drive

TV Guide is reporting that Fox has canceled Drive, the new action series starring Nathan Fillion and created by Tim Minear. Even though it's not confirmed, it's pretty obvious that this is due to dismal ratings. Drive had the old Prison Break slot, but was only getting a fraction of Prison Break's ratings. There are still two episodes left... hopefully Fox will put them up on the MySpace webpage where all the other episodes can be seen. In the meantime, repeats of House will run in that 8 pm time slot.

Sadly, this does not come as a surprise.

(S01E04) Brett and I are sharing reviewing duties of Drive and I have to tell you right away that I am not as in love with this show as Brett is. I adore Tim Minear and almost everything he does, but I'm not completely sold on this series. Too many of the characters bother me. I find blondie Ivy extremely annoying, and I find Ellie (the soldier's wife) and Violet (the so-called high school Junior) to be over-actors. The reason I'm holding on is simple: Alex Tully. I was intrigued following the last five minutes of last week's episode when we found out that Tully used to be a bad ass bank robber.

(S01E03) For those of you playing along at home, the ratings for the big two hour premiere of Drive are in. Unfortunately, they weren't very good. That isn't the end of the world though. To really get an idea of where the series stands, we'll have to wait until the numbers come in for the regular Monday night showing. Things should be fine. Nobody watches Dancing With The Stars or Deal Or No Deal anyway, right?

Moving on, thinking happy thoughts about Nielsen boxes tuned to Drive, episode three was another solid installment. That's solid, but not great. It didn't quite match the level of the first two. Not that there weren't high points. It just seemed that some of the stories lacked the intensity that we saw in the premiere. There was still some good information coming to us, but not in as gripping a fashion. That's fine, but not exactly what I wanted to see in the time slot premiere.

• At 8, ABC has a new Dancing with the Stars, followed by a new episode of The Bachelor.
• NBC has a new Deal Or No Deal, then a new Thank God You're Here.
• FOX has a new Drive at 8, then a new 24.
• TLC has two new episodes of Little People, Big World at 8.
• Also at 8: American Life has Harry O, followed by 77 Sunset Strip and Hawaiian Eye.
• At 8:30, CBS has a new Old Christine, then new episodes of Two and a Half Men, King of Queens, and CSI: Miami.
• At 9, PBS has a new America At A Crossroads.
• USA has a new Monday Night RAW at 9.
• At 10, FX has a new ep of The Riches.
• Discovery has a new Stunt Junkies at 10.
• HBO has a new Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

(S01E01/S01E02) To be honest, I was sold on this one long before we finally got a look at what the Drive team has been working on all this time. I count myself as a Tim Minear fan, so his involvement was enough to get me interested. Add in a cast including Nathan Fillion (Firefly), Melanie Lynskey (Two And A Half Men), Kevin Alejandro (Sleeper Cell), Kristin Lehman (Tilt), Dylan Baker (The Book Of Daniel), and Taryn Manning (Hustle & Flow), and you really have something.

• At 7, CBS has a new 60 Minutes, followed by new episodes of The Amazing Race, Cold Case, and Without A Trace.
• ABC has a new America's Funniest Home Videos at 7.
• NBC has a new Dateline at 7.
• At 8, FOX has the two hour premiere of Drive.
• The CW has a new 7th Heaven at 8.
• Discovery has two new episodes of Planet Earth starting at 8.
• Also at 8: Food Network has a new Challenge, with footage of the Food Network Awards.
• At 9, ABC has a new Desperate Housewives, then a new Brothers & Sisters.
• HBO has a new Sopranos at 9, then a new Entourage.
• At 10, Lifetime has a new Blood Ties.
• Comedy Central has a new Mind of Mencia at 10, then a new Reno 911.
• Showtime has a new ep of The Tudors at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

FOX's new drama Drive, produced by Tim Minear (best known for his work on Angel and Firefly) and Ben Queen, may only premiere on Sunday but that doesn't prevent fans from watching the first minutes of the pilot

As part of the show's marketing campaign, Yahoo! TV is airing the first 4 minutes and 38 seconds of the series.

When the new fall schedules were announced last year, one of the shows that I was most looking forward to, ABC's mystery-drama Traveler, wasn't on the schedule. Which was sort of surprising since it got a lot of positive buzz in the upfront presentation that the network gave. And then we had all of the serialized dramas failing badly (The Nine, Smith, Daybreak, etc) and it seemed like Traveler would never premiere.

But ABC has announced that Traveler will indeed make it's debut on May 30, at 10pm. The number of episodes has been trimmed a little, and it looks like it's going to be one of those shows that will have a definite end, maybe like a long miniseries, so viewers won't feel cheated. Which is good news for TV fans these days, I guess.

Here are AOL Television's top picks for every day of the week. Get more TV recommendations here.

Thank God You're Here (Mon., 9PM ET, NBC) series premiere
Confession: I miss Whose Line Is It Anyway? What can I say, I like improv. That's why I'm excited for the premiere of this new improv show, hosted by David Alan Grier. Four celebs don costumes and play out scenes they know nothing about. In the first episode, Wayne Knight is a medical quack, Bryan Cranston a randy rock star, Joel McHale a clueless archaelogist and Jennifer Coolidge a ditzy pageant queen. Then, judge Dave Foley crowns one the best performer of the night.

