Fan Fare

Waiting for the fate of Jack Bauer, answers to “Lost”

Sure, TV networks may already be looking ahead to  the fall — they’re all gathered in New York this week unveiling next season’s line up to advertisers – but viewers are still anchored firmly in the present, waiting with bated breath to see how their favorite TV shows will leave them hanging through the summer — or, in some cases, permanently.

CW’s freshman breakout hit “The Vampire Diaries” was one of the first shows to wrap for the season last week with a heart-stopping finale that the New York Post’s PopWrap said set the bar “for which all other 2010 season finales will be judged.”

This week, season finales ramped up with more than a dozen dramas saying au revoir until the fall. Among those include “Desperate Housewives”, “Brothers and Sisters”, “House”,  “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Mentalist”.

But what a lot of fans are likely waiting for is the line up next week, when long-running hit shows “24″ and “Lost” both bid a final farewell with 2 hour finales.

After eight seasons of fighting terrorism and losing nearly everyone close to him, what’s left for Jack Bauer? Has he finally reached the breaking point?

And what about “Lost” fans? Will they get a Sopranos-like ambiguous ending? Or, will they learn what the island’s mysterious light source represents and which one of the Oceanic Six will be chosen as its protector?

Many of TV’s top rated dramas are also wrapping up for the season next week: “NCIS”, “NCIS: Los Angeles”, “Criminal Minds”, and “The Good Wife”.

Don’t mess with the Mouse, Adam

(Writing and reporting by Corinne Heller)

Adam Lambert? Not for Disney.

Appearances by glam rocker Adam Lambert on two additional shows broadcast on the ABC network have been canceled following complaints to the Disney-owned station.

ABC had also canceled an appearance by Lambert on its “Good Morning America” news program a day after he performed at the live American Music Awards November telecast on ABC in November, during which he kissed a male keyboardist and simulated oral sex and other racy acts.

The 27-year-old singer, who came out publicly as gay after finishing second this year on “American Idol” , wrote on his Twitter website on Wednesday: “Yes, sadly friends, ABC has canceled my appearances on Kimmel and NYE. I don’t blame them. It’s the FCC heat.”

“It’ll all blow over,” he wrote on his Twitter page. “Let’s focus on something positive!”

Lambert was to perform on ABC’s annual “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” special and on the late-night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” later this month. He has appeared on rival networks since his AMAs performance and has an appearance coming up later in December on “The Jay Leno Show”.

Wild child Adam Lambert sheds his family friendly “Idol” glow

“American Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert built a broad base of support during his run on the show this year. After all, “Idol” got to be the top-rated program on U.S. television by appealing to moms, dads, teens, doctors, lawyers, Indian chiefs and everyone in between.

So when he took the stage on Sunday night at the American Music Awards and simulated oral sex with a back-up dancer, kissed a male keybordist on the mouth and gestured to the audience with his middle finger, he was bound to lose some of that broad “Idol” audience. Lambert all but said as much when he told Rolling Stone magazine that if his performance “offends (people), then maybe I’m not for them.”

But was it right for Lambert to put on such a sexually charged performance at the AMAs on network television, shortly before 11 p.m. on the East and West Coast and before 10 p.m. Central Time, when some teens and younger viewers might still have been watching the show? Does Lambert bear a special responsibility to reign in his sexual provocation, since he presumably has many young fans from his “Idol” days?

ABC on Tuesday canceled Lambert’s scheduled appearance on its “Good Morning America” as a result of his performance at the AMAs, after it received more than 1,500 complaints about his stage antics, but the singer has other TV appearances lined up.

Of course, the fact that Lambert is openly gay plays a significant role in the controversy. Last week, Aaron Hicklin, the editor-in-chief of gay magazine “Out” posted an open letter to Lambert after the singer posed for a cover shot. In the letter, Hicklin said that Lambert’s record label and management insisted that the magazine “must avoid making (Lambert) look ‘too gay’” and that they insisted he only appear on the cover in a group shot, not by himself.

Hicklin also criticized Lambert’s appearance in the magazine Details, in which he was photographed cupping the breast of a statuesque, nude female model. Hicklin suggested it would have been more radical to pose with a guy.

Lambert responded to Hicklin’s criticism by telling Entertainment Weekly magazine that Hicklin “has his agenda and has his opinions, which I respect, but they’re not necessarily my opinions” and that the editor “really crossed a line” with his criticism.

from MediaFile:

The fall TV season, beyond Jay Leno

What's that? Jay Leno is moving to prime-time? You don't say!

Frankly, it's hard to remember the last time there was such hubbub about a TV show. It was, after all, the cover story in Time magazine. Not to be outdone, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, AP, and probably every local news outlet between New York and Hollywood had a story about the talk show host -- more often than not raising the question of whether he's going to save network TV.

(You've got to give it to the public-relations machine on this one. They really worked the story. Of course, their spinning was augmented by a huge marketing effort. Stuart Elliott of the New York Times today estimated that NBC put out more than $10 million in promoting the show).

But there is more to the fall TV season than Jay Leno. The media buyers and planners over at  RPA offer a useful road map to the season in a recent report.

Their take on the fall season is fairly upbeat (maybe network TV doesn't really need Leno to save it).

"For the first time in two years, network fortunes will not be held hostage to the industry's labor problems, but will be determined, as they used to be, by content quality and scheduling... Based on what we've seen, the overall quality of that content looks better than it has in the past two seasons," the report says.

Here, according to RPA, are some things to keep in mind heading into the season:

from MediaFile:

Good days for cable TV

A year ago, the big story around Emmy nominations was the acclaim showered on cable programs like "Mad Men" and "Damages." A quick glance at today's nominations indicates little has changed.

Just look at the best drama category, where Fox's "House" and ABC's "Lost" will face stiff competition from cable's "Big Love" (HBO), "Mad Men" (AMC), "Damages" (FX), and "Breaking Bad" (AMC).

While the Emmy awards aren't everything -- ratings are still the holy grail -- they certainly don't hurt. Particularly when it comes to cable networks, which have built a reputation for developing more sophisticated, bolder programs than the broadcast counterparts.

While ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox are under heavy pressure from advertisers (and their corporate parents) to show immediate results, the cable networks can take more care with their programs. After all, they draw some revenue from carriage deals and subscriptions, which buys shows like "Breaking Bad" some time to develop.

That seems to be paying dividends -- and not only when it comes to awards. While broadcast TV advertising rates are still at a sizable premium to cable, most advertising executives say the gap is shrinking. Couple that with carriage fees and a generally lower cost structure and you see why TV executives like NBC Universal's Jeff Zucker spend so much time talking up their cable assets.

Keep an eye on: