CMA Honours wow Wednesday

Taylor Quick works throughout Wednesday's New Bands Honours, which came a superb 16.3 million audiences to ABC.A lot of the competition needed popular Wednesday as ABC preempted its strong entertainment selection for your New Bands Assn. Honours, which gave it its finest evening in the fall. NBC's ''Harry's Law'' was really the only series to edge up week to week.According to preliminary national estimations from Nielsen, the ''45th Annual CMA Awards'' averaged a sizable 4.8 rating/12 participate grownups 18-49 and 16.3 million audiences overall from 8 to 11, peaking getting a 5. demo score at 9:30. The kudocast was up a tick year upon year and shipped the finest nightly average for nearly any evening on ABC this fall , as well as the the 2nd perfect for nearly any entertainment selection on any network this season (behind only the evening of Ashton Kutcher's bow on CBS' ''Two . 5 Men'').The show hit a seven-year filled with males 18-34 (3./9) and ABC won the evening overall: both males and girls in 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 additionally to teens and 50-plus.Fox will be a solid second round the evening among 18-49ers having its two-hour ''The X Factor'' (3.7/10 in 18-49, 10.millions of audiences overall), which peaked inside the 9:30 half-hour getting a 4. demo rating. Though prone to can be found in lower about 5% week to week, the music activity contest provided the web with substantial time-period improvement , greater than 40% a lot better than two several hours of ''Hell's Kitchen'' opposite the CMAs this past year (2.6/7).As they are usually situation, CBS was hit most difficult with the CMA Honours, as ''Survivor'' (3.1/9 in 18-49, 10.6 000 0000 audiences overall) was lower greater than 10% from last week's season how. Also, crime dramas ''Criminal Minds'' (3.4/8 in 18-49, 11.3 million audiences overall) and ''CSI'' (2.5/7 in 18-49, 10.millions of audiences overall) were lower some, while using former ranking third in 18-49 as well as the latter coming second.NBC's ''Up All Night'' had an chance to shine because this didn't face any comedy competition the first time, nevertheless it essentially held steady week to week (1.8/5 in 18-49, 4.8 million audiences overall) still, it exercised substantially better inside the 8 o'clock half-hour than last year's ''Undercovers'' did opposite the CMA Honours (1.2/4). Following an ''Up All Night'' repeat at 8:30 (1.2/3 in 18-49, 3.5 million audiences overall), second-year drama ''Harry's Law'' (1.3/3 in 18-49, 7.millions of audiences overall) matched up up a season filled with the demo, likely enjoying useful advantages of the possible lack of ''Modern Family.'' At 10, ''Law and Order: SVU'' (1.9/5 in 18-49, 6.6 000 0000 audiences overall) ongoing to stay in third place, lower a tick week to week to possibly its least expensive firstrun score so far.At CW, ''America's Next Top Model'' (.7/2 in 18-49, 1.6 000 0000 audiences overall) was lower just a little week to week.Preliminary 18-49 earnings for your evening: ABC, 4.8/12 Fox, 3.7/10 CBS, 3./8 Univision, 1.7/4 NBC, 1.5/4 CW, .6/2.In general audiences: ABC, 16.3 million CBS, 10.7 million Fox, 10.millions of NBC, 5.9 million Univision, 4. million CW, 1.3 million. Contact Ron Kissell at ron.kissell@variety.com

Pilot Season Hot Trends: Comedies, Books, Formats, Westerns And Enormous Obligations

Economic decline be damned — the broadcast systems are actually trading appreciate it’s 2007 this year. A slew of investing in an offer wars introduced with a staggering 9 pilot orders/production obligations and 33 put pilot obligations up to now this buying season. In addition, NBC is eying straight-to-series orders for two main Bryan Bigger-written dramas: a Munsters reboot and Hannibal, good Hannibal Lecter character. With dire needs, new entrepreneurs ready to invest a lot of money in the turnaround and new management attempting to make their mark, NBC remains most likely probably the most aggressive this buying season. Furthermore for the likely straight-to-series orders, four in the 9 pilot orders/production obligations up to now are actually provided with the peacock network: comedy Isabel, inspired having a French Canadian format, and John Scott Shepherd’s comedy Save Me, which are casting, as well as the J.J. Abrams/Eric Kripke adventure thriller Revolution and crime drama Blue Tilt, put together by Chris Brancato and starring Ethan Hawke and Vince D’Onofrio, which have pilot production