Sci-Fi TV Sunday: LOST, Fringe, Heroes, Legend of the Seeker, Chuck + more

In Sci-Fi TV this week we start off with lots of spoilery details on the finales for both Lost and Fringe. Plus there is an update on chances for renewals for Chuck and Heroes, but it looks like Legend of the Seeker is not coming back. We also have lots of video and image previews, including Doctor Who, Smallville, V, FlashForward and more. All that plus the latest television ratings and news and casting bites.

 

GENRE TV NEWS

Lost producer talks series finale
"LOST" executive producer Damon Lindelof talked about the series finale in an interview with THR. The interview covered several topics including filming on the finale, which required the construction of new sets:

"We did not shoot the final scene of the series on the final day … for reasons of maintaining the secrecy of the show, and we had to build some sets for the finale — the construction of the new sets took awhile so that’s the work that we did last," Lindelof said.

Lindelof also said that he understands why some fans have expressed frustration with the "flash sideways", but he promised it will be explained:

"We knew the new storytelling device would be controversial," Lindelof said. "We started showing people this thing, and people don’t know what it is. They don’t know how it connects back in the show. We’re throwing this huge mystery into a show that already has a bunch of mysteries at a time when the audience expects us to be closing doors and not opening them."

When it comes down to the question of whether fans will be satisfied with the finale, Lindelof said that we don’t have to worry about a ‘Sopranos’ style ending, but did warn that not all questions will be answered:

"’The Sopranos’ ending only worked on ‘The Sopranos,’ " Lindelof said. "The series finale has to fit the show. We’re trying to end lost in a way that feels ‘Lost’-ian and fair and will generate a tremendous amount of theorizing. We’re going to be as definitive as we can be and say this is our ending, but there’s no way to end the show where the fans aren’t going to say, ‘What did they mean by this?’ Which is why we’re not going to explain it."

You can watch the two-part video interview embedded below.

After a one-week hiatus, "LOST" returns this Tuesday, May 2 with the episode "The Candidate". We’ll round out this week’s "LOST" coverage with two bites followed by the latest videos.

  • Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond) has confirmed that he will be in the series finale. [Washington Post].

  • ABC spent $228 million filming the show in Hawaii over the course of 2006-2009, employing an average of 973 people in each of the four years. Tax breaks are estimated to have exceeded $32 million. [Fancast]

Promo for episode 6×14 – "The Candidate" [YouTube]

Sneak peek from "The Candidate" [YouTube]

Watch another sneak peek here

Audio interview with Dominic Monaghan [Johnjay & Rich Show via SpoilerTV]

Listen to the rest of the interview here

Fringe producers and Leonard Nimoy talk season finale
"Fringe" executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman took part in a conference call with reporters where they discussed the season finale and what to expect next season:

"At the end of the season, I think that you’ll be [thinking], ‘Wow, now, this is a whole other world, and this is really interesting,’" Pinkner said. "Not a whole other world literally, but a whole other chapter that has been sort of talked around, but now concretely you will understand a lot more. So if we’re heading towards anything, it’s that. It really sets up a satisfying conclusion to what people have invested in this year, but also sort of opens up a whole other level of understanding that hopefully will propel us into season three and further. [There are] a lot of very exciting things that we’ve come up with that we’re really excited to tell."

For more from the interview, check out here and here. In related news, here’s an excerpt from an interview Leonard Nimoy did with reporters which includes this exchange about the upcoming confrontation between Walter Bishop (John Noble) and his character William Bell:

"There will be a major confrontation. I’ll call it a confrontation between the two characters. We saw just a little snippet of it the last time I was here, where I was doing brain surgery on him. But now we will see, we will see them spend some time together in a dramatic setting, a dramatic situation where we will get some more information about their [relationship], an overview of their relationship. The past, what they were doing, what they were trying to do, how it has affected the universes, both universes. And, truthfully, they have feelings about each other now. They have stuff to work out with each other. In fact, there’s a moment I’ll tell you about where they start to get into it, and Olivia says, "Hey, work it out some other time." (Laughs.) We have some other stuff to deal with, which is I think a terrific moment. We will see that. We’ll see it happen."

