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Nielsen Media Research is making a change to their television ratings. In the past, children of a Nielsen family that were away at college were not factored into the numbers. After doing some research, sponsored by Turner, WB, CBS, MTV, Fox, and ESPN, those college kids will now count in the regular Nielsen ratings.

The NY Times article (possible login) points to America's Next Top Model, Family Guy, Ugly Betty, and [adult swim] as programming that should see a boost in their ratings. Disturbingly, it also mentions that in a test done last November the most popular show among college men was Drawn Together. The audience for the Comedy Central cartoon jumped from 272,000 to 435,000. What are they teaching our youth on these campuses?

This certainly isn't the final answer in the ratings question. There are still plenty of problems and issues with the system, but it is a positive change. Especially so if it gives a much needed boost to the struggling Veronica Mars numbers.

Whether you think the whole shorter mystery arc is working for Veronica Mars or not, the CW has ordered three more scripts of the cult fav. Also eluding the chopping block this week is soapy One Tree Hill, which also received a three script order.

I'd love to see Veronica Mars stick around so long as it doesn't head down that strange, slow death path that took the life out of Alias when the creators were pressured to make its twisty plotlines more accessible to newcomers. It's hard for me to care about the continuation of One Tree Hill only because I'm old and do not understand the ways of these so-called teenagers -- at least teenagers who aren't also noirish super sleuths. It's great news for the fans, however, who couldn't even be sure they'd see their favorite shows back post-WB and UPN merger.

Now we'll just have to keep our eye on the Gilmore Girls to see whether The CW will issue a mercy killing on behalf of Team Palladino.

Reader Diane really enjoyed the series North Shore, and she wrote to us wondering, where oh where did that show go? And what about Summerland? And Clubhouse?

I'll tell you, Diane. they're all dead, and nothing will ever bring them back. They're deader than the love child of the Grim Reaper and a zombie being born backwards into the womb of a vampire with a stake through the heart. They're even deader than my ability to come up with a coherent metaphor to describe how dead they are.

I really, really hope this becomes a trend. A sitcom that didn't get picked up by WB last year is now available for viewing (in full!!) on YouTube. It's called Nobody's Watching and it was created by Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence and two writers for The Family Guy. The show is hilarious. It's about two guys who love television and get their own sitcom on WB. Think of it this way: Joel and Adam get their own show (which one is the jock and which is the nerd?). They live on various television sets-- I think the living room is from Roseanne, but the office scene escapes me. They also interact with the studio audience and talk to the camera. There's also some pretty blatant product placement that gave me quite a chuckle.

There were 156 TV shows on this season. It's no surprise that American Idol was #1 (and, actually, #2), but I was kinda surprised Veronica Mars was waaaaaaaay down at 145. Sure, I knew all the worst rated shows would be on the WB and UPN, but I thought Veronica Mars would be up higher than that. But it's coming back, whereas Everwood (#130) and Heist (#96) have both been canceled.

The top 10 are fairly predictable (Idol, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, CSI, etc), but it's cool to see exactly where your favorite show stands in the grand scheme of things.

Surface was #53, ahead of Prison Break, The Simpsons, America's Funniest Home Videos, Bones, and The Office, all of which are returning.

[via TV Tattle]

Last week it was announced that The CW had passed on Aquaman, but now it looks like, officially, it's not dead yet. It is still in contention as a mid-season replacement. The superhero show is from the Smallville people, and many thought the show was a shoo-in to make the fall schedule.

And for those of you who were ticked that Reba had been canceled, it too might come back mid-season. So I guess all you Reba/Aquaman fans (can't wait for that crossover episode) will have just pray that one of the new shows does really badly.

The cast and crew of the WB's Charmed, which is finishing up its eighth and final season, are pissed at the network that housed them for so long. According to Holly Marie Combs (Piper), who became producer on the show halfway through the series, the network has treated them like the ugly stepchild pretty much from day one.

Another member of the cast, Rose McGowan (who joined as Charmed sister Paige when Shannen Doherty departed after the fourth season), added that the cancellation of the show as their network and the UPN merged was the icing on the cake to the way to they were treated. McGowan said that even if her contract was renewed for a ninth season (her and Combs' contracts ended this season) she would not return due to the poor way she and her castmates were handled.

The full interview can be found on SciFi Wire. By the way, with the completion of this season, Charmed makes history as the longest running television show with female leads; it beats out the classic Laverne & Shirley by a half season and Buffy the Vampire Slayer by one full season.