obligations. The relaxation from the 4 pilot production orders visited Jon Favreau comedy spec Tweaked together with a multi-camera workplace comedy from Bill Lawrence and Greg Malins at CBS, multi-camera family comedy The Manzanis starring Kirstie Alley plus an untitled Serta Fogelman comedy at ABC as well as the Mike Royce-composed cast-contingent comedy pilot Little Brother at Fox. It wasn’t exactly the mass hysteria of summer season 2007 when the systems were stockpiling when faced having a possible authors strike, but the quantity of emergency this season came pretty close. (NBC) got cash, (ABC) got competitive against that cash, which we needed the bait, Fox’s entertainment leader Kevin Reilly mentioned within the HRTS lunch lately. Most of us think i had been carried out a little. Indeed, there has been numerous projects, especially round the comedy side, which in fact had NBC, ABC and Fox investing in an offer strongly against each other. How aggressive was ABC this season, which marked the initial full development cycle for your network’s topper Paul Lee? It compensated out some 10 put pilot obligations, greater than almost every other network. That is despite the fact that a substantial a part of ABC’s development arises from sister studio ABC Art galleries where the huge the majority of sales haven't any penalties attached since the transaction involves moving profit one pocket to another. Fox and CBS aren't far behind with 9 put pilot obligations each, while NBC has 5, through it greater than composed the primary difference with several bigger obligations additionally to some slew of script sales with penalties attached. Part of the cause of the staggering volume of put pilot obligations this season might be the devaluation in the term, which once placed on penalties of $millions of but is becoming useful for penalties less than $500,000 as well as lower. The comfort was fierce competition, especially between NBC and ABC. Both systems bought more projects in comparison as to the they did a year ago. NBC got second wind monthly roughly ago when the network’s brass apparently examined their slate and made a decision it had been missing in a few areas. After I have noted ad nauseam, it's been the summer season of comedy. Extended just before the genre’s red-colored-colored-hot fall with breakout hits New Girl, 2 Broke Ladies and Suburgatory and solid artist Last Guy Standing, the systems went strongly following a genre, which ended up eclipsing drama in sales this year the first time in quite a while. Having a recent account (you will discover a few more comedy projects in play, and so the comedy tally remains growing), there's been about 252 comedy and 250 drama sales this year versus. 233 comedy and 269 drama last season. Seven in the 9 pilot orders/production obligations visited comedy projects. In contrast, all large obligations in pre-WGA strike 2007 received to dramas: straight-to-series orders to Section 8 at ABC, The Philanthropist, Fear Itself and Robinson Crusoe at NBC and incredibly Last Second at CBS and series persistence for Ryan Murphy’s Full B, The Trees andThe FBI at Fox as well as the Kingdom at CBS. Besides the astounding overall volume of comedy buys, also remarkably high this year was the quantity of half-several hours that incorporated talent attached, especially at NBC and ABC. They include NBC comedy projects starring Roseanne Barr, Sean Hayes, Sarah Silverman, Portia p Rossi, Kal Penn, Snoop Dogg, Nick Thune and Omid Djalili. ABC went for comedies toplined by Kirstie Alley, Reba McEntire, Jim Belushi, Judy Greer, Ashley Tisdale, Rob Garlin, Jim Breuer, Romeo Santos, Nia Vardalos, Marlon Wayans, Craig Kilborn and Sharon Horgan. Final 4 may even create their starring automobiles, as will Aasif Mandvi who's headlining a comedy for CBS. Fox has comedies starring Tyler Labine and Hannibal Buress. The recognition is almost non-existent round the drama side save for NBC’s Blue Tilt that was offered with Hawke and D’Onofrio aboard. Talent remains large this season, using the large quantity of comedy projects with stars attached but furthermore inside the rise of talent holding deals, that have almost gone away lately. The second reason is another symbol of the improved competition this season, while using broadcast systems as well as the art galleries building war chests heading to the craziness of pilot casting season. The heavens signed in talent/development deals up to now include Vanessa Williams, Jesse Martin, Leah