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RATINGS RAT RACE UPDATE: ‘American Idol’ Hits All-Time Finale Low, ‘The Office’ Series Finale Up, ‘Scandal’ Finale Surges

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Friday May 17, 2013 @ 9:34am PDTTags: American Idol, Scandal, The Big Bang Theory, The Office, TV Ratings

UPDATE, 9:34 AM: Final American Idol finale numbers are in from Nielsen. While the show remains at an all-time low, it did see an expected adjustment upward. The 8-10:07 PM Idol garnered a 3.6 rating with 14.3 million viewers, which is down 44% in ratings from Season 11′s finale and down 33% in viewership. The show was up 24% from its May 8 episode.

PREVIOUSLY, 8:19 AM: Thursday saw a flurry of finales including American Idol (3.4/11) ending its 12th season with an all-time finale low and The Office closing its doors for good. Declaring a winner from the final two female contestants, the more than two-hour live Idol was down 47% in preliminary ratings from the 6.4/18 final numbers of Season 11’s finale on May 23, 2012. It’s the first Idol finale to have less than 20 million viewers. The show, which went nearly eight minutes over the hour and will likely be adjusted up in the final numbers, pulled in 13.61 million viewers from 8-10:07 PM last night. That’s nearly 8 million viewers less than the 21.5 million who watched last year’s season finale. For the first time ever, the Idol finale wasn’t even the highest-rated show of the night — the Season 6 finale of The Big Bang Theory (4.4/16) topped Thursday. Facing off in the 8-8:30 slot, Idol garnered a 2.8 in adults 18-49 against the CBS geek sitcom. Idol was also way down from the 6.0/16 rating and 17.93 million viewers of the Season 12 premiere on January 16. Thursday’s finale was up 28% in adults 18-49 over last week’s show and saw a bounce from the 11.6 million viewers who watched May 9. With 13.608 millon watching, Fox won Thursday in total viewers and adults 18-49. (See complete list of American Idol finale viewership and ratings numbers below)

Related: Anyone Care Who Won ‘American Idol’? READ MORE »

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SPOILER ALERT! NBC’s ‘The Office’ Finale

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday May 16, 2013 @ 9:48pm PDTTags: NBC, Steve Carell, The Office, The Office finale

Diane Haithman is a contributor to Deadline.

The Office FinaleSPOILER ALERT! UPDATE: Steve Carell reprised his role as former Dunder Mifflin manager Michael Scott after all — appearing about 45 minutes into The Office finale to be Dwight’s “bestest mensch” (read: best man) at his wedding to Angela. After Michael unexpectedly appears, Dwight (Rainn Wilson) says: “Michael, I can’t believe you came.” His former boss replies: “That’s what she said.” Later in the episode, he tells the documentary crew: “I feel like my kids all grew up and married each other — it’s every parent’s dream.” Carell earned six Emmy noms for the role but never won. He left the series after its seventh season.

PREVIOUSLY: No, Michael Scott is not going to turn up at Dunder Mifflin on Thursday. Really. Ken Kwapis swears to Deadline [and lied to us, the asswipe - NF] that longtime star Steve Carell does not appear in this week’s series finale of The Office. “I sure wish Steve had done a cameo. It would’ve been a wonderful touch,” said Kwapis, who also directed the pilot episode of the midseason-replacement comedy that aired in March 2005. “Sadly, he didn’t.” So why did NBC choose to sneak a peek of Carell into its finale promo after last week’s episode? A spokeswoman said the network would maintain its “no comment” stance but noted the footage of the erstwhile Office manager could be a clip from an old episode. Read More »

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NBC Extends ‘The Office’ Series Finale

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday May 7, 2013 @ 11:38am PDTTags: NBC, The Office

Fans of The Office will have a bit longer to say goodbye. NBC is extending the length of the final episode by 15 minutes. It will air from 9-10:15 PM on Thursday, May 16. Drama Hannibal will … Read More »

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‘The Office’ Confirms Finale Guest Stars

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday April 25, 2013 @ 12:22pm PDTTags: NBC, The Office

Steve Carell said he wouldn’t return to The Office for the series finale, and now we know for sure he won’t. NBC today revealed the guest stars and a bit about the storyline for May 16′s one-hour series ender. … Read More »

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RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Hannibal’ Premieres OK, ‘Idol’ Even, ‘Wife Swap’ Down, ‘Elementary’, ‘The Office’, ‘Community’ & ‘Person Of Interest’ Hit Lows

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Friday April 5, 2013 @ 9:08am PDTTags: American Idol, Hannibal, The Office, TV Ratings

It was another night of all originals for the Big Four on Thursday — and no NCAA Tournament on CBS for the first time in two weeks. It was also the debut of NBC’s new Hannibal (1.6/4) at 10 PM. A prequel of sorts to Silence Of The Lambs, showrunner Bryan Fuller’s scrumptious-looking drama featuring serial killer-to-be Dr. Hannibal Lecter had some bite. Up seven tenths from the dismal debut ratings of NBC’s quickly cancelled Do No Harm in the slot back in February, the show scored the network’s top entertainment programming rating in the 10 PM slot since March 15, 2012. However, Hannibal was down 20% from the midseason debut of Awake in the same time period on March 1, 2012. Overall, Hannibal was up 60% in the slot versus NBC’s season average, excluding news and sports. And the show built on its weak Go On lead-in by 45%. Read More »

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R.I.P. TV Writer Lester Lewis

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday March 20, 2013 @ 5:06pm PDTTags: Lester Lewis, Partners, The Office
Nellie Andreeva

UPDATED: Comedy TV writer Lester Lewis, who worked on The Office, died last night. He was 46. Lester most recently wrote and executive produced a “shortcom” project for Fox starring Michael Kosta, which the two co-created. … Read More »

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‘The Bizzaro Office’: The Actors Who Almost Made It To ‘The Office’ Cast

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday March 19, 2013 @ 8:07am PDTTags: NBC, Rainn Wilson, The Office
Nellie Andreeva

Probably feeling nostalgic with The Office wrapping production on its final season over the weekend, star Rainn Wilson yesterday posted a copy of the sign-in log for his Office audition almost 10 years ago, which provided a glimpse into who else tested for lead roles on the Emmy-winning … Read More »

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Ricky Gervais To Revive ‘The Office’s David Brent For Charity Telethon

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Thursday February 28, 2013 @ 2:20am PSTTags: Ricky Gervais, The Office

Ricky Gervais is dusting off his David Brent persona in support of Comic Relief. The character, created by Gervais and Stephen Merchant for their original UK version of The Office, hasn’t been seen in ten years … Read More »

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‘The Office’ Series Finale Set For May 16

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday February 7, 2013 @ 9:28am PSTTags: NBC, The Office
Nellie Andreeva

NBC has set a date for the series finale of The Office. The 200th and final episode of the Emmy-winning comedy will air May 16. It will be an hourlong closing episode from 9-10 PM that … Read More »

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Super Bowl Sneak (Sort Of): Dunder Mifflin Paper From ‘The Office’ Gets Ad Campaign

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday February 1, 2013 @ 11:35am PSTTags: NBCUniversal, Super Bowl, The Office

Quill.com is a real-life office-products provider that partnered with NBCUniversal‘s consumer products unit in 2011 to offer paper branded Dunder Mifflin — the fictional Scranton, PA-based paper-supply company at the center of NBC’s The Office. It turns out the initiative has been a major success, and now … Read More »

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Steve Carell Explains Why He’s Not Returning To ‘The Office’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday January 24, 2013 @ 10:45am PSTTags: Steve Carell, The Office

The Office exec producer Greg Daniels announced at TCA last week that Steve Carell would not make a re-appearance in the show’s last season or the final episode and Carell explained why in a recent interview … Read More »

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‘The Office’ Staff On How The NBC Series Will End: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday January 16, 2013 @ 4:54pm PSTTags: NBC, Steve Carell, TCA, The Office

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

It’s official. Greg Daniels, executive producer and showrunner of The Office, said at today’s TCA that Steve Carell would not make a re-appearance in the last season or the final episode of the show’s nine-season run. Daniels said that Carell “was very much of the opinion that the ‘Goodbye Michael’ episode and story arc leading up to it was the goodbye to the fans and the show”. This final season, the producer said, “is the goodbye that the rest of the show gets to have.”

Daniels said viewers should not expect every detail of 9 seasons to be wrapped up in the final episode, which does not yet have a completed script and is still at the table-read stage. He said next week’s episode is “the beginning of the end” of the 24-episode season. Daniels would not reveal any plot spoilers but said that one character is fired in Episode 15.

