THE IMPORTANT NEWS
... The Walking Dead returned for Season 2 on Sunday and promptly made a wasteland of the record books. 7.3 million people (editor's note: !!!) tuned in to watch the season opener, and of that ginormous number, 4.8 million of them were in the coveted 18-49-year-old age range. That last factoid is a basic-cable record and was good enough for a 3.8 rating, higher than anything on TV last night except for NBC's Sunday Night Football. If you include repeats, 11 million viewers watched the first episode. In related news, 11 million people nearly threw up when Daryl opened up that zombie's stomach. [TV By the Numbers]
... On the exact opposite end of impressive, MTV renewed Ridiculousness for a second season because people either have never seen the far superior Tosh.0 or don't know how to use YouTube. [Deadline Hollywood]
... Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, the brainses behind Big Love, have another unconventional marriage story in the works for HBO. The duo is working on China Doll, about an interracial couple and their humanoid robot, but they insist the show isn't at all sci-fi. [Deadline Hollywood]
... Fox has bought a project from Mike O'Malley (Glee) called Prodigy Bully. It's about a kid genius who uses his brains and brawn to rule the schoolyard, and is based on the series of shorts Prodigy/Bully: The Henry Tammer Story, which you can see here. [Deadline Hollywood]
... Marlon Wayans is setting up a project at ABC. It's a comedy that will follow two brothers who are cops. [Deadline Hollywood]
THE CASTING NEWS
... Revenge has booked Hiroyuki Sanada for a guest role. Sanada, who played temple man Dogen in the final season of ABC's Lost, will play a Japanese business man. Remember when you first saw Dogen on Lost and you were all like, what? Those were some weird times, man. [EW]
... Donal Logue, last seen as Hank in FX's beloved Terriers, will next be seen in TNT's Gateway, a Western that follows three brothers who step up when their sheriff father is murdered. Logue will play Auggie, a drinking buddy of one of the brothers. [Deadline Hollywood]
... Check out these upcoming hosts for Saturday Night Live: November 5, Charlie Day (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia); November 12, Emma Stone (teen boys' dreams); and November 19, Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother). [NBC]
... Battlestar Galactica's Jamie Bamber keeps bouncing around from show to show and will next land on House. He'll play a guy who is dying, just like the rest of the show's guest stars. [TV Line]
... I saved the best for last: Ken Marino (Childrens Hospital, Party Down) will guest-star on Happy Endings. He'll play a psychiatrist to Dave in an early 2012 episode. [TV Line]
THE WEIRD NEWS
... McDonald's is getting its own in-store channel. The McNetwork will air in franchise locations and feature local news, movie previews, and subliminal messages to take your mind off the heart attack you're stuffing in your mouth. [LA Times]
Follow TV.com writer Tim Surette on Twitter: @TimAtTVDotCom
Loved the first season.
Second season opener was a little disappointing. It felt like it would have been better if it had not been an extended episode. Some of the storyline felt padded and there was too much standing around and just talking about the "urgency" of finding the girl and fixing the RV. The extra time would have been better spent reflecting back on some of the key points of the previous season that are being carried forward.
The Walking Dead was incredible!
Ken Marino on Happy Endings.....LOVE IT. Charlie Day hosting SNL......FREAKING LOVE IT.
thanks God there is life after Breaking Bad!!!! Love it!
After reading all the comments, I am just going to go for lame.... I LOVED WALKING DEAD Sunday night. I also LOVED Talking Dead. Can't wait to see more of that. Based on the comments on the AMC comment board during the show, quite a few of the 11 million viewers liked it too. I was Nerdy enough to post a question in the hopes of getting aired on TV, but like I said, so did the tons of other fans. Couldn't even read the comments they were posting 100 at a time.
I am soo glad the numbers were high. I can see this becoming a big budget nightmare, so AMC, I hope you TAKE Care of your viewers.
Tim, don't be a girl. The stomach scene wasn't vomit worthy at all. Not even gag worthy. Or hide under the covers worthy.
Agreed....basic gore for a basic reaction in my opinion
I agree except for the "girl" part. I'm a girl, well, I take that back, I'm a woman and I handled ALL of the gory goodness of TWD just fine and with glee. Maybe that's the difference. Carry on.
Not even look away with minor gag reflex worthy?