Remini and Scott Michael Promote at ABC Dane Prepare, Jason Ritter, Sally Pressman and Corey Reynolds at NBC Martin Lawrence at CBS Greg Grunberg at Warner Bros. TV, and Tim Roth and Sarah Chalke at 20th TV. Also hot for just about any second straight season are book adaptations. I’ve counted no less than 4 dozen this year. Probably the most prominent are Stephen Gaghan’s adaptation of Leif G.W. Perssons books about homicide detective Evert Backstrom at Fox, Shane Brennan’s adaptation in the King & Maxwell quantity of books by David Baldacci at CBS, the CW’s series based on Candace Bushnell’s Sex As Well As The City prequel The Barbara Journals, NBCs Easy Rawlins, based on Walter Mosleys best-selling books, NBC’s Valley in the Dolls, composed by Lee Daniels (though that's based much more about the film it produced), Peter Tolan’s single-camera comedy for ABC Angelas Bachelor's, good book Angelinas Bachelor's: A Novel With Food and X-Males: Top Quality co-authors Ashley Burns & Zack Stentz’s adaptation of Lev Grossmans popular fantasy novel The Masters of miracle for Fox. Not just a large year for comic adaptations, with basically a few, introduced by Fox’s collaboration with Marvel round the Punisher, put together by Erection dysfunction Bernero. Another comics getting potential series treatment this season are the Spectre at Fox and Deadman within the CW. Also getting away . of favor as source material are blogs and Twitter feeds, with only one major representative, Silvio Horta’s comedy at Fox good Texts From Last Evening blog. Round the drama side, Westerns are hot this season, as well as the streak started just before the strong premiere of AMC’s Hell On Wheels on Sunday. CBS is restarting The Rifleman with Laeta Kalogridis, Chris Columbus and Carol Mendelsohn, Fox features a Wyatt Earp Western composed by John Hlavin, NBC posseses an untitled Kerry Ehrin project occur the 1880s, while ABC has Ron Moores Hangtown , occur the very first 1900, and David Zabels Gunslinger. The Western buys underline the broadcast systems’ ongoing fascination with period dramas no matter the struggles of sixties records The Playboy Club and Pan Am this fall. Shonda Rhimes alone setup 2 period projects: Gilded Lillys at ABC, a 1895 drama put together by KJ Steinberg and Wildwood, a eighties dramedy put together by Diane Ruggiero, which received a put pilot commitment at Fox. In addition, NBC’s Valley In The Dolls is occur sixties as they are CBS’ Take advantage of Lamb, from Goodfellas author Nicholas Pileggi. ABC bought 2 projects about seventies families who've their unique variety shows: an untitled comedy from author Joe Keenan as well as the Lockharts, a musical hour drama from authors Michael Gans & Richard Register. The systems’ fascination with series/movie reboots also wasn't wet with the quick demise of ABC’s Charlie’s Angels. (though a lot of the new projects were setup just before the series opened up). Series revamps include Bewitched as well as the Rifleman at CBS, Wiseguy as well as the Munsters at NBC (the second reason is technically a redevelopment from last season) and wonder As Well As The Animal within the CW. Movies getting series adaptations are the 1984 action-adventure romantic comedy Romancing the Stone at NBC, with Mark Friedman and Shawn Levy potentially pointing, a comedy series good 2010 British comedy feature The Infidel, while using film’s star Omid Djalili reprising his role, half-hour series version of Zombieland at Fox, with original authors Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick aboard, together with a drama at ABC good Lincoln subsequently subsequently Lawyer. Format adaptations also were very popular this year, while using geographic region in the source material ongoing to develop. You will discover 3 projects based on Israeli formats — CBS’ comedy Existence Isn't Everything, NBCs drama Support beams Of Smoke as well as the CW drama Danny Hollywood. That's on componen considering the variety of formats within the typically most broadly used destination, Uk: Suburban Shootout and White-colored Guy Van at ABC and Friday Evening Dinner at NBC, that's shepherded by Greg Daniels. ABC has 2 high-profile remakes of Mexican telenovelas: Devious Service personnel, that's put together by Desperate Regular folks creator Marc Cherry, plus an adaptation of hit Soy Tu Duea, composed by Jorge Zamacona. Pals co-creator Marta Kauffman is behind 2 format adaptations at ABC, Red-colored-colored Band Society, which