He added that the finale will be one hour and some series regulars and guest stars may return, including Mindy Kaling. Read More »

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Steve Carell Unlikely To Return For ‘The Office’ Finale: TCA

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Sunday January 6, 2013 @ 12:12pm PSTTags: Steve Carell, The Office
Nellie Andreeva

When he announced in August that the current ninth season of The Office will be the series’ last, developer/executive producer Greg Daniels was hopeful that the final season and especially the series finale would feature original … Read More »

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Fleming Q&A’s Matt Damon/John Krasinski: ‘Promised Land’; A Bat Stamp On ‘Bourne 4’; Ending ‘The Office’; Cheating On Affleck

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday December 10, 2012 @ 8:27am PSTTags: John Krasinski, Matt Damon, Promised Land, The Bourne Legacy, The Office
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Even before Focus Features made Promised Land a late Oscar entry, the film’s writer-stars Matt Damon and John Krasinski came under fire from the energy industry. Their film deals with “fracking,” which mixes chemicals, sand, water and drilling to loosen underground shale deposits to harvest natural energy. Damon and Fran McDormand play gas company reps using the lure of potential riches to convince struggling farmers to allow fracking on their lands, despite the risks for their crops and livestock. Krasinski plays a grassroots activist fighting the reps as the town prepares to vote. Promised Land reunites Damon with Gus Van Sant, who directed Good Will Hunting, which brought Oscars and fame to Boston neophyte scribes Damon and Ben Affleck. Damon and Krasinski are fun guys, the type who’d be a blast to invite over to watch football…as long as you aren’t a fan of the New York Giants and the two Super Bowls they won over the New England Patriots.

DEADLINE: Matt, you’ve said recently that the Bourne Legacy spinoff didn’t make it any easier for Jason Bourne to return. What has to happen for us to see your signature character back onscreen?

DAMON: Just a couple things, really. Paul Greengrass has to want to do it, and secondly and equally important, it comes down to Paul and I knowing what the hell we want to do. We just don’t have a story, and we haven’t had one. I quietly went to Jonah Nolan, because he and his brother Chris did such a brilliant job on Batman and that whole mythology. I just said, can you put your brain on this? I can’t figure it out. And he took a run at it and he couldn’t crack it either. Paul and I have been talking about it for years. And we can’t quite see what the movie would be. If we could get line of sight on that…

DEADLINE: We are force-fed so many unnecessary sequels, and here is a smart thriller that we actually want to see more of…

DAMON: Neither of us is against it. I would love to do another one. I love that character. To me, the reason to make that movie is because people want to see it. Paul and I have said that to each other. We don’t take for granted the fact that we’ve built an audience for Bourne, that’s a real privilege. But our part of that bargain is that the movie is good and belongs with the other three. Until we can deliver that, we just can’t make it.

DEADLINE: I watched last week as Brad Pitt’s bankability got questioned after Killing Them Softly tanked. How much do stars like you and Brad worry about taking on projects like that or Promised Land? You see them as specialty pictures made at a price, but if they fail, they go down in the loss column.

DAMON: Some actors don’t make these movies for exactly that reason. I couldn’t bear to have a career like that. These are exactly the kind of movies I like to go see. That might put me in the minority of the movie-going public, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t make them. In writing Promised Land, John and I talked a lot about films like Local Hero and The Verdict, a movie I absolutely love. I don’t know what that movie would do today, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t love to be in The Verdict.

DEADLINE: How helpful then are hits like Bourne? 

DAMON: It’s always nice when one hits. It buys you relevance in the industry for a couple years and gives you cover to do these other things. But I would never just protect my beach head. That would be a career built out of fear and I won’t live that way. I want to challenge myself in different genres, playing different characters, and I don’t want to get pigeonholed and forced to do the same things. If Promised Land does not do a lot of business, it’s not going to end my career. But I am mindful like we all are that you don’t get to keep doing this if your movies don’t perform at the box office.

DEADLINE: John, how hard is it for you to end your long run on The Office?

KRASINSKI: It’s as hard as it gets, to be honest. This is so much more for me than just ending a television series. I was a waiter when I got the job. No one would know my name if it wasn’t for this job and I certainly wouldn’t have gotten the career opportunities. To be part of something special enough to have a final season rather than just getting canned is an honor. The show is everything to me. By the end of whatever career I have, there’s a part of me that will always be defined by this show and I’m supremely honored that is the case. I got this job when I was 23 and now I’m 33 and that’s a pretty important decade to spend on one project with one group of people. This is the most important thing I’ve ever done, the proudest thing I have. I will never forget a minute of it nor would I take back a second of it. Read More »

