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The TV action hero was revered for his arcane ability to make weapons out of ordinary household objects

The late-night innovator steps into the most innovation-resistant format in TV. Jaime Weinman on Stephen Colbert’s first Late Show

Our professional TV watcher previews the year ahead

Colby Cosh on innovation that’s above and beyond

So exactly what do broadcast networks do to get some hits again? Jaime Weinman has a few ideas

Hint: Nobody is actually watching it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tig4zbYMhJQ

In the face of the Tiger era, Mickelson buckled down, worked hard, and found another gear

Via Diane,  CBS has rendered inoperative some of my jokes about how American shows can’t compete with Canadian shows in the marketplace. Or at least they’re inoperative until 2010.

CBS’s fall schedule has been announced; aside from the network picking up Medium after NBC dropped it (it should be an excellent fit on CBS, which produces it) and the unfortunate decision to move The Big Bang Theory to 9:30 — from a ratings perspective, it may be sound; it’s unfortunate for those of us who liked having the convenient TBBT/HIMYM hour — the big news is that Flashpoint has been renewed. It won’t be on the fall schedule, since Medium and Ghost Whisperer will be paired for what I’m hoping they’ll call “Psychic Pfridays,” but it will be returning as a mid-season replacement in 2010. CBS makes this announcement after canceling other procedurals on its schedule, like Shawn Ryan’s The Unit. Clearly this is proof that American shows cannot compete in the free market.

I mentioned that the CBC’s plan to cut the episode orders of its shows is different from what U.S. networks usually do, which is to cut budgets but order the same number of episodes. It was mentioned in comments that this isn’t viable for Canadian shows because Canadian shows already have budgets cut to the bone, to the point where they can’t do the shows for less money. That’s probably true. But in the U.S., where shows have more money to work with, they’re all going to have to figure out how to produce high-quality shows on low budgets: