dollface/Alone Together) - Rob and Esther are panelists on Lights Out with David Spade at 11:30pm on Comedy Central.
Lizzy Caplan (Party Down/The Class) - Lizzy drops by Conan at 11pm on TBS.
Ilana Glazer (Broad City) - Ilana appears on Watch What Happens: Live at 11pm on Bravo.
Laura Dern (F Is for Family/Enlightened) - Laura is a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check your local listings.
Robin Givens (Head of the Class) - Robin visits The Real, so check your local listings.
Donald Faison (The Exes/Scrubs/Clueless) - Donald appears on The Real, so check your local listings.
Nicole Byer (Loosely Exactly Nicole) - Nicole is a guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show, so check your local listings.
Tim Robbins (The Brink) - Tim talks about Dark Waters on New York Live on WNBC in New York at 11:30am ET.
Kristin Davis (Sex and the City/Bad Teacher) - Kristin talks about Holiday in the Wild on NBC's Today in the 9am hour.