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NBC may break into ‘Heist’ episodes early

Already on the fast track, NBC’s hour-long pilot “Heist” is apparently working so well that NBC could have the serialized drama ready to air by spring or summer.

According to the industry trades, NBC is on the verge of ordering up 13 episodes of “Heist,” a joint production from Hypnotic, NBC Universal Television and Sony Pictures Television. While no premiere date has been set (and NBC has yet to confirm), the network is believed to be hoping to get “Heist” on television well before the start of the next fall season.

NBC ordered the “Heist” pilot, written by “Lucky” brothers Robb and Mark Cullen, back in October and the project has been zooming along ever since. Dougray Scott, Steve Harris, Seymour Cassel, Reno Wilson, Marika Dominczyk and Michele Hicks were rounded up to star in the pilot, directed by Hypnotic principal Doug Liman (“Mr. & Mrs. Smith”). As the pilot was still shooting, NBC gave it a vote of confidence by ordering up five additional scripts.

Like Fox’s “24” and “Prison Break,” “Heist” is a serialized thriller that follows a group of thieves as they plot to take down three Rodeo Drive jewelry stores in a single day all over the course of a season. NBC is developing another project in a similar vein with “Kidnapped” which follows – you guessed it – a kidnapping over the course of a season.

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‘Galactica’ special to premiere on itunes

With all of the networks rushing to make programming available for iPod viewing, Sci Fi Channel is breaking some iTunes barrier or other with the premiere of “Sci Fi Inside: Battlestar Galactica.”

The half-hour special premiered on iTunes on Thursday (Dec. 22), well ahead of its Jan. 2 first cable airing. The telecast serves as a lead-in for the winter premiere of “Galactica” on Jan. 6.

“We are thrilled to be the first network to premiere our own original programming on the iTunes Music Store,” says Dave Howe, Sci Fi’s executive vice president and general manager. “This is an important step to position SCI FI Channel as not only the consumer’s destination for groundbreaking programming, but also as a digital pioneer seeking out new ways to enhance the viewing experience for our audience.”

“Galactica,” one of Sci Fi’s highest-rated shows and certainly its best-reviewed, has regularly broken iPod content barriers. Back in March, the show’s executive producer Ronald D. Moore began providing supplementary audio commentaries for every episode, available as podcasts.

The networks are quickly beginning to realize the potential of the iPod video technology. On Tuesday, ABC announced that freshman hit “Commander In Chief” would join “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” on iTunes. The network’s parent, Disney, also offers three Disney Channel shows.

Sci Fi’s corporate parent NBC Universal has placed several of its current shows, clips from “The Tonight Show” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and past shows like “Knight Rider” on the service.

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NBC sets ‘Biggest loser’ specials for new year

Moving quickly to capitalize on the momentum from the second season of “Biggest Loser,” NBC has scheduled a series of themed “Loser” specials to air in January and February to help easy the pain of waiting for the show’s third installment.

Each of the specials will condense the weight-loss journey down to two hours, pitting family against family or engaged couple against engaged couple. Each special will begin with the contestants going to the “Biggest Loser” ranch and training with Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels and the first episode will end with a weigh-in and prize. The second hour will follow the teams back to the real world to show which group has lost the greatest percentage of weight and will win a $50,000 prize.

Caroline Rhea will host the specials.

“The Biggest Loser: Special Edition” will have a two-hour premiere on Jan. 4 beginning at 8 p.m. EST. In the episode, the Muha family from Tampa and the Samuel family from Atlanta will have what NBC coyly describes as a “dessert battle in the desert.”

The following week, engaged couples Steve and Sarah from Allentown, Pennsylvania and Edwin and Rasha from Portland, Oregon will fight to lose weight before their wedding day. On Jan. 18, the winners of the $50,000 wedding will be revealed.

One-hour episodes on Feb. 1 and Feb. 8, the Sapienza family from the Bronx and the Senti family from Peoria, Illinois will go head-to-head.

The second season of “The Biggest Loser” looked like a minor disappointment for NBC, but the series added viewers every week leading up to its Nov. 29 finale. It’s unclear when the third season will air.

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‘Idol’ finalists battle on album charts

“American Idol” runner-up Bo Bice soared onto the Billboard albums chart with a robust No. 4 debut, but once again the rocker was unable to top Carrie Underwood.

In its first week, Bice’s “The Real Thing” sold roughly 227,000 copies, but that was well behind the 271,000 units moved for Underwood’s “Some Hearts,” which rose to No. 2 from No. 5 last week. The Billboard list also featured evidence of “Idol” staying power, as first season champ Kelly Clarkson’s “Breakway” juggernaut broke back into the Top 10 with sales of 181,000 united, good for No. 8.

None of the “American Idol” veterans were able to beat Eminem, though. The rapper’s “Curtain Call” sold 324,000 albums to take the top spot.

One of these days, perhaps Bice will actually finish ahead of Underwood at something. Back in May, of course, Underwood was crowned the fourth “American Idol” winner at Bice’s expense. Then in June, the two singers released dueling versions of the single “Inside Your Heaven,” with Underwood coming out on top in both first week sales and overall units moved.

Even without a sales win, the robust start should make the ailing Bice smile. Earlier this week, he was checked into the hospital with complications from a previous intestinal surgery.

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Ricci accentuates ‘Anatomy’

In an effort to pull down massive ratings for its very special Super Bowl episode, ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” is pulling out the big guns. In this case, that means very special guest star Christina Ricci.

According to media reports, the “Casper” star will visit the Feb. 5 episode of the ABC hit drama playing a character who enters Seattle Grace Hospital “not as a patient but in a life-and-death situation.” It’s unclear what that will mean.

Specifics for that “Grey’s” episode, sure to get a big audience boost from Super Bowl XL, which airs immediately beforehand, are generally being kept secret.

Although she’s best know for big screen efforts like “The Addams Family,” “Monster,” “Cursed” and “The Opposite of Sex,” Ricci isn’t one of those actors who turn their noses up at television work. She was a recurring guest star on “Ally McBeal” back in 2002 and she also visited “Joey” back in February.

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‘Nip/tuck’ finale carves out ratings records

The season finale of “Nip/Tuck,” which saw the Carver finally take off his mask, brought in record numbers of viewers for FX.

An average of 5.7 million viewers watched the two-hour finale, in which it was revealed that Dr. Quentin Costa (Bruno Campos) did most of the Carver’s work, with an assist from his sister, Kit (Rhona Mitra). That makes it the most-watched episode of an original series in FX’s history, passing the 5.2 million people who tuned into last season’s finale.

About 3.9 million of those viewers were adults 18-49, making the finale the No. 1 episode among the key advertising demographic of any cable series in 2005. It’s also the largest demographic number for any single telecast in the network’s history.

“FX took a huge risk moving “Nip/Tuck,’ our most popular series, against the full barrage of fall network competition,” says John Landgraf, president of FX. “Once again, (the cast and crew) were more than up to the task – we couldn’t be more proud of “Nip/Tuck’s’ extraordinary originality and success. We’re also grateful to the fans of this show, whose passion is arguably unmatched relative to any other show on basic cable.”

For the season, “Nip/Tuck” averaged 3.9 million viewers per week, tying for third among basic-cable original series with USA’s “The 4400.” TNT’s “The Closer” (5.4 million viewers) and USA’s “Monk” (5.1 million) finished ahead of it.

The show leads the adults 18-49 rankings, however, drawing an average of 2.7 million of those viewers per week. MTV’s “The Real World” was second with 2.1 million.

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‘Deal’ shows appeal for NBC

NBC is getting a nice little holiday gift this week in the form of the new game show “Deal or No Deal.”

Through the first two nights of the week-long programming stunt, the Howie Mandel-hosted “Deal” has brought in pretty strong ratings, delivering some of the network’s biggest audiences in the 8 p.m. time period this season. A sizable number of those viewers also fall into the adults 18-49 demographic, NBC’s bread and butter.

Monday’s premiere brought in 11.6 million viewers, the best showing in the 8 p.m. spot in just over a year, and scored a 3.9 rating among adults 18-49. Tuesday’s episode increased on both counts, drawing 12.6 million people and a 4.6 18-49 rating.

NBC notes that both shows compare favorably to the early days of ABC’s “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” which averaged a little better than 10 million viewers in its first two airings in August 1999. That show, of course, developed into a runaway hit before ABC’s over-reliance on it – it aired four nights a week at its peak – helped send the network into a tailspin from which it took several years to recover.

“Deal or No Deal,” a hit in more than 30 other countries before arriving on these shores, requires none of the intellectual gymnastics of “Millionaire.” It’s purely a game of chance, in which a player chooses a briefcase containing an amount of money ranging from a penny to $1 million, the eliminates the other cases one by one.

Periodically, an unseen “banker” offers money to the player to buy back his or her case. The player can either take the offer or hold out for a higher one after eliminating more cases.