The Walking Dead is awesome
i'll watch those SNL episodes, especially Emma Stone (and i'm 23 not a teen).. i just wish SNL would stop sucking so bad and utilize their hosts better
A western where three brothers step up after their father is killed? Wasn't that the plot of a Bonanza episode, not to mention The Sons of Katie Elder? As for McTV, not I needed one, but it sounds like another reason for me not to go into McDonalds.
The upcoming host of SNL sound very good :)
Wow, that's better than network!
The Supernatural/Secret Circle/Vampire Diaries bunch have NEVER reached such ratings
WOW these are great numbers.
Man I miss Terriers. Always hoped Donal Logue would get something again, also hoping the new show is half as good as Terriers. Seems like he is supporting cast though, he really deserves a lead in something.
I completely agree! I'm glad to see Donal Logue in another show. And while it does sound like a supporting role, maybe it'll turn out not to be. Still though, while I knew in my heart it was never going to happen, I was still hoping that maybe Hollywood would come to their collective sense and bring back Terriers! This news brings an end to that dream. The bad news here is this. Name a western (since Bonanza or The Gunslinger) that has done well on television. It sounds like another show doomed to fail.
Been waiting for this one to start with new season and glad it did and loved how the first episode panned out. I am glad not to be one who were to through up but while it was logical "scene" it did feel like a filler to add more blood-touch-drama to it, not that I am complaining.
One thing did hit me several times that the Zombies are smarter, and faster than the usual zombies. Is it by purpose or they evolve. I think by "nature" if zombies are hungry they should be slower since they fed on meat and they can go on with it but not feeding can make them weak and near dead so on and on. Anyway I like zombies slow. This way they feel more creepy and scary.moreless
It's true, the zombies do seem to be faster and smarter. Also, they don't get winded. So they don't actually seem to have the same biological rules that we do. Which is weird. We know their brains are different than ours. But why should their lungs be? Also, is it just me, or did it seem like an awful lot of them had broken ankles?
scumbags
scumbags
Very glad to hear that everyone is tuning in to Walking Dead. This can only mean even better things for the show, and hopefully AMC gets the hint and will stop trying to sabotage the shows budget and eventually push the show into possible early retirement like they did with Breaking Bad. If groves of people watch a show on your channel that actually isn't Mad Men, maybe you should put some eggs in their basket. HINT HINT AMC.....
"early retirement like they did with Breaking Bad" Please explain how you think this show is going into early retirement. This type of show has a finite number of episodes. At some point it needs to end, it can't go on forever. It is better for the show to plan its ending rather than to keep going, get stale, get cancelled or not picked up for another season and to have no ending at all. I am looking forward to the next (and final) 16 episodes.
Look you could argue what you argue and say that its better to quit while its good which is fine. I get it.... we could both point out shows that were great but didn't quit while they were ahead and the end of their run was lack luster. I just don't feel that Breaking Bad should be done after next year. Part of that is loving the show so much that I want to to stay on air as long as possible and part is bc I think AMC made a bonehead move with their budget by putting more eggs into Mad Men while cutting the budget of Walking Dead *which pissed off you know who that ended up leaving* now the show could be still go off without a hitch and keep churning but I'm disappointed with AMC for even doing bonehead stuff like that. As for Breaking Bad the budget move around all but guaranteed that is over next year... I just think now that Mr White is finally free to be Heisenberg that he should get more than one season last season to be that. BUT it is what it is and as long as the show goes out guns blazing like it did this season then I'll live. Just think AMC could be smarter with spreading the love.moreless
Yep. Small orchards and stands of fruit-bearing trees love The Walking Dead . . . . Man, when did I become such a dick?
If I were any more anal about typos I'd start crying right now but my period just ended so you're in luck buddy. Have you ever typed something in a comment box, corrected the horribly misspelled word hit the enter button and it corrected it back to your horrible 2nd grader spelling? No? FML.... :-(
Now I feel really bad. Your one of my favorite fellow commenters. You could make fun of me for having incredibly poor eyesight, if that would make you feel any better.
Awww thanks boo! Right back at ya! I'll just slide in some really awkward cheesy yo momma jokes under your comments sometimes. My version of revenge.
All in all I'd say it was a good episode, and I welcome back the dead.
Gateway sounds like an awesome show!
I love Dead but some things are a bit silly, all the stupid arguing, and as far as survivalists go, not very good! The way the guy gutted the Zombie, might as well as had a chain saw!!!!!!!
Point out a situation/movie were you've seen or genuinely believe survivalists all get along with one another and not fight. And I'll give you a chocolate chip cookie that plays music.
Emma Stone really is pretty though..... :drools: