‘Apprentice’ finale will be kept to 1 hour
The third-season “Apprentice” finale will air May 19 and last only one hour, NBC says – as opposed to the bloated, three-hour affair that capped the show’s second season.
“I was very insistent on having a one-hour finale this season,” says the reality show’s host, Donald Trump. “Viewers want the live boardroom and they want to witness the excitement of the hiring.”
The decision may also have something to do with the fact that NBC has also scheduled the season finale of “ER” – which will feature the departure of original cast member Noah Wyle – for the same night.
Trump also announced that Bill Rancic, the first-season “Apprentice” winner, has signed a one-year contract extension to continue working for the Trump Organization. His original contract was set to expire Friday.
In addition to the building of Trump Tower in his hometown of Chicago, Rancic will work on developing other Trump properties in the United States and Mexico. He’ll also fill in as needed for George Ross and Carolyn Kepcher on the fourth installment of “The Apprentice.”
New life on ‘Mars’
“Veronica Mars” is the second lowest-rated scripted drama to air on any network this season. (Sorry, “The Mountain.”)
But every once in a while, a network decides that there are things more important than ratings. So UPN is bringing back “Veronica Mars” for a second season.
“Mars” stars Kristen Bell as a teenage girl who has to balance high school, moonlighting as a private eye and a variety of mysteries and tragedies from her past.
Creator Rob Thomas (“Cupid”) has promised that many of the show’s central puzzles will be wrapped up by its first-season finale.
Airing on Tuesday nights at 9 – one of television’s most competitive time slots, particularly now that lead-in “American Idol” has transformed Fox’s “House” into a hit – “Veronica Mars” has only rarely risen above sixth place for the hour, averaging 2.4 million viewers.
The jury is still out on UPN’s “Kevin Hill,” which launched with “Mars” this fall and has also failed to find a substantial audience despite warm reviews.
‘Fran’ finds Friday home
The WB gave its new sitcom “Living with Fran” two chances to find an audience last week, and the second one worked out a lot better.
As a result, the show will settle into that second spot – 9:30 p.m. Fridays – for the remainder of the season.
“Fran,” which marks “The Nanny” star Fran Drescher’s return to sitcoms, debuted to about 3 million viewers at 8:30 p.m. last Friday, a little better than what “Grounded for Life” averaged in the time slot earlier this season. A second episode at 9:30, however, jumped to 4.4 million viewers.
The network has been airing repeats of “Reba” at 9:30 on Fridays. Those will likely move to 8:30 for the rest of the spring.
‘Cops’ coming back
“Cops,” which has been around for almost as long as its parent network, will be back for an 18th season in 2005-06.
Fox also is gearing up for the show’s 600th original episode, which it will celebrate with two hours of arrests, domestic disputes and belligerent suspects on April 30.
The episode, true to the show’s roots, will feature officers chasing a fleeing suspect and mediating an incident involving a feuding couple.
The rest of the evening will consist of repeats of fan-favorite specials “Caught in the Act” and “Coast to Coast.”
With the pickup for next season, “Cops,” which premiered March 11, 1989, cements its place as the longest continuously running series in the history of Fox.
Its current Saturday-night companion, “America’s Most Wanted,” actually debuted a year earlier, but it was briefly cancelled in 1996 before the network changed its mind and brought it back.
Fox’s hourlong “Cops” block – usually one new episode and one repeat – averages about 7 million viewers per week on Saturday nights, where it has aired for virtually its entire run.
BET bags ‘Nightly News’
BET has canceled its “Nightly News,” saying it instead will offer news briefs throughout the day, specials about newsworthy events and an urban affairs show, “The Cousin Jeff Chronicles,” that will run four times a year.
Executives at the leading cable channel for black viewers said the change does not represent a lessening of BET’s news commitment.
“With 24-hour news networks and everyone getting news off the Internet, our audience doesn’t want to wait until 11 p.m. to find out what the news is,” said Debra Lee, BET president and chief operating officer.
Lee said it had not been decided what would replace “BET Nightly News” when it ends this summer.
The decision comes after BET canceled other public affairs programming such as “Lead Story” (now replicated by host Ed Gordon on National Public Radio) and “Teen Summit” in recent years, noted Richard Prince, who writes the “Journal-isms” online column for the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.