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!
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
Friday, December 8
CBS announced the new entertainment special Norman Lear: A Life on Television, to air tonight - Friday, Dec. 8 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the special airs). Presented by Entertainment Tonight, this one-hour special features new interviews with stars of the long-running comedies Lear created, including Jimmie Walker from Good Times and Mackenzie Phillips from One Day at a Time, in addition to never-before-seen interviews from the ET vault. Also included with this new footage and interviews is an in-depth sit-down interview with Lear that ET host Kevin Frazier conducted when Lear celebrated his 100th birthday, in which he reflected on his lengthy, groundbreaking career.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of December 4)
Friday, December 8
- Eddie Murphy (The PJs) - Watch Eddie on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Da'Vine Joy Randolph (Only Murders in the Building/High Fidelity/People of Earth/Selfie) - Da'Vine appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- John Caponera (The Good Life) - John is a guest on a repeat of Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen on CBS between 12:37-1:37am.
- Robert Smigel (Let's Be Real) - Triumph the Insult Comic Dog aka Robert Smigel chats with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
- Noah Galvin (The Real O'Neals) and Molly Gordon (Ramy) - Noah and Molly talk about Theater Camp on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am.
- Eric Stonestreet (The Santa Clauses/Modern Family) - Eric talks about The Santa Clauses on NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
- Kenan Thompson (Kenan/Kenan & Kel) - Kenan sits down with Sherri to talk about his new book, When I Was Your Age, on Sherri, so check your local listings.
- Sebastian Maniscalco (Bookie) - Sebastian appears on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
New on DVD/Blu-ray (September-December)
09/05 - Young Sheldon - The Complete Sixth Season
09/12 - Abbott Elementary - The Complete Second Season
09/12 - Rick and Morty - The Complete Seasons 1-6 (Blu-ray) (DVD)
09/26 - Family Matters - The Complete Series
09/26 - Step by Step - The Complete Series
10/10 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - The Complete Season Thirteen / The Complete Season Fourteen
10/17 - ALF - The Complete Series (Deluxe Edition) (Shout! Factory Special Offers)
10/17 - Night Court (2023) - The Complete First Season
11/07 - South Park - The Complete Twenty-Sixth Season (Blu-ray) (DVD)
11/14 - Leave it to Beaver - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/05 - Father Knows Best - The Complete Series
12/05 - The Odd Couple - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/12 - The Dick Van Dyke Show - The Complete Series
12/12 - Looney Tunes Collector's Choice - Volume 2 (Blu-ray)
12/12 - That Girl - The Complete Series
12/19 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - The Official Restored Complete Series
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