Two years of “Please don’t cancel [show name] it’s the only show I watch on [network name], if you cancel [show name], I’ll never watch [network name] again.

Two years of “The average person isn’t smart enough to handle the subtle brilliance of [lowly-rated show name].”

Two years of  will it be renewed or will it be canceled?

Two years of all that, and so much more.

It has been a blast.

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You write too much about Burn Notice! Chuck wasn’t bad enough?  But at least I understood with Chuck that it was on the bubble and might not be renewed. Burn Notice is  definitely renewed so give it a rest! Burn Notice contest. Burn Notice preliminary numbers. Burn Notice final numbers. Burn Notice press release trumpeting the final numbers.  I don’t have anything against Burn Notice, but, ENOUGH!  Where Paula Abdul lands is more important to ratings. But do you write every day about that?  No!  And what about True Blood? True Blood deserves some more love!

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“They should take down the American flag in front of the building and put up a white one. .. They’ve clearly given up.”

– Rescue Me co-creator Peter Tolan during the FX portion of the TCA press tour, via Lacey Rose on Twitter.

Michael Jackson is dead at age 50.

I feel like I grew up with the Jacksons, Michael was only about a year older than I am.

With the changed realities of both the music and television worlds over the last generation, there’s no doubt that the audience of 50+ million that watched the 1984 Grammy Awards, the year Jackson won a record 8 Grammys, will never be equaled.

Sorry, no more comments.

There are all kinds of nonproductive approaches to saving fan favorites that are Nielsen ratings challenged. People dream all the time.  They dream that because they believe that Nielsen is an antiquated system, the ratings aren’t accurate and shouldn’t matter.  One way or the other, for now, they’re dreaming.  When it comes to that kind of dreaming I’d prefer to save it for some alternate universe where Gisele Bundchen can’t tell the difference between me and Tom Brady.

I wanted to at least take a crack at something that at least  potentially was a more productive approach.  It may wind up as unproductive as thinking about an alternate reality where Gisele can’t tell the difference between me and Tom Brady, but no harm in trying.

This is a rough draft/thinking out loud on the Internet type of deal.  It’s definitely very high level, very pie-in-the-sky, with many  flimsy arguments that are easily blown aside.  Indeed, there are already many holes and unresolved issues, but feel free to shoot more.  If enough of the holes can’t be plugged, it’s not viable anyway.

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In addition to all the other ways (email, RSS, widget) you can follow TV by the Numbers, I am happy to announce that you can now follow our original posts via Twitter as well via the account tvbtnfeed.  http://twitter.com/tvbtnfeed

You’ll receive our headlines and a link to each of our original posts (as opposed to network press releases, which we post on the site but filter out of our feed). It will be a duplicate of our RSS feed, we won’t be using it for any other tweets, but it’s just another choice you can use to keep up with what’s happening on the site.

There was a time when I was sufficiently young, single and geeky to covet this. Now, being only one of the three, it just doesn’t move the dial enough. Still, I bet there are a few folks out there who’d like to have “a 14-inch T-800 endoskull, whose eyes light up as it plays sound effects from the film”

Lionsgate will release Terminator 2 Skynet Edition, a new Blu-ray version of the classic sci-fi movie, on May 19, featuring multiple THX-certified high-definition versions of the film, an all-new 6.1 audio mix and more than eight hours of interactive special features.

The single-disc release will be available with a suggested retail price of $29.99.

The Terminator 2 Skynet Edition Blu-ray —timed to coincide with the release of McG’s upcoming Terminator Salvation on May 22—will also be available for a limited time as part of a Limited Edition T2 Complete Collector’s Set, a six-disc set that also collects the Extreme Edition DVD and Ultimate Edition DVDs.

Packaged with a 14-inch T-800 endoskull, whose eyes light up as it plays sound effects from the film, the Limited Edition T2 Complete Collector’s Set compiles every T2 special feature released on DVD and includes a digital copy of the film for iTunes or Windows Media. This set will carry a suggested retail price of $174.99.

Both sets are being released to coincide also with the DVD release of the Schwarzenegger DVD Collection. The Terminator 2 Skynet Edition Blu-ray features the following materials:

• THX-certified high-definition editions of both the theatrical and extended cuts of T2
• All-new 6.1 DTS-HD Master Audio Lossless audio
• Picture-in-picture behind-the-scenes video footage, text commentaries and multimedia galleries
• Storyboard-script mode, in which viewers can see storyboards and read the script while watching the film
• Interactive quizzes and games
• BD-Live enabled games, extra content and more for internet-connected players
• Audio commentary with 26 cast and crew members
• Audio commentary with director James Cameron and co-writer William Wisher
• Enhanced for D-Box Motion Control Systems
• THX Optimizer

via SCI FI Wire

We Grinches at TVbytheNumbers (AKA, “Renew or Cancel Central”) wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season and thank you for spending some of your 2008 with us. Posting of new messages will be sparse between now and January 5th and we’re also not sure when the regular weekly information will be posted next week. Typically a holiday throws Nielsen off by a day, but if that happens that would have them distributing the data on New Years Eve.

Between now and January 5, I’m not sure many overnight reports will get posted. If you’re looking for overnight ratings and they’re not here, we recommend checking Marc Berman’s site. You can try Zap2it also. Things should be back to normal in a couple of weeks. Until then, enjoy the holidays!