Check out the rest of the interview here. "Fringe" airs Thursday’s at 9:00 p.m. on Fox.

Promotional stills from episode 2×20 – "Northwest Passage" [more at SpoilerTV]

Promotional stills from episode 2×21 – "Over There, Part 1" [more at SpoilerTV]

   

Behind the scenes images from the season finale [more at SpoilerTV]

Promo for "Northwest Passage" [YouTube]

Interview with Jasika Nicole [YouTube]

Watch an interview with John Noble here

Heroes might get 13-episode 5th season renewal; Chuck chances improve + Legend of the Seeker cancelled
Despite poor ratings, THR reports that NBC is seriously considering renewing "Heroes" for a 13-episode "final season" order. The short season — which has been rumored at in the past — would allow for the crew to bring the series to a satisfactory conclusion. "Chuck" is also likely headed for a renewal:

NBC still has a couple major titles on the bubble for renewal — namely "Chuck" and "Heroes" — but sources indicate both will probably return, with "Heroes" likely receiving a 13-episode "final season" order.

"It is all yet to be debated," NBC Entertainment President Angela Bromstad said. "Both of those shows make sense with the new shows we’ll be bringing on."

Meanwhile, it’s bad news for "Legend of the Seeker" fans. EW’s Michael Ausiello reports that ever since many of Tribune Station Group’s markets dropped the show last March, ABC Studios (who produces the show) has been shopping it around, but they haven’t been able to find any interested parties. Add to that, several people close to the show have confirmed that it’s been canceled, including writer Mike Sussman:

"The quest is complete. Thank you so much to our amazing cast, crew & all our fans, it’s been an awesome two years. Will miss you all."

Promo for "Legend of the Seeker" – 2×20 – "Eternity" [YouTube]

Promo for "Chuck" – 3×15 – "Chuck vs. the Role Models" [YouTube]

Watch another promo here


PREVIEW Videos & Images

Ashes to Ashes

Promotional stills from episode 3×05 [more at Den of Geek]

Doctor Who

Promotional stills from episode 5×05 – "Flesh and Stone" [more at Den of Geek]

Promotional stills from episode 5×07 – "Amy’s Choice" [more at Blogtor Who]

Promotional still from episode 5×08 – "" [SpoilerTV]

Alex Kingston introducing "Flesh and Stone" [YouTube]

Clip from "Flesh and Stone" [Blogtor Who]

Watch more clips here

Trailer for episode 5×06 – "Vampires of Venice" [YouTube]

Watch another promo here

Behind the scenes of "The Adventure Games" [Blogtor Who]

FlashForward

Promotional stills from episode 1×20 – "The Negotiation" [more at SpoilerTV]

Promotional stills from episode 1×21 – "Countdown" [more at SpoilerTV]

Promo for episode 1×19 – "Course Correction" [YouTube]

Smallville

First look at the season finale, episode 9×22 – "Salvation" [EW]

Promo for episode 9×21 – "Hostage" [YouTube]

Stargate Universe

Prom for episode 1×16 – "Sabotage" [Syfy]

David Blue Q&A, Part 2 [Syfy]

Supernatural

Promotional stills from episode 5×22 – "Swan Song" [more at SpoilerTV]

Promo for episode 5×21 – "Two Minutes to Midnight" [YouTube]

Watch another promo here

Sneak peek at episode 5×21 – "Two Minutes to Midnight" [YouTube]

True Blood

Season 3 cast photo [THR Feed]

Season 3 posters [AOL via Shock Till You Drop & SpoilerTV]

Webisode #1 – "Eric and Pam" [YouTube]

Promo: Waiting Sucks #6 [YouTube]

