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[08/07/10 - 05:31 PM]
HBO at TCA: "Entourage" to End Next Season, "Detective Agency" May Return
By Brian Ford Sullivan (TFC)

LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- HBO closed the final day of the TCA Summer Press Tour with the news that veteran comedy "Entourage" will end its run with season eight while short-lived drama "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" may return with a pair of telefilms.

Said announcements came during the network's executive session featuring President of Programming Michael Lombardo and Co-President Richard Plepler.

"The plan right now is to finish up this season and we're not clear exactly how many [episodes], we'll do a shorter order next season to finish up. We had talked about six," Plepler said about "Entourage." He would add that creator Doug Ellin "clearly wants to write [an 'Entourage' film] but he also wants to do it so the storytelling makes sense. Clearly he's thinking about how the show will end, he's already pitched other shows to us, we're in a long-term relationship with Doug Ellin. I would expect that in the next couple years you'll see him up here with another show."

As for "Detective Agency," Lombardo said "we're talking to our friends at the Weinstein Company about the possibility of, and actually developing two scripts, possibly to do two movies. And if we can get the cast together and if everything can come together we've love to do it. So it's alive." Plepler added that should they be greenlit, they'll be shot back to back.

Among the other topics brought up for discussion:

-- "We get probably two-thirds of our viewing on a non-premiere night," Lombardo said about the decision to schedule "Boardwalk Empire" during the fall. "There's a huge percentage of our audience that's finding [our shows] purposely either on demand or DVRing it or they're watching it on different multiplex feeds at different times. We're not wedded to a premiere night schedule the way that [broadcast] networks are... I think it will resonate and do just fine."

-- "It's a genre that we've approached somewhat cautiously," Plepler admitted about its upcoming fantasy drama "Game of Thrones." "It's been done I would say somewhat successfully in the feature film world but we have two writers with David Benioff and Daniel Weiss who are so smart and so talented and what struck both of us who are not necessarily, neither of us are particular fans of the genre and it was such an enormously compelling read that it was an easy answer. It wasn't the genre we responded to, it was the storytelling."

-- As for a premiere date for "Game of Thrones," after some confusion by the executives (Lombardo said third quarter 2011, Plepler said March 3), HBO Entertainment President Sue Naegle clarified it's being targeted for the spring of 2011.

-- "Whatever Larry David wants to keep doing, we're happy to keep doing with Larry David," Lombardo said about the future of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Season eight is currently in production in New York for an air date sometime in 2011.

-- And finally, HBO offered up an "HBO in 2011" trailer featuring the first clips of upcoming originals "Enlightened," "Mildred Pierce" and "Luck" as well as the previously released teaser for "Game of Thrones."





  [august 2010]  
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· BOARDWALK EMPIRE (HBO)
· CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM (HBO)
· ENLIGHTENED (HBO)
· ENTOURAGE (HBO)
· GAME OF THRONES (HBO)
· LUCK (HBO)
· MILDRED PIERCE (HBO)
· NO. 1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY, THE (HBO)





[05/23/13 - 04:27 PM]
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Plus: numbers for VH1's "Off Pitch," Oxygen's "Best Ink" and TLC's "The Town That Caught Tourettes?"

[05/23/13 - 03:01 PM]
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[05/23/13 - 03:00 PM]
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[05/23/13 - 02:34 PM]
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[05/23/13 - 02:02 PM]
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[05/23/13 - 01:47 PM]
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[05/23/13 - 01:34 PM]
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Joe Francis & Abby Wilson, Flavor Flav & Elizabeth Trujillo, Chingy & Temple Poteat, Dustin Zito & Heather Marter and Caitlin Lowell & Tyler Baltierra are on tap.

[05/23/13 - 01:28 PM]
ESPN and ESPN3 Present 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee Finals
ESPN will mark its 20th year of televising the event by presenting 14 hours of the competition live beginning Wednesday, May 29.

[05/23/13 - 12:43 PM]
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Seth MacFarlane, Mark Wahlberg, Vin Diesel, Jeff Bridges, Jason Sudeikis, Jackie Chan, Andrew Luck, Chrissy Teigen, Katherine Webb and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are slated to appear.

[05/23/13 - 12:30 PM]
ACC College Football Games Added to ESPN's 2013 Schedule
The season kicks off with a Thursday ESPN College Football Primetime telecast pitting North Carolina at the SEC's No. 8 South Carolina on August 29, at 6 p.m. on ESPN.

[05/23/13 - 12:12 PM]
FX Connects "The Bridge" to Viewers July 10th
Demian Bichir and Diane Kruger star in the 13-episode series, airing Wednesdays at 10:00/9:00c.

[05/23/13 - 11:37 AM]
Video: New Bar Anthem from the Cast of TBS's "Sullivan & Son"
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[05/23/13 - 11:18 AM]
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[05/23/13 - 11:05 AM]
E! Takes Off the Gloves for the All-New Special "Bigger Badder Celebrity Feuds" Tuesday, May 28 at 10:00 PM/ET
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[05/23/13 - 10:50 AM]
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