she's writing good The the spanish language language format Polseres Vermelles, and musical drama The Avalon, good Pan Asian format Your Home Musical, which Kauffman will write with Jessica Queller. In addition, ABC has devote development Anti-Mafia Squad, a drama good 2009 Italian series Squadra Antimafia Palermo Oggi. You will discover 2 French Canadian comedy formats that made their approach to the U.S. broadcast systems: Le Monde P Charlotte now now, which offered as inspiration for your NBC pilot Isabel, and Ces Invincibles at Fox. The effective launch of fairytale-designed new series Not Such A Long Time Ago on ABC and Grimm on NBC came too far gone to assist the broadcast systems’ buying designs though ABC may have recognized that they're onto something without Such A Long Time Ago since it bought 2 drama projects with magical/fairytale elements while watching show’s debut: the Jonathan E. Steinberg-composed Beauty as well as the Animal, known to becoming an epic fantasy re-imagining in the classic Beauty as well as the Animal tale, together with a project from author Michael Eco-friendly and 20th TV, which concentrates on a girl cop who discovers an awesome world that's available within NY City. The 2nd received a put pilot commitment within the network. While the quantity of large obligations this season is certainly staggering, industry veterans understand that they don’t mean much. In case your network doesn’t like the finished script, generally it won’t obtain the project to pilot regardless of commitment. And frequently it won’t give the steep penalty stipulated inside the commitment either, inducing the typical equine purchasing and selling between systems and art galleries and moving of obligations to next season. This can be a word of caution about how precisely irrelevant large obligations are: In the 4 projects with series commitment in 2007, none handled to get at pilot. In the five with series orders, one, Section 8, was scrapped (it recently resurfaced on Syfy as Alphas) as well as the others didn’t last beyond that initial order. Approaching inside a couple of days: A peek how showrunners and producers did this development season.

Julie Taymor Sues 'Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark' for Infringing Her Creative Input

Taylor Hill/Getty ImagesJulie Taymor Julie Taymor has filed a blockbuster lawsuit in NY that claims that Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark, the most expensive production in Broadway history, has violated her rights by continuing to use her work without compensation.our editor recommends'Spider-Man' Musical's Ex-Director Julie Taymor Speaks Out'Spider-Man' Owes Julie Taymor $300,000, Union SaysBroadway's 'Spider-Man' Rep Denies Report of Stalemate with Departing Director Julie Taymor'Spider-Man' Director Julie Taymor Out; New Creative Team Hired Taymor, an Academy Award-nominated director, was let go from the musical earlier this year, before it officially opened, due to artistic differences. The show suffered from poor early reviews and high-profile injuries to cast, but it has been a success at the box office, showing to near-capacity crowds since it first premiered in November 2010. After Taymor was let go, she filed an arbitration claim against producers, saying she was owed more than $500,000 in royalties. An arbitration hearing was held earlier this month, and the outcome isn't known. But Taymor is taking a new tack in an effort to claim profits from the show, alleging in her complaint that producers have continued to make use of her creative contributions. Producer Michael Cohl's 8 Legged Productions is the defendant. "Ms. Taymor regrets that the producers' actions have left her no choice but to resort to legal recourse to protect her rights," says her attorney, Charles Spada atLankler Siffert & Wohl. Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is a rock musical that credits its music and lyrics to U2's Bono and The Edge and its book to Taymor, Glen Berger and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. It not only set the record for Broadway's most expensive production ever at more than a reported $75 million, but also the longest preview period (182 performances before it officially opened). Producers needed the long gestation period to figure out the story as well as complicated flying stunts that left several cast members injured. In March 2011, Taymor left the production. Taymor's legal move isn't unprecedented. In the mid-1990s, director Joe Mantello managed to get the U.S. Copyright Office to accept his application of an annotated script of "Love! Valour! Compassion!" a Terrence McNally play. When a Florida-based regional production company attempted to put on a production without acknowledging and paying Mantello, he successfully sued. Other directors haven't found as much luck. For instance, in 2004, producers of an off-Broadway production of "Tam Lin" were sued by a fired director, Edward Einhorn, who argued that his work in developing the play entitled him to part of the copyright. A judge released a preliminary ruling that raised doubts about this claim, saying he saw no evidence of a copyrightable annotated script at the time of Einhorn's firing. Before a judge made a definitive judgement, the two sides settled for $800. The Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers have long supported the contention that directors and possibly choreographers deserve a piece of copyright and the ability to participate in the income generated by productions. The issue hasn't been settled, but the forthcoming Taymor case could be an opportunity for the theatrical community to discuss authorship for copyright purposes. E-mail: eriqgardner@yahoo.com Twitter: @eriqgardner Julie Taymor Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Veterans back in action

Alexander PayneBruce RobinsonLynne Ramsay Clint Eastwood births one film per year. Woody Allen continues to pop them out like the Duggar family. And after a three-year break, Steven Spielberg will deliver not one, but two directing vehicles in late December.Though some awards-season regulars are maintaining a prolific pace, other decorated helmers -- Terrence Malick ("The Tree of Life"), Alexander Payne ("The Descendants"), Lynne Ramsay ("We Need to Talk About Kevin"), Bennett Miller ("Moneyball") and Bruce Robinson ("The Rum Diary") among them -- stand out for the well-spaced entries in their filmographies. Whether or not absence makes the heart grow fonder depends on the talent.When Malick returned to action 20 years after "Days of Heaven" (1978) with "The Thin Red Line," his reputation had gone beyond cult to legend, doubtlessly due in no small measure to a reclusiveness that would make J.D. Salinger proud. The result was an Academy that welcomed Malick into the fold, rewarding the enigmatic artist with his first two Oscar nominations, for writing and directing.Though the six-year gap between Malick's "The Tree of Life," which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and his previous directing effort, "The New World," marks a comparatively rapid follow-up, rumors have been swirling about an origins-of-the-universe project connected to Malick dating back to the '80s.For Payne, Ramsay and Miller, the gap had much to do with aborted projects. Nine years elapsed between Ramsay's previous directing effort, "Morvern Caller," and "Kevin," with several of those years spent developing Alice Sebold's novel "The Lovely Bones." The Scottish writer-director, who originally held the option on Sebold's dark drama narrated by a murdered girl, began penning the script before the author's manuscript was finished."I was on my own path with the script when the book became an international best-seller," recalls Ramsay. "I then felt under pressure to write a very literal translation, and I didn't think it would work as a film, so I left the project."Peter Jackson famously took on "Lovely Bones," which became an expensive CG-heavy adaptation, while Ramsay segued to "Kevin," a project that took four years and was nearly derailed when the film's budget was slashed from $12 million to $6.5 million due to the global recession."It was very complicated to make on less money as it spanned over 17 years with four versions of Kevin from a baby to a teenager," notes Ramsay of the film, which centers on the mother of a teenage boy who embarks on a high-school killing spree. "I had to cut it to the bone and be inventive and economical to make it work. The film was prepped within an inch of its life as we had only 30 days to shoot with costume changes and limited hours with children." Variety called the film "exquisitely realized" at Cannes.Similarly, Miller got caught up on a project that was eventually shelved. After his successful collaboration with Philip Seymour Hoffman on "Capote" in 2005 the two began developing "Foxcatcher," a film about troubled scion John du Pont."I could not imagine that it wasn't going to happen," says