Election’s end may hit ‘SNL’ in ratings

Media General News Service
Published: November 12, 2008

So what will “Saturday Night Live” do without the 2008 presidential election to mock?

For the past month, the series’ best moments have come at the expense of the presidential candidates, both in the show’s regular Saturday-night timeslot and in a series of prime-time specials.

The two-hour “Saturday Night Live Presidential Bash 2008,“ which aired Monday night, was seen by 14.4 million people, giving NBC it’s best performance in that time slot since the January 2007 broadcast of the Golden Globe awards.

Hey, now that Tina Fey has returned to the sitcom “30 Rock,“ perhaps Gov. Sarah Palin can take her place on “SNL.“

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Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and Lucy are back—but this time they aren’t in holiday specials or on Saturday-morning TV.

Starting this week, the characters will star in a series of web shorts available on iTunes and recorded using Flash animation.

There are 20 new “webisodes,“ each running three to four minutes with stories taken from classic strips that originally ran in 1964 comic strips. A free sample with two episodes is available on iTunes, with later two-episode packs selling for 99 cents each. Subscribers can also buy a “season pass” of all 20 webisodes for $7.99.

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Jack Bauer is getting ready for another busy day.

Fox announced that the seventh season of its hit show “24” will begin with a four-hour burst, the first two hours on Sunday, Jan. 11, and the next two on Monday, Jan. 12. It will then settle into weekly hour-long broadcasts for the remaining 20 hours on Mondays through May.

Fans have been waiting a long time for Jack’s return. The last episode (in the show’s sixth season) was shown in May 2007, and the 2008 season was partly filmed, but production had to stop because of the television writers’ strike that ran from November 2007 to February of this year. Rather than show an incomplete season, Fox decided to hold on to the episodes it had filmed before the strike and finish the season after the strike ended, then hold the episodes until January.

Audiences will get a chance to whet their appetites later this month with a two-hour “prequel” TV-movie, “24: Redemption,“ which is set between seasons six and seven and sets up events that will take place in the next season.

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As the holidays approach, DVD companies are eagerly re-releasing old content in new boxed sets. A common strategy is to release a complete-series “Megaset” with all the seasons of a show that was already sold in individual seasons. Fans who didn’t buy the original releases now get a chance to get them all in one fell swoop, and fans who already have them are often enticed to “double-dip” because of new bonus material.

An especially huge megaset is due out next week, “The Sopranos: The Complete Series.“ The 32-disc set will have all six seasons of the show, plus 3 ½ hours of previously unreleased bonuses, including interviews, spoofs, and deleted scenes.

It also has two CD soundtracks on three discs. But you may have to take out a loan from the mob to get a copy; the suggested retail price is a hefty $399.

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The past week’s TV-to-DVD releases include two shows with the potential to become cult hits.

“Primeval” is a British science-fiction series in which a rip in the fabric of time causes prehistoric monsters to rampage in modern-day England. Evolutionary zoologist Nick Cutter leads a team of scientists and soldiers trying to stop them and save reality itself. The DVD set includes commentary and a making-of special.

“Reaper” is a lively comedy-adventure series about Sam, a slacker (Bret Harrison) who is unwitting recruited to become a bounty hunter for Satan (Ray Wise, who steals every scene). The premiere episode was directed by Kevin Smith, whose film “Zack & Miri Make a Porno” is currently in theaters.