'America's Got Talent' has got NBC's Best Ratings

From SouthCoastToday.com

There is no surprise that America's Got Talent has been the highest rated show all summer, but in case you didn't know or wanted to read more about it, SouthCoastToday.com has a nice article about the show and judges.

The folks at NBC must be wishing the summer would never end. The last-place network that just fired its president on the eve of launching its fall schedule continues to dominate the summer ratings with healthy doses of "America's Got Talent" (8 p.m., r, 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).

There's little to dislike about this talent/variety show, with its ecumenical mix of singing, magic, contortion acts, comedy and even a smattering of classical talent. Somewhere in show-biz heaven, Ed Sullivan is looking down and smiling and wondering where all the plate-spinners and marionette acts have gone.

"America" continues the uniquely American tradition of casting British-accented judges as arbiters of American talent. Piers Morgan, a staple of "Britain's Got Talent," is firmly established in the Simon Cowell role, happily dispensing unpopular opinions to choruses of derisive boos. Sharon Osbourne, whose British inflections have survived decades of residence in Los Angeles, does her own variation on Paula Abdul, doling out knowledgeable nuggets of encouragement and cheer. David Hasselhoff, the sole Yank in the "Talent" troika, has gained the most from the show. He's put notorious YouTube exposure behind him, offering short bursts of EveryGuy enthusiasm. He reminds me of the nicest gym teacher I never had.

My quibbles with "Talent" are few. Why, for instance, were the judges so curt with Dave Johnson, a guy with the temerity and cleverness to sing a joke-folk song about the cast of "The Golden Girls"? Is he Vegas material? No. But maybe not everybody wants to sing for desperate casino denizens down to their last roll of quarters. He offered a brief moment of wit in an irony-free zone, and for that he gets my commendation.

Still, who doesn't love the sight of The Footworkingz, seriously amazing street performers wearing black-light regalia and full war paint, towering over the renegade Brownie troop known as Pixie Mystere? That's America. That's talent. And that's entertainment.

Knight Rider: A Ray of Light Amongst the Darkness

Even though the first season of the series has been over for a few months here in the States, it has garnered quite a following in the UK. According to Knight Rider Online, the back-door pilot received over 500,000 viewers on the UK Sci-Fi last week, and a 35% increase to 700,000 viewers for the first episode.We must remember how important the international audience is to the success of Knight Rider.Despite NBC leaving Knight Rider off the Fall and Mid-Season schedule, they have yet to officially announce the cancellation of the show.If you want to help with the campaign, you can follow @savekitt on Twitter, or savekitt.net.Press Release: SCIFI Celebrates second week of hit ratings

Original Knight Rider on NBC

NBC.com has put up episodes of the original Knight Rider! Check it out.

America's Got Talent: June 23rd

Watch the 4th Season of America's Got Talent starting June 23rd and 24th at 9 PM.NBC sent out a press release with their Summer Schedule yesterday, and TV By The Numbers gives us a look:

“America’s Got Talent” — NBC’s hit summer series from “American Idol” producers FremantleMedia North America and Simon Cowell’s SYCO Television — returns with the hottest performers from across the country ready to compete in the blockbuster reality show’s fourth season. The multi-talented entertainer-producer-comedian Nick Cannon joins as the new host. The series will continue to be presided over by the explosive combination of celebrity judges Sharon Osbourne, Piers Morgan and David Hasselhoff. With the talent search open to acts of all ages, “America’s Got Talent” has brought the variety format back to the forefront of American culture by showcasing performers from across the country — all hoping to win America’s hearts and the $1 million prize. As a result, the series is a true celebration of the American spirit.

TUESDAY, JUNE 23 and WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24“AMERICA’S GOT TALENT” (9-10 p.m. both nights)

David Hasselhoff: My Knight Rider snub

Mirror.co.uk

David Hasselhoff has revealed how US TV bosses turned down the chance for him to return as Knight Rider.The Hoff told Radio 1's Scott Mills: "I said to them why don't we bring back Knight Rider with me and a new car?"So they called me back and said, 'We love this idea - you're not in it, but we love it'!"It's lucky Hoff has his singing career to fall back on then...