Miller, who spent several years on the pic before conceding defeat. "It was really a struggle to find something worthy but that could also get off the ground."The subsequent project, "Moneyball," touts the highest score on Metacritic.com, 87, of all current releases.Payne spent much of the six years since the release of "Sideways" -- which received five Oscar nominations including a screenwriting statuette for Payne -- working with his Ad Hominem partners Jim Taylor and Jim Burke on the epic "Downsizing," which revolves around a down-on-his-luck man who decides he can have a better life if he undergoes a process to shrink himself."Given that the production of 'Downsizing' is such a beast, I coaxed (Payne) into doing 'Descendants,' " says the film's producer Burke, who optioned the manuscript for "Descendants" five years ago. "I probably asked him 40 times. But he needed to find his own personal connection to the material."Once Payne did, the film was cast and began shooting within months. At Telluride, where it premiered in September, the film's right-to-die subject matter was described by Variety as handled "with such sensitivity that it's hardly noticeable you're being enlightened while entertained."Though "Tree of Life" reached the bigscreen faster than a typical Malick outing, the director has been collecting images for the film for more than a decade. The one-time MIT professor consulted with world-renowned academics to grasp the science behind the formation of the universe, which the film depicts."All along, Malick was hunting for the Tao, that completely unanticipated phenomena, those magical unexpected moments that no one could possibly design," says special effects maven Douglas Trumbull ("2001: A Space Odyssey"), with whom Malick consulted.Meanwhile, Robinson's 20-year hiatus is due to the fact that he retired from directing. Robinson was coaxed by Johnny Depp -- a huge fan of Robinson's sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll saga "Withnail and I" and his wildly satiric "How to Get Ahead in Advertising" -- to return to write and helm "Rum Diary," based on Hunter S. Thompson's novel."These two films destroyed me," Depp told the L.A. Times recently, adding he felt Robinson's penchant for "huge humor and absurdity" was the perfect match for a work that foreshadows Thompson's ground-breaking gonzo style.Whatever the reason for a film's lengthy gestation, as Orson Welles once suggested while shilling for Paul Masson, "no wine before its time." And this is how Miller views "Foxcatcher," which he hopes to resurrect: "I never think of the time spent developing a film as time lost."EYE ON THE OSCARS: BEST PICTURE PREVIEWReading the voters' minds | Rewriting history to suit the demands of drama | Veterans back in action | Beyond the boardsAWARDS SEASON CALENDARNovember | December | January | February Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

How Michael Fassbender Ready for His 'Shame' Sex Moments

"Michael Bay posseses an incredible eye to make use of it and adrenaline-moving movies, so that it made an appearance natural to put him associated with creating this trailer," states 'Need for Speed: The Run' star Christina Hendricks in this new behind-the-moments video. "It seems like the next large blockbuster movie in the summer season." On November. 15, 'Need for Speed: The Run' might be the eighteenth entry inside the 'Need for Speed' gaming series, although the only person who may claim some of it have been Bay-ified. Mixing this mixture-country racing part of 'The Cannonball Run' while using 'Fast as well as the Furious' franchise, 'Need for Speed: The Run' features break-neck video-game action and what editor Doug Brandt calls "hyper-realism." Consequently, it's a natural fit for Bay, who's helmed such massive action spectacles as 'The Rock,' 'Bad Boys,' 'Armageddon' as well as the 'Transformers' series. "What's interesting about games is always that they've taken the appear to this kind of amount, they've upped their music, they've upped the acting quotient on these games," states Bay, mentioning to Hendricks ('Drive,' 'Mad Men'). "The lighting is enhancing. I used to be very impressed using this 'Need for Speed' crew. There's a really filmic use their stuff." Don't take Bay's word with this watch the behind-the-moments video below, and search for the whole trailer at America online. Follow Moviefone on Twitter Like Moviefone on Facebook RELATED

Bones Season 7: Can a Baby Break the Moonlighting Curse?

