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2007's WORST DRAMA: 'GREY'S ANATOMY' (for Taunting Viewers with Unresolved Sexual Tension, Television's Hokiest Plot Device)

It’s cheap. It’s easy. It’s insidious. It's relentless. It’s the most over-used plot device on television – UST.

UST (unresolved sexual tension), to the best of my recollection, is a term coined by X-Files' fans to describe the chemistry between Mulder and Scully.

This year, UST and its variations can be found in Desperate Housewives, Chuck, Reaper, Life, Journeyman, Grey’s Anatomy, Californication, Pushing Daisies, Tell Me You Love Me, Ugly Betty, Women’s Murder Club, Moonlight, Dexter, Big Shots, Brothers & Sisters and the list goes on (and on and on).

In the hands of talented writers, UST is fun. On rare occasions, it's a delight. Mostly, however, writers use the device to taunt viewers. Networks and/or the writers play the highly manipulative, two- steps forward one-step back game, often over the course of several seasons. UST is a cheap and easy technique for getting viewers to cling desperately week-after-week-after-week

But the networks and showrunners are playing with fire, too. When a series RUSTs-out - due to RELENTLESS unresolved sexual tension - once loyal audiences can quickly turn into furious web mobs. And their word of mouse can be scathing and potentially damaging - which is pretty much what's happening at the moment to Grey's Anatomy.

CLICK HERE FOR the rest of the end of the year review

The Best & Worst of '07: Bionic Woman Meets Riptide

Per Marshall Herskovitz's (Quarterlife, thirty-something) concerns about media consolidation and executive suite meddling in scripted series, Bionic Woman might be a case study. The series is one of the big, broadcast net meldowns of the '07 fall season.

“A butt-kicking new hit!” exclaimed TV Guide.

Bionic premiered with close to 14 million viewers but by the eighth episode the number had dwindled by more than half, to just under six million.

Because of the David Eick pedigree, Bionic was assumed to have potential because Eick (together with Ron Moore) successfully reconstituted another campy 70’s series, Battlestar Galactica.

Uneasy about Bionic's morose pilot, newly-minted NBC co-chair Ben Silverman decided to put the fun back in Bionic. (Silverman wasn't necessarily wrong in his assessment. The pilot was intense, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette critic Rob Owen pointed out that audiences rejected dark last season.)

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The Best & Worst of '07:Cheesy Gambits, Clunky Product Placement, Christmas Blood Bling Plus The Best Network Promo

Tornadoes, ferry explosions, weddings, fire, death - these are moth eaten plot devices time-honored television “events." Companion pieces to the "events" are the clamorous broadcast net promos that promise much but deliver little.

This year's dramatic series nadir was February's (sweeps, of course) Grey's Anatomy ferry crash arc aka creator Shonda Rhimes' swan dive into the shark tank. Meredith drowns, Izzie drills through the skull of a trapped victim, and, while patients croak, the staff mopes - about their hair dye jobs and weddings, etc.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE on NBC's Life, CSI NY, Second Life, Cane, Heroes and more.

I Wuz Robbed! Upset NFL Fan Calls Pittsburgh Cops on Comcast

This item is courtesy of Rob Owen’s Weekly TV Q&A.

Rob received a voice mail from an irate, older Comcast subscriber upset about the NFL Network.

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TIN MAN RATINGS: SURPASS TAKEN AS MOST WATCHED EVENT IN SCI FI HISTORY

Tin Man, SCI FI Channel's re-imagining of the Wizard of Oz, concluded its three-evening, six-hour run last night, officially surpassing Steven Spielberg's Taken as the most-watched event in the network's history.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST RATINGS NUMBERS

JERICHO NUTS, WE HAVE AN AIRDATE

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Rob Owen posted: CBS announced an air date for Jericho, the post-apocalyptic drama spared by CBS suits after the rabid fan base showered the network with nuts....

As the writers' strike drags on and broadcast nets scramble to fill their skeds, it's back to the future for NBC. Repurposed episodes of Law and Order: Criminal Intent, the procedural booted by NBC after six seasons but picked up by NBCU-owned USA Network, will air on NBC starting January 9...

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON JERICHO AND LAW AND ORDER.

TIN MAN RATINGS NUMBERS ROCK - SCI FI'S MOST WATCHED TELECAST EVER

CLICK HERE FOR THE RATINGS NEWS

TORNADOS ARE HOT; SAVING GRACE IS BACK!

Three series this weekend jump start with disaster scenarios. Tornados - the new plot device. Last night's Tin Man (SCI FI's Wizard of Oz reimagining, reviewed here) and Desperate Housewives, and tonight's Saving Grace launch on TNT, all feature tornados.

CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT NEW SAVING GRACE EPISODES

PBS Pulls Out of TCA Tour, Citing Talent Reluctance; Likelihood of Press Tour Now "very low"

After weeks of indicating they were committed to the Winter Press Tour, PBS abruptly cancelled yesterday, "citing reluctance of the talent to participate" said Dave Walker, Television Critics Association (TCA) President and critic for the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

In an glum assessment of the situation, Walker warned members by email that the "likelihood of a TV Tour occurring if the strike is still on is now very low."

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