TV Bulletin Board (June 1)
06/01/07 16:59
By ED BARK
***CBS' The Early Show will launch a half-dozen traveling summer concerts in July, with R&B singer Kelly Rowland scheduled to appear in Dallas on Aug. 3rd. American Idol runnerup Katharine McPhee kicks off the tour with a July 6th performance in Orlando, Fla.
***NBC Universal has bought exclusive rights to Live Earth: The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis. All of its broadcast and cable networks will have a piece of the July 7th all-day event, with NBC presenting a three-hour prime-time special.
The Sundance Channel and Universal HD get the biggest slices, with 22 hours of live coverage and "best of" moments. Bravo is slated to show 18 hours.
Announced artists so far include Kelly Clarkson, The Police, Madonna, Faith Hill, Kanye West, Bon Jovi, John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, Enrique Iglesias, Black Eyed Peas, Fall Out Boy, Duran Duran and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Expect many, many more.
***Battlestar Galactica will be grounding itself after Season 4, the show's executive producers announced Friday. Production is underway in Vancouver, with a two-hour episode, "Razor," scheduled to kick off the final season in November before the rest of the episodes touch down in early 2008.
A la Lost, Battlestar didn't want to overstay its welcome, say producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick
"This show was always meant to have a beginning, a middle and finally, an end," they said in a statement. "Over the course of the last year, the story and the characters have been moving strongly toward that end and we've decided to listen to those internal voices and conclude the show on our own terms." OK, enough.
***Gearing up to join the Republican field of presidential candidates, Fred Thompson has removed himself from the cast of Law & Order, where he's been playing district attorney Arthur Branch.
Executive producer Dick Wolf says in a statement that Thompson "has not made a firm decision about his political future," but "asked to be released from his responsibilities on the show" just in case. Moved to Sundays next season, Law & Order isn't scheduled to return to NBC until January.