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NBC Not Going Forward With Potential ‘Office’ Spinoff ‘The Farm’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday October 29, 2012 @ 3:08pm PDTTags: NBC, The Farm, The Office
Nellie Andreeva

UPDATED: It looks like the series finale of The Office next spring will wrap the stories of all characters on the Emmy-winning workplace comedy. I’ve learned that NBC will not be proceeding with The Farm, its planned spinoff from The Office. The project, starring Rainn Wilson, was to be introduced as an episode of The Office this season before launching as its own series. That episode will still air. NBC is not commenting, but rumors about The Farm‘s demise started circulating just before lunch. Wilson then confirmed the news on Twitter. “NBC has passed on moving forward with The Farm TV show,” he wrote. “Had a blast making the pilot – onwards & upwards!” Read More »

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‘Office’s Craig Robinson To Star In NBC Comedy From Series Boss Greg Daniels

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday October 19, 2012 @ 1:57pm PDTTags: Craig Robinson, Greg Daniels, NBC, The Office
Nellie Andreeva

Craig Robinson OfficeGreg Daniels Office EXCLUSIVE: The proposed Office spinoff starring Rainn Wilson is not the only NBC comedy series hopeful for next season toplined by an Office co-star and backed by key Office auspices.

In his first major sale this season, The Office developer/executive producer Greg Daniels has set up a comedy at NBC starring The Office regular Craig Robinson and written by the show’s supervising producer Owen Ellickson. The untitled project centers on a talented musician (Robinson) with rough edges who adjusts to his new life as a music teacher in a big-city middle school, where he encounters teacher politics and the temptations of single moms. The comedy hails from Universal TV, Daniels’ Deedle Dee Prods and 3 Arts Entertainment. Ellickson, Daniels, Deedle Dee’s Tracy Katsky and 3 Arts’ Howard Klein and Mark Schulman executive produce, with Robinson serving as producer. Read More »

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RATINGS RAT RACE: NBC’s Thursday Lineup Down In Return, ‘The X Factor’ Up

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday September 21, 2012 @ 9:22am PDTTags: Ratings, Saturday Night Live, The Office, The X Factor, Up All Night
Nellie Andreeva

When NBC in May announced its new Thursday lineup consisting of softly rated returning comedies and Rock Center With Brian Williams, it felt like the network was writing off the night for the fall. Well, that certainly seems to be the case judging by the lineup’s launch last night, following strong showings for NBC on Monday and Tuesday.

The first Saturday Night Live Election special (1.6/5 in adults 18-49) failed to jump-start the night, down 69% from the comparable special four years ago when Saturday Night Live was riding the Sarah Palin wave. SNL had a big election story to play off last night, the secret Mitt Romney tape, but it may have been hurt from lack of publicity. Still, the SNL special did better than its lead-out, the second-season premiere of Up All Night, which pretty much sealed its fate with an underwhelming 1.3/4 in 18-49, down 46% from last year’s series premiere, to finish fourth in the time slot. With that number, it doesn’t look likely that the comedy will go beyond its partial 13-episode renewal.

There was not much enthusiasm for the final season of The Office (2.1/6). It opened down 48% from last season’s premiere, which revealed Michael Scott’s successor, to an all-time low for a season opener of the veteran comedy.  Office was also down from its May season finale, by 9%. At 9:30 PM, Parks And Recreation (1.7/5) also posted its lowest-rated premiere ever. Compared with last fall, it was down 19%. And at 10 PM, one of the the biggest headscratchers on NBC’s schedule, Rock Center, mustered a 1.1/3, down 21% from last week with no original competition in the hour. NBC (1.5/4, 4.0 million) finished third for the night behind Fox (3.1/9, 8.6 million) and CBS (1.8/5, 7.4 million), which aired repeats. Read More »

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‘The Office’ To End Run After Upcoming Ninth Season; Steve Carell May Return

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Tuesday August 21, 2012 @ 11:12am PDTTags: NBC, The Office

“This will be the last season of The Office, the series’ developer/executive producer Greg Daniels just announced. Daniels, who ran the veteran NBC comedy from season one through five and has returned for the upcoming season nine, made the … Read More »

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Jake Lacy Joins ‘The Office’ As Regular

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Saturday July 28, 2012 @ 2:29pm PDTTags: The Office
Nellie Andreeva

Better With You alum Jake Lacy will co-star on a series next season after all. Lacy played one of the leads in the Fox drama pilot The Goodwin Games that recast the role with T.J. Miller when picked up … Read More »

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