TV Junkie: Super Bowl XLV Most-Watched Ever/Thank God It's Over; 'The Chicago Code' Premieres Tonight
Please check out our video interview with Joelle Carter who plays Ava Crowder on FX's "Justified" which returns to TV this Wednesday at 10pm.
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It's official, yesterday's Super Bowl was the most-watched televised event in history - poor Tiny Tim's "Tonight Show" wedding just keeps getting pushed farther down the list. Of all the ads that played, the Richard Lewis/Roseanne (is she only going by one name now, like Usher?) Snickers "Logging" ad was the most popular. Rounding out the top ten most engaging ads were: Best Buy "Bieber and Ozzy," Pepsi Max "Love Hurts," Volkswagen Passat "The Force," Doritos "The Best Part," Teleflora "Help Me Faith," Doritos "House Sitting," E*Trade "Tailor," Cruze Eco "Misunderstanding" and Bridgestone's "Carma." What we didn't see mentioned is the above NFL "American Family" spot which we thought was clever, and since it is composed of hundreds of redone shots of classic American television shows, it was one of our favorites of the day.
It turns out that the vast majority of people tuned into the program to actually watch the game with only about the same number of people staying in the viewing room to watch the Black-Eyed Peas' halftime show as the last few Super Bowls (a net loss). It's our opinion that these people are somehow incapacitated and can not wheel themselves out of the room at halftime and are, thus, forced to watch the halftime shows.
At least we had a competitive game to watch even if our favorite teams were not in there. That being said, the play falling by Joe Buck was uninspired, and we'd like Troy Aikman to stop gesticulating at the camera with his freakishly huge hands, a man who'd obviously not come up as short as Brett Favre in the cellphone penis photos department.
Because of the huge football audience, "Glee" also came up a winner although we felt we'd had more than enough "Glee" exposure from all the promos before the show even came on. According to observed Tweets from self-proclaimed "Gleeks" we know, it wasn't a winner of an episode, with some badly performed and filmed numbers. At any rate, we're relieved the day is behind us.
Jason Clarke and Jennifer Beals star in Shawn Ryan's "The Chicago Code" which has its series premiere on Fox at 9pm tonight.
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Tonight marks the series premiere of "The Chicago Code" on Fox at 9pm. The series is by Shawn Ryan, the creator of the landmark FX series, "The Shield," and more recently the critically acclaimed "Terriers," as well as being a showrunner for Fox's "Lie To Me." We're big fans of all of Ryan's original works and "The Chicago Code" is another that we'll be watching religiously. In our interview with Ryan from a bit over a year ago (listen to the audio), Ryan briefly touches upon "The Chicago Code" which was still just in the planning stages at the time. Starring Jason Clarke and Jennifer Beals (whom we've met in person, she's an Amazon!) this series returns us to the personality-driven style of cop show that "The Shield" embodied, if not toned down a little bit for the 9pm broadcast network crowd. Focusing on realistic situations with extraordinary characters, seeing this anti-procedural type of show return to broadcast TV is encouraging. Watch it as it blows the other 9pm contenders away.
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Tonight also marks a new episode of Bravo's "Inside The Actor's Studio" where Oscar contender Colin Firth gets the Lipton treatment. We're not sure that we can recommend watching for a few reasons: for some reason Bravo can't be persuaded to shift reruns of some of their "Real Housewives" garbage which pushes the airing to 7pm; secondly, the amount of commercials that are on Bravo now is unbearable, or at least they feel unbearable since they mostly promote "Real Housewives" garbage; thirdly, the Jim Carrey episode of "Inside The Actor's Studio" special that aired a few weeks ago was so badly edited, probably to accommodate all the goddam commercials, that it was verging on unwatchable.
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The TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan: "Chuck," "The Chicago Code," "Hawaii Five-0," Conan (Jeff Bridges, Nick Swardson, Far East Movement), Ferguson (Dominic Monaghan, actress Gabrielle Union, comic Kurt Metzger)
7:00pm Inside the Actors Studio Bravo - Colin Firth.
8:00pm How I Met Your Mother CBS - When Zoey's naive cousin (Katy Perry) visits, Barney makes a move on her; Ted comes to grips with his feelings for Zoey.
8:00pm Chuck NBC - Casey, Chuck and Sarah are sent to Morocco to rescue Roan Montgomery (John Larroquette); Morgan plans to meet Alex's mother
8:30pm Rules of Engagement CBS - Timmy starts singing with an a cappella group; Audrey and Jeff encounter a new annoying neighbor.
9:00pm The Chicago Code Fox - Series Premiere. Teresa Colvin, the city's first female superintendent, petitions for a corruption task force to investigate an entrepreneur-turned-politician.
9:00pm The Cape NBC - The Cape decides to take some time off to recover from exhaustion; Peter Fleming hires a team to find and destroy The Cape.
9:00pm Being Human Syfy - Josh befriends a werewolf who doesn't like vampires; Rebecca seeks out Aiden's help
9:55pm Hawaii Five-0 CBS - The team heads into the jungle to try to find a missing witness in a high-profile murder case before the assassins that are after her.
11:00pm Conan TBS - Jeff Bridges! Nick Swardson! Far East Movement performs
11:35pm Late Show With David Letterman CBS - Actor Martin Lawrence; Steel Magnolia performs.
11:35pm The Tonight Show With Jay Leno CBS - Actor Mark Wahlberg; James Blunt performs.
12:00am Lopez Tonight TBS - Jamie Foxx, Aubrey Plaza
12:05am Jimmy Kimmel Live ABC - Dr. Phil McGraw; actress Amy Sedaris; Nelly performs.
12:35am The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson CBS - Actor Dominic Monaghan; actress Gabrielle Union; comic Kurt Metzger.
12:35am Late Night With Jimmy Fallon NBC - Actress Brooke Shields; actor Alex Pettyfer; food critic Gail Simmons; And You Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead performs