V

Promo for episode 1×10 – "Hearts and Minds" [YouTube]

Watch another promo here

Sneak peek at "Hearts and Minds" [YouTube]

The Vampire Diaries

Promo for episode 1×21 – "Isobel" [YouTube]

Watch another promo here

Sneak peek from "Isobel" [YouTube]

Watch another sneak peek here

Warehouse 13

Interview with Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly [SCI FI Wire]

TV BITES

  • Ellie and Awesome may have left for Africa, but they’ll both appear in the "Chuck" season finale. [EW]

  • The May 7 episode of "Smallville" will be key in discovering the identity of the mysterious red queen, who’ll be someone we know. [EW]

  • "V" actress Laura Vandervoort reveals that her character’s demeanor will change in the season’s final episodes: "Lisa really gets to change and becomes edgier in the last few episodes. It’s great." [E! Online]

  • The titles for the eighth and ninth episodes of "Doctor Who" have been revealed: "The Hungry Earth" and "Cold Blood". [via Doctor Who News Page]

  • The second half of "Caprica" will see the terrorist cells starting to "flex their muscles", says star Scott Porter. He adds: "They will now give a clear vision on what they want to be. They start forming away to get everyone to subscribe to the one god line of thinking. With the Graystones, finding Zoe and trying to retrieve her back, everything comes to end towards the end of the first season and set up nicely for the war to actually start." [IESB]

  • "Smallville" executive producer Brian Peterson revealed that the Chloe/Oliver romance will extend into next season: "…there will be some interesting revelations about that relationship coming out of the finale, going into next season"… [Fancast]

  • …Also, Perry White (played by Michael McKean) will resurface in the penultimate episode of the season accompanying Clark’s mom Martha: "It’s a fun ‘Look who’s coming to dinner’ sort of episode,” says Brian Peterson, "with Martha (Annette O’Toole) and Perry entering the picture right when Clark and Lois are having a bit of a rough go." [Fancast]

  • The final shot of this season of "The Vampire Diaries" will be of Elena. [Fancast]

  • Check out interviews with "Doctor Who" star Karen Gillan at TV Squad and io9.

  • "Happy Town" debuted to a weak 5.25 million viewers and a 1.7 A18-49 rating last Wednesday. Retention from lead-in "Cougar Town" was just 61% among A18-49 (2.8 rating). [@TravisYanan]

  • Jamie Kennedy ("Ghost Whisperer") has been cast in a guest starring role on the fourth season of Syfy’s "Eureka". [Syfy]

  • Here are some press releases/synopses from the various shows we cover:
    • "Doctor Who" – 5×07 – "Amy’s Choice". [Blogtor Who]
    • "Chuck" – 3×17 – "Chuck vs. the Living Dead". [SpoilerTV]
    • "Fringe" – 2×21 & 2×22 – "Over There, Part 1" & "Over There, Part 2". [Fringe Bloggers]
    • "Stargate Universe" – 1×16 – "Sabotage". [TV Guide]
    • "Stargate Universe" – 1×17 – "Pain". [TV Guide]
    • "V" – 1×13 – "Red Sky". [AOL]

SCI-FI RATINGS (Based on final national numbers unless otherwise noted) [@TravisYanan]

Last week’s (4/23/2010) episode of "Stargate Universe" drew a series-low 1.31 million viewers and a 0.4 A18-49 rating. That was down -8% in viewers and -20% in A18-49 rating from the week prior (1.42M / 0.5 rating). That brings the season 1 average down to 1.80 million viewers and a 0.7 A18-49 rating through 13 episodes. Lead-out "Merlin" dropped to 1.05 million viewers and a 0.3 A18-49 rating, which was down -7% in viewers but even in A18-49 rating from the episode prior (1.13M / 0.3 A18-49 rating). The current season of "Merlin" is averaging 1.21 million viewers and a 0.3 A18-49 rating through four episodes. [@TravisYanan]

Meanwhile over on Cartoon Network, a new episode of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" drew 2.85 million viewers and a 0.6 A18-49 rating.