Knight Rider roars back with 13m

guardian.co.uk

  Jemima Kiss guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 February 2008 11.01 GMT NBC's Knight Rider remake looks likely to earn a full series commission, after the 1980s show returned to US TV on Sunday night with almost 13 million viewers.A two-hour Knight Rider TV movie special was watched by 12.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen preliminary ratings for Sunday.Newcomer Justin Bruening is now the star of the show, although cult favourite David Hasselhoff made a guest appearance as Michael Knight.The wise-cracking car, known as KITT, is now voiced by Val Kilmer and a black Ford Mustang has replaced the Pontiac Trans Am that featured in the original series.NBC will confirm its new commissions in May but the network is expected to order a full series of Knight Rider following Sunday's figures. The show is returning after a 16-year break.Knight Rider's comeback follows NBC's successful revival of American Gladiators, which attracted 7.3 million viewers for its series finale on Sunday night.American Gladiators has already earned a second series on NBC and the entertainment format is also being revived in the UK by Sky One.Also on Sunday night, CBS broadcast the first episode of serial killer drama Dexter, which has transferred from US cable network Showtime.Dexter was watched by 8.1 million viewers in the 10pm hour on CBS, finishing third among the major US networks in that slot. However, this was CBS's best Sunday 10pm figures since December.In its first series on Showtime, Dexter averaged 733,000 viewers. Showtime will broadcast the third series of Dexter later this year. 

KITT the car gets a kaboodle of upgrades in new 'Knight Rider'

USA Today

By Bill Keveney, USA TODAY

On NBC's Knight Rider, horsepower equals star power.

The talking car at the center of the 1980s action show returns in updated form in a two-hour movie (Sunday, 9 ET/PT) that could rev up a new Knight Rider series.

 

MORE: These TV cars helped soup-up the show

 

Twenty-six years after the original series, creating a new KITT — upgraded from Knight Industries Two Thousand to Three Thousand — posed a challenge: keeping ahead of computer-driven, GPS-directed auto technology. "What we said when we started this was, 'Everybody's got a talking car,' " executive producer David Bartis says.

But they don't have a car that can shift shape and color, as the current KITT can. "It can change shape slightly to increase its speed and handling," he says. "That's something we've read about as a technology that's not too far away."

The crime-fighting KITT still has an artificial intelligence, voiced by

 Val Kilmer, that can hack computer systems and tell its driver, Mike Tracer (Justin Bruening, filling David Hasselhoff's seat), when he's heading the wrong way, Bartis says. "This car knows it's right, and we've got a guy driving the car who does things a little by the seat of his pants. So you'll see the car questioning him and challenging him." 

KITT will now be played by a Ford Mustang, replacing the original 1982 Pontiac Trans Am. The movie features the iconic Mustang, showcasing a muscular, limited-edition Shelby GT500KR (KR stands for King of the Road, not Knight Rider), as part of a marketing and production partnership with Ford. NBC has been one of the most aggressive networks in placing sponsors' products in its shows.

Kilmer, who drove the Batmobile in the 1995 film Batman Forever, just replaced Will Arnett (Arrested Development), who gave up the role because of his long relationship doing voice work for GM. William Daniels voiced the sharp-tongued KITT in the series.

"Val's voice is incredibly rich and expressive, and he also gets the comedy of it," Bartis says.

In the movie, KITT creator Charles Graiman's daughter, Sarah (Deanna Russo), joins forces with ex-Army Ranger Tracer and an FBI agent (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) to search for her father (Bruce Davison) and find out who's trying to get their hands on KITT. Hasselhoff also appears and could occasionally return if the film leads to a series.

The movie tries to retain the lighter, action-drama tone of the original, while grounding it more in reality, going home with the characters and putting them in real jeopardy, Bartis says. To that end, the new KITT drops a few bells and whistles, including its turbo boost.

Bartis acknowledges that some fans of the original may object to changes, a phenomenon experienced by new versions of Battlestar Galactica, Bionic Woman and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

"We wanted to find the balance between how much to keep of the original and how much to reinvent it," he says. "For the most part, we found a really good balance."