Despite twenty-somethings making up a large part of its fanbase, The Simpsons has never really been about that particular demographic. Rather, the show focuses on the baby boomer generation Homer and Marge more or less belong to, given the ambiguous concept of "time" on the series. After the first few seasons, which were helmed largely by people born in the 1950s, some younger talent was brought in, such as Conan O'Brien and the writing/producing duo of Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. While this added a welcome new dimension to the series, it still remains largely indifferent to the twenty-something zeitgeist. Young adults aren't absolved from the series' satirical jabs, but the heart of the show has always been about the nuclear family and its many struggles.

Boy, a lot of pregnancy news today.  First,  Anna reported that ABC World News Tonight anchor Elizabeth Vargas is expecting a boy. Now we learn that Jennie Garth, former star of Beverly Hills 90210 and current star of What I Like About You is expecting her third child with husband Peter Facinelli. And, my wife is expecting twins any day now!

OK, I threw that last one in because she's 36-weeks pregnant and she wants the babies out NOW.

Garth and Facinelli already have two daughters, Lola, three and Luca, who is eight.  The couple met on the set of the TV movie An Unfinished Affair back in 1996 and married in 2001. Hey, wait a minute here. Their oldest daughter is eight, and they were married in 2001? Something is fishy here.  Oh, I know! They must have used their time machine to conceive Luca in the past. Yea, that's it!

Anyhoo, Garth and Facinelli feel very blessed to be having a third child and can't wait to be introduced to the newest member of her family. Meanwhile, we can't wait to see if What I Like About You comes to the new CW network. Really, we can't wait; we have other things to do.

 

Rose McGowan had been hinting at it in television interviews, but now it looks like it's official. Charmed will not be making the transition when UPN and the WB merge into the CW. The last show of the series, which ran for eight seasons, will be May 21. If there's the slightest bit of silver lining to this cloud hovering over the heads of Charmed fans, it's that the last episode was written as a "series ender" according to executive producer Brad Kern. At the very least, the series will end with some kind of closure.

Thanks to Cavalera for the tip.

Summerland, which aired for only one season on the WB, has been picked up by The N, which will air reruns of the show along with episodes of Dawson's Creek. I have not seen a single episode of Summerland, so I can't comment on that choice, but wasn't Dawson's Creek pretty much just a show about affluent, aesthetically flawless teens whining about their petty issues? That kind of show plays well on most networks, but I always thought of The N as having a more realistic approach to teenage life with shows like Degrassi. I'm sure it will attract kids, but I think The N may have lost what made it a commendable network in the first place. Summerland will begin airing May 1, with Dawson's Creek premiering on September 1.

Aquaman, as Anna reported, is still moving forward despite the merger of UPN and the WB into the new CW.  However, there has been a change in casting, and Will Toale will no longer be playing the moist super hero who likes to converse with all the little fishies. Instead, the role is being given to Justin Hartley. Apparently the producers have a thing for actors who were in soap operas. Toale was on Guiding Light and Hartley was seen most recently on Passions. The decision to recast was the result of the merger between the two networks, and Leslie Moonves, CEO of CBS (which owns UPN) made the recommendation to give the role to Hartley.

Thanks to Toby for the tip.

Well, I guess we've all heard the big news today by now, right? The WB network and the UPN network are going to merge to become "The CW network", or "The CW" for short. Sounds like a decent idea to me: two half-networks that are limping along combine to create a more powerful network, capable of defeating the forces of evil while shooting lasers out of its hands (wait, I might be getting this new network confused with Voltron).

There's only one problem: the name. "The CW". I realize that the name is a combination of "CBS" and "Warner", and that naming it "The WC" is problematic; besides the fact that the name is a classy way to say "toilet", it's too close to "the WB" for comfort's sake.  But this name... it just doesn't work for me. It sounds like it's one letter short of being called "The Cow", or, as one commenter suggested, "The Country Western Network".

So can anyone think of a better name? Let me know in the comments.

[Photo: Bebeto Matthews/AP]

File this one under "Surprising News of the Day."

As of September, both the WB and UPN networks will cease to exist! That's because the CBS is joining forces with the WB to create a new 5th network, CW. It will feature "the best programming from CBS corporation and Warner Brothers," as the press release says. Each company will have a 50% interest in the company, and have a ten year agreement with Tribune/CBS stations around the country.

But seriously, the CW Network? That sounds like the Country and Western Channel. They really have to come up with a different name.

(Thanks Patrick, Rick and Izzy!)

While I can't say I've been thrilled about it, the idea of a live-action Aquaman series intrigues me. I always felt the character of Aquaman had much more potential than we ever saw in the comic books or Saturday morning cartoons. He commanded the creatures of the sea, for crying out loud. He could have corralled some sharks and done some real damage, had he wanted. Anyway, the WB has finally picked someone to play the lead role in the upcoming Aquaman series, and it's Will Toale, whoever that is. Toale, apparently, is an actor/model who has appeared on Guiding Light and not too much else.