This week’s (4/28/2010) episode of "Ghost Hunters" drew 2.42 million viewers and a 1.1 A18-49 rating. That was up +7% in viewers and even in A18-49 rating from the week prior (2.27M / 1.1 rating). [@TravisYanan]

"Legend of the Seeker" perked up 16% to 2.34 million viewers from the last episode (which was a series low 2.02 million). Through 17 original episodes, "Legend of the Seeker" has averaged 2.38 million viewers. [TV by the Numbers]

The first two episodes of "Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking" aired back-to-back last Sunday (4/25/2010) on Discovery. "Aliens" drew 2.12 million viewers and a 0.7 A18-49 rating and the episode "Time Travel" drew 1.95 million viewers and a 0.7 A18-49 rating.

The final viewing figure for "Victory of the Daleks", the third episode of "Doctor Who", was 7.82 million viewers. That’s more than 1.6 million above the initial overnight rating. An additional 381,000 watched the episode on BBC HD, but it wasn’t simulcast with the BBC One showing so the figures are not added into the final total. Also, initial overnight ratings figures for episode five – "Flesh and Stone" show the episode was seen by 6.9 million viewers (6.53M on BBC One and 340,000 on BBC HD). [The Doctor Who News Page, (2)]

CHART (4/19/2010 to 4/25/2010)


Follow Russ on his blog: Your Entertainment Now and on Twitter: Twitter.com/YourEntNow.

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Heroes. The show that might actually be renewed because the network it’s on it actually worse than it is.

Granted a 13 episode season sounds like a good idea. These writers have clearly demonstrated that they do less with more. Time to try the inverse.

But seriously, Heroes isn’t Lost, or Fringe, or even FlashForward. There aren’t really any burning questions that need to be answered. It could (and probably should) end where it did and it really wouldn’t be a big deal.

No more Mr. Nice Guyus is in Flash Forward?? That’s awesome!!

sad to see SEEKER go. The middle part of the seasonm was a little dull, but it seems to be getting better. :)

Legend of the Seeker is great. It would have been nice if SyFy would have pick it up. It would have matched perfectly with Merlin and I am sure it would have gotten better ratings than Stargate Universe.

Very upset that Seeker was canceled. Number of shows I’m losing this year (LOTS, Lost, possibly Chuck).

FRINGE better drop the throwaway show mentality displayed in the singing episode last week if they want to keep folks interested. DVR made it only waste about three minutes.

Lets see: “Heroes” starts off good with a great season one. Season two onward the show deteriorates drastically(both in ratings and in quality) yet NBC renews it for a fifth season when simple logic suggests the show should have been cancelled after season three. Of course, its NBC we are talking about. There is no logic in anything they do.

It just makes UPN’s decision to cancel “Enterprise” after a great fourth season all the more painful.

@6 – Quatlo – “FRINGE better drop the throwaway show mentality displayed in the singing episode last week…”

I for one am not at *all* sure that that was a “throw away” episode. Walter’s mind works in mysterious ways, and I’m waiting to see what sorts of connections come out between his fantasy story and “reality” (such as referring to the Observers as “Nina Sharps Watchers”)

@6 Quatlo – Yeah, I gave the last episode of Fringe about three minutes too before I hit the fast forward button in search of something interesting. I find Walter’s character as a borderline nutcase interesting, but not enough so to waste my time sharing in his delusions.

Legend of the Seeker being cancelled is surprising to me considering the packed room at the 2009 Comic Con. It has a huge following.

My DVR stopped recording the show awhile back, which I thought was odd considering new episodes were still coming out on Hulu. I must be in one of the markets affected by the Tribune Stations Group dropping of it. I should call them and give them a piece of my mind.