David Boreanaz, Emily Deschanel Ever since the demise of Moonlighting, many television writers have had one great fear: Once their show's two romantic leads sleep together, the show will lose its tension and become lifeless.Fall Preview: Get scoop on your favorite returning showsBut Bones creator Hart Hanson - who faces that challenge as the show's seventh season premieres with Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) pregnant with the child of her former will-they-won't-they partner Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) - has found the opposite to be true."I feel like it re-energized the series," Hanson tells TVGuide.com. "I think it breathes new life into the franchise - into the story engine of Booth and Brennan. The reason we put them together is that it's just been so long. It had to happen. We just could not put it off anymore."The trick, Hanson says, is finding drama to replace the sexual tension. Even though he and executive producer Stephen Nathan had planned for a Booth-Brennan hookup from the beginning of Season 6, it wasn't until Deschanel revealed she was pregnant that the duo landed on their new dynamic.Bones Season 7 scoop: Booth and Brennan's family matters and a new villain, squintern "We knew we did not want them getting together and breaking up. We didn't want misunderstandings," Hanson says. "So, they're contending with a brand new relationship. 'How together are they?' is a question that needs answering. And how are they going to deal with having a child together? As we started banging out this season, it just gave us so many places to go with story."Thursday's premiere finds the couple tired of splitting time between their respective homes and considering a more permanent cohabitation solution. Other bumps in the road could include the couple's differing views on religion, not to mention that Brennan learns the sex of the baby without even including Booth.But Hanson says the drama won't be so trivial all season. "There are deeper places to go," he says. "What happens to the relationship between two people who share a child and love each other deeply? That's our journey this year. Where do they go next? And of course, the biggest question is, do they get married?"Bones scoop: Meet the Jeffersonian's new squintern!Booth's reaction to (or fear of) that question may be somewhat surprising, given his history. "I think it really is a peek into how Booth has progressed," Hanson says. "[He's] the man who keeps asking people to marry him, and they never say 'yes.' He's maybe learned to lay back a little bit."Although Hanson says "motherhood opens up an emotional side that is not easy for [Brennan] to deny," Booth will also find himself in a very reflective state as he prepares to become a father again. "Booth has had a combative and difficult relationship with his father," Hanson says. "His father was abusive, and we have a story coming up with [Booth] and his grandfather, concerning his dad. And it's just... having a kid, changes everything in your life. Everything is from a different perspective."Not surprisingly, family will be a theme throughout the season. The show will explore the ups and downs of new parents Angela (Michaela Conlin) and Hodgins (TJ Thyne), as well as revisit the relationship between Cam (Tamara Taylor) and her teenage daughter. Plus, the Jeffersonian is adding a new squintern (Luke Kleintank) to its "family" after the death of Vincet Nigel-Murray (Ryan Cartwright) last season.Bones scoop: Meet Season 7's new baddie!But the show also remains focused on catching bad guys. This season will introduce a new tech-savvy villain (Andrew Leeds) who will stump both Brennan and Booth. "I think he is a great amalgamation of high-tech and analog," Hanson says. "This serial killer flummoxes them both by swapping back and forth, and they have to combine their talents. It would be too creepy to say that it's like, 'What if Booth and Brennan's baby grew up to be a horrible serial killer?' Butthematically they have to deal with two things this year that are a combination of the two of them. One's the baby, and the other is this big baddie."And will the couple stop to consider that chasing killers might not be in the best long-term interest of Baby Bones? "That's exactly one of the arenas that we have to deal with this year," Hanson says. "Can you still go running around, chasing dangerous people, and doing dangerous things when you have an infant depending upon you for a whole life? That is grist for the mill for the two of them.One of the great things about having this child is that it makes everything very immediate and very gut-oriented. It's gut versus brain. What do we do?"Bones premieres Thursday at 9/8c on Fox.

Crown Media Says Hallmark Movie Channel Contributes To Strong 3Q

The owner of The Hallmark Channel had a happy story of its own to tell in 3Q as ad sales improved, marketing expenses dropped — and it recorded a big gain from a deferred tax asset. With that $191.7M one-time tax jolt,Crown had net income of $203.3M, up from $5.9M this quarter last year, on revenues of $74M, up 18%. The company says that ad revenue was up 15% to $56M as it raised average per-viewer prices, while payments from pay TV distributors were up 29% to $18M. The Hallmark Movie Channel contributed $7.8M in ad sales, up 69.6%. Crown says it also benefited from improved ratings from shows in the Hallmark Channel’s daytime block, which includes The Martha Stewart Show, Martha Bakes, and Mad Hungry With Lucinda Scala Quinn. Crown didn’t spend as much on marketing this past quarter as it did a year ago when it launched The Martha Stewart Show. “We have experienced solid growth for our overall advertising sales revenues and are optimistic that the trend will continue,” says CEO Bill Abbott.