Dog the Bounty Hunter (Tue., 9PM ET, A&E) 4th season premiere
Much happened to Duane "Dog" Chapman in 2006. Last May, he married business partner Beth a day after daughter Barbara died in a car crash. In September, he was arrested for bounty hunting in Mexico, where it is illegal. His request not to be extradited was denied, so he too will have his day in court. Despite all of this, Dog is back and better than ever. In the premiere, he personally takes on the case of a female fugitive after learning she shares the same birthdate as his late daughter.

You get an email telling you that actors Nathan Fillion, Kristin Lehman, Taryn Manning, Kevin Alejandro, Dylan Baker and Emma Stone will be offering pumping free gas and squeegeeing windshields in Century City to promote the new Fox show Drive. What do you do, hotshot? WHAT DO YOU DO?

Well, I tell you ... with gas prices what they are now, I would have driven down if it was Heather Mills offering oil changes and a top-off in order to promote Dancing with the Stars. We're nudging $3.50 a gallon in Los Angeles for gas, and that's on a good day.

Check out the pictures and more after the jump. Drive premieres on April 15th on Fox.

When I first heard the general premise for Drive, I instantly thought of Cannonball Run. The Cannonball Run is a movie a fondly remember watching time and again as a kid. Tons of money on the line, fast cars, hot women ... I mean hell, I was a hormone-filled kid somewhere between 10 and 13 years old when I first saw this flick, so cut me some slack.

While there is the obvious similarity with the whole race-around-the-country thing with Cannonball Run, after watching the rough-cut first episode of Drive I can start by telling you one way where the two differ: The Cannonball Run was for pussies.

Fox is promoting the hell out of Tim Minear's new action series, Drive. And now we finally have an official launch date (the folks over at Drivefans.com already knew this). According to the official website, there will be a 2-night, 3-hour premiere on Sunday, April 15th at 8 pm and Monday, April 16th at 8 pm. According to The Futon Critic, the permanent time slot for Drive is on Mondays at 8 pm.

While I have high hopes for Drive because A) it's being produced by Tim Minear and B) it stars Nathan Fillion, I also worry that it will be like many of Minear's other great shows that were canceled. Ahem... Firefly. While I didn't see it, I hear great things about The Inside, which Fox canceled in 2005. He was a "consulting producer" on Standoff but I'm not going to hold that against him. In fact, Minear has had a project on television every year since 1999.

If you want to know more about the show, check out Joel's story from the TCA.

Among the many complaints over how Fox handled Tim Minear's last two projects, Wonderfalls and The Inside, was that they didn't promote the shows well. Fortunately for his next series, that doesn't seem to be the case. I was watching NASCAR's big Bud Shootout this weekend and was happy to see a promo for the show. They also got spots during the Sunday animation block. Add in some showings during Prison Break and 24 and I don't think there is much more that the network can do to let people know about the show.

In case you missed it, because you forgot to watch the big NASCAR race, you can view the new promo online. The official site has yet to be updated, but that's the beauty of YouTube, right? I'm already sold on the show. With Minear at the helm, and Nathan Fillion, Kristin Lehman (pictured), Melanie Lynskey, Kevin Alejandro, and Taryn Manning, among others, on the screen, it looks fantastic. Decide for yourself though, the new promo is after the jump.

Take a bunch of good-looking people, put them in cars and have them race across the country, and what do you get? Drive, the latest series from Tim Minear, who's probably best known for his efforts on Buffy and the cult favorite Firefly. Right after Peter Ligouri gave his executive session, FOX decided to have the Drive cast out on stage for a Q&A. And when I mean the cast, I mean the entire cast; twelve actors, including Nathan Fillion, Dylan Baker and Melanie Lynskey. They were joined by Minear and his fellow executive producers, Ben Queen and Greg Yaitanes.

The most intersting thing about this series is that, while it shows ordinary citizens who are persuaded to participate in an illegal cross-country race for a $32 million prize, all the actors' in-car scenes will be shot in front of green screens. The challenge, according to Minear: "Could you make a show that takes place partially in moving vehicles that go across the country and not make it look bad?" He took a cue from War of the Worlds, which had in-car scenes where the audience saw the environment from all angles, inside and out. The effects experts who did that effect also worked on Drive.

FOX really does it up for TCA: there was a Hell's Kitchen omelette breakfast, and the entire ballroom was done up in silver tablecloths and silver chairs. The pages wore parkas, I guess playing up the "winter" theme, despite the fact we're in semi-warm Pasadena.

But the biggest news is the press release they put out announcing some of their schedule changes. In order to accommodate three new series, the network will move 'Til Death will air on Wednesdays at 9:30, after American Idol, starting on March 14 (there will be post-Idol airings on Feb. 27 and 28, as well). The War at Home moves to Sundays at 7:30, starting March 4, and Standoff will air on Fridays at 8, starting March 30.

The new shows: Tim Minear's Drive, which will launch with a 2-night, 3-hour premiere on April 15 and 16 (then take Prison Break's timeslot when its over - thanks, Jefferson!). The Winner, with Rob Corddry, will premiere with two episodes on March 4, then air for 3 consecutive Sundays at 8:30 and 9:30 PM. Finally, The Wedding Bells premieres March 9; there will be a post-Idol sneak peek on March 7.