Can’t believe “Lost” is ending. . . am in denial. Just might be the best d–n serial drama in broadcast television history.

will be Lost with out Lost. A great show and this one always kept me guessing. Glad to see that Annette Otool will be coming back and with her real life Husband Michael Mckean as Perry White. This show is realy shapping up with Superman!!! Finaly it sounds loike Caprica is getting close to the Cylon War. They should just skip to a year before the Cylon War and get us into it.

I lost the ability to watch heroes ages ago.
I owned season three and could not get past the first disk.
It would be nice to lay it to rest.
I have not seen much universe but studios need to learn many of my friends wait till DVD to watch shoes, we are all hardcore SG fans, but now of us have cable.
And though i thought about getting it on itunes, you cant bring it over to a friends house then…
Just my thoughts…

Enjoying the new season of Doctor Who so far. Flesh and Stone was the best yet. I like the mystery they are surrounding Amy with. Will be interesting to see how it pans out.

Star Wars – TCW has turned into an awesome show. They had action and SFX worthy of any big Hollywood movie, and really great stories in season 2. Puts other Sci-Fi shows to shame effectwise!

I really am irritated at the issues around Seeker. ABC Domestic hasn’t formally announced its cancellation, and one of the active crew tweeters has since backed up a bit on the sad news by issuing a slim renewal hope, since several websites are actively petitioning their local stations, Disney, and ABC to give them a Season 3. Saveourseeker.com is one of the larger ones, with addresses and numbers to contact. #Legendoftheseeker was the #2 trending topic on Twitter on May 1st.

Anyhow, it really bothers me that with no set schedule and no active marketing, the show still finds over 2 million viewers a week. I’ve no clue on the 18-49 demographic, but even so… there are programs out there with worse numbers. Internationally, the show is a much larger success.

I read somewhere that SyFy posted on their Twitter that they had looked at LOTS, but ‘couldn’t find a place on their schedule’. So, in other words, licensing fees and creative control were an issue, which I can’t help but think was a tactic Tribune is playing at.

I was a big Season 1 fan of Heroes, but I wouldn’t miss it, and probably will skip the next season, if renewed. LOTS has its flaws, but it’s a far better series than most on right now (everywhere I turn is reality – argh!).

That Supernatural preview had me laughing. such a great show. I wish it got more recognition.

Legend of the Seeker is a good show!! Very disappointing and sad!!!

This stinks like when Enterprise was canceled!! =(

Like we don’t know who the Red Queen is on Smallville. If you watched the preview to next week’s episode…they pretty much gave it away. I HATE that. Should stop watching the previews I guess.

6… The musical edition of Fringe was forced on the show by FOX as part of “Fox Rocks” week. The hour before it had Booth and Brennan singing on “Bones”, too.

#20

I’m surprised FOX didn’t flood those shows with “American Idol” product placements as a crass cross-promotion attempt.

I agree with the couple postings above.

There are secrets in that Walter Bishop “trippy” episode that we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Sometimes it seems like I’m the last patient person on Earth who actually watches something from beginning to end any more…

Hope I’ll be able to watch the next episode of “Fringe” online this weekend. I’ll be having a biopsy on Thursday.

Looks like my Brain Cancer is growing back for the third time! Dammit!

We have made progress in trying to save this wonderful show. The Save Our Seeker campaign now has the support of Mr. Terry Goodkind, author of the series of books the show is based on. We also have the backing of a major sponsor that will launch a massive advertising campaign for the show.

ABC studios has not released an official cancellation statement to date. Even if they eventually do, we are continuing our fight. We have received positive media coverage, and have placed ads in 2 prominent entertainment industry publications, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.

Please come and join us. Visit http://www.saveourseeker.com to learn how to help save the show.

Also visit http://www.legendoftheseeker.org to talk to other fans and learn about our large fan community.

Hm, I’m just happy with this nevertheless not utterly certain, so i am going to research a touch more.