TV/ HBO RENEWS "BOARDWALK": HBO renewed its new series "Boardwalk Empire," yesterday, only 2 days after its premiere. Sunday's premiere attracted 4.8 million viewers (7.1 million including repeats) to become its most-watched premiere of any program in 6 years. The 2nd season will be 12 episodes long, the same as its 1st season. The story of "Boardwalk Empire" is set during boomtime Atlantic City and spans across 9 months of 1920 beginning with the opening night of Prohibition. Critics have been universal in their acclaim for the show. The Hollywood Reporter said: "Bottom Line: This Prohibition-era drama is nothing short of intoxicating. If the motto "It's not TV. It's HBO" felt like an empty boast before, sample the network's new series "Boardwalk Empire"; the scale of the spectacle on display in the pilot sets a new benchmark for the medium". The show stars Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Kelly Macdonald and Michael Shannon. Executive producers of the show include Mark Wahlberg, Martin Scorsese and Terence Winter. Scorsese directed the premiere episode.
TV/ DISMAL FUTURE FOR "LONE STAR": The new Fox drama "Lone Star" is on death watch after its disastrous debut Monday, the 1st night of the fall TV season. According to media reports from Hollywood, the "Star" pilot drew critical acclaim and stood out from the pack of new pilots for being different than the increasing glut of procedural hours, thus executives are worried about what this may signal for network television. "No one in TV should be happy about this," said an agent "This is going to have a chilling effect on networks taking chances on anything but cookie-cutter shows." Fox declined comment on the future of the series. The ratings for the premiere of "Lone Star" were said to be "so bad". The 4.1 million total viewers who showed up was a shockingly low number, especially given it had a strong lead-in from the season premiere of "House," from which its audience tumbled 68%.
MUSIC/ WYCLEF JEAN DROPS PRESIDENTIAL BID: Hip-hop star Wyclef Jean says he no longer plans to run in Haiti's November presidential election. The star's decision comes a month after his candidacy was formally rejected by Haitian authorities. "After weeks of quiet but painstaking reflection with my wife and daughter, I have chosen to end my bid for the presidency of Haiti," he said. The singer instead plans to release an album, called "If I Were President: The Haitian Experience," next year. "Though my run for the presidency was cut short, I feel it was not in vain," he said. The Haitian-born star was told by the electoral council that he could not run for president because he had failed strict residency requirements. The constitution requires candidates to have lived in the country for 5 years prior to an election. Jean now lives in the US. The singer and producer originally said he would appeal the decision, but officials said the electoral body's ruling was definitive under Haitian law. "Some battles are best fought off the field, and that is where we take this now," Jean said.
Former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Colin Quinn's one-man show, "Long Story Short," that was seen Off-Broadway this summer, will play an 11-week Broadway engagement at the Helen Hayes Theatre beginning in October. Jerry Seinfeld directed the 75-minute comedy, which concluded its extended Off-Broadway run September 4. Seinfeld will repeat his duties for the Broadway venture. The Broadway engagement will begin performances October 22 towards a November 9 opening. "Long Story Short" will run through January 8, 2011. The synopsis of the show is: "Comically channeling the demise of great world empires, Colin Quinn uses his 'articulate brand of comedy' in taking audiences through an uproarious history of the world in 75 minutes. From his personification of Caesar as the original Italian mobster to his complaints about Ancient Greece and Antigone giving way to Costco and Snooki, Quinn is at his satirical best, taking on the attitudes, appetites and bad habits that toppled the world’s most powerful nations. "Colin Quinn Long Story Short" proves that throughout human history, the joke has always been on us."
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