This Week In TV: Big Bang Theory, Damien, Ronda Rousey

Welcome back to This Week in TV, now coming at you in fully converted 2016-O-Vision. Let’s get a few things out of the way first: yes, we had a good new year and no, there’s no new year’s resolutions going on here. Anyway, television doesn’t rest, and it didn’t take long after the New Year for a ton of new stories to drop. The Big Bang Theory has unfathomably managed a ratings record, while a potential rival to Netflix just died a quiet death while no one was watching.

Speaking of new year’s resolutions: if you’re thinking about getting a gym membership, watch this first.

TV News

The Big Bang Theory Ratings

It’s slightly inexplicable to us that people still watch The Big Bang Theory at all after eight and a half seasons of cheap jokes. That the show just hit a new ratings milestone over Christmas baffles our brains, but we can’t deny the truth. Big Bang‘s midseason finale hit a new record in Live+7 ratings according to Cinemablend. That means no TV episode has ever been watched so much on DVR the seven days following its first broadcast. Ever. In history.

What pulled in this intergalactic level of viewers? After nearly nine years what did The Big Bang Theory have left to offer us that we hadn’t seen them do a half dozen times before? That’s right, it was sexy times for Sheldon. The science genius with the social graces of Christian Bale and the libido of a celibate monk finally had sex, off-screen, with long time love interest Amy.

It’s a question that’s been lingering over Sheldon’s head almost since before Amy Farrah Fowler showed up at the end of season three. Answering it seems to have done wonders for the show, and The Opening Night Excitation has been watched more than any other scripted episode of the television season. Basically, the show isn’t going to end until one of the cast members has their own Charlie Sheen moment.

 

Damien is coming

One of 2016’s most intriguing new series just got a premier date: Damien will being airing on March 7 on A&E. No news yet on a UK broadcaster. The show is a sequel to 70s horror classic The Omen, where a small boy turns out to be the Anti-Christ. Well, now the Anti-Christ has grown up and forgotten about all the devils-evil-bidding stuff he was supposed to be getting on with all these years.

Bradley James of Merlin and iZombie fame plays the adult son of Lucifer here, and we’re hoping it doesn’t take long for him to go full on evil. Showrunner Glen Mazzara said this week he was keen to explore how a “horrifying future crime” might affect the person who’d been picked to do it. Let’s hope they don’t take too long about it.

Anyway, here’s a newish trailer for the series, though a lot of the footage is recycled from previous teasers. Watch out for Barbara Hershey (The Portrait of a Lady) as the woman who helps Damien unlock his powers, and hopefully moulds him into the bringer of the end times. That’s why most of us will be watching, right?

 

Netflix rival shuts up shop

For the last few years everyone has wanted a piece of the Netflix pie, but for one challenger that hunt for pie has finally turned sour. Terrible mixed metaphors aside, web giant Yahoo have finally called time on their video streaming service Yahoo Screen. You’re time was cut short Yahoo Screen, if only you’d had a better business plan.

At this point we’re less than a year removed from Yahoo Screen’s big crowning moment: bringing Community Season six to the desperate masses of the internet. The show, which aired five seasons on NBC before being dropped by the network, was the kind of show that the internet  as a collective entity squeed over. Unfortunately, despite the show’s creator claiming solid viewing figures, something went horribly wrong.

Yahoo Screen’s combined original content ended up losing $42 million for everyone’s second favourite search engine. How did it go so wrong? Yahoo “couldn’t effectively monetize” their shows. Who came up with their business plan? It’s almost as if they thought simply dumping content online was the Rosetta Stone of making money from the internet. They should have spoken to anyone who’s ever worked in print media first.

 

Ronda Rousey hosts SNL

Until her last fight Ronda Rousey was the hottest thing in MMA, on the verge of being a cross over star. Despite losing her last go round in the octagon Rousey still has the ingredients for mainstream success, which will be put to the test when she hosts Saturday Night Live on January 23. She’s tested her acting chops in last year’s Furious 7 and hey, she can’t do a worse job than American Football star Deion Sanders did in 1995. The guy performed his own rap songs on the show. We’re confident Rousey can do better than this at the very least.

 

The Expanse Season Two

Time to talk science fiction. SyFy’s new grubby space series, The Expanse, began airing in December and it looks like its picked up a sizeable audience of nerds. After only four episodes the show has been renewed for a second season. Set in a future where human colonists on Mars battle Earth in a sinister cold war, The Expanse tops off a good 2015 for SyFy, who launched a bunch of new shows to solid ratings.

 

X-Men TV shows

At the back end of last year we got the news that X-Men characters would be making their way to the small screen in a couple of different shows. Along with the new year comes the first casting announcement for the projects. Rachel Keller, the breakout star of Fargo season two, is about to nab some mutant powers in Legion. No news on her character yet, but it’s early days.

 

Sherlock

While the recent Sherlock special disappointed a lot of fans it probably won’t disappoint the BBC, since the theatrical release just topped the Chinese box office. Taking $5.39 million on its opening day, it probably doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out this is a win for the BBC and PBS (the company that broadcasts the show in America). The special also had a solid performance at the Korean box office, raking in around $5 million, according to Deadline.

 

Netflix snag Guillermo del Toro

Somehow, Netflix always know how to scratch our nerd itch. This week they announced their latest project, and it’s a partnership with Hellboy and Pacific Rim creator Guillermo del Toro. The project that brings the two together sounds suitably like a del Toro story: Trollhunters will follow two friends and their incredible journey when they find something messed up under their town. Our guess is trolls. Not sure why, it’s just a hunch.

 

Jekyll & Hyde cancelled

We doubt there will be many people weeping at the cancellation of ITV’s Jekyll & Hyde. Cultured Vultures wasn’t that impressed with the first episode and didn’t stick around for the rest of them. Perhaps too hammy for adults and certainly too scary for children, the show ended up pleasing nobody, losing nearly half its starting audience by the time its last episode aired in late December.

Viral Videos

Cultured Vultures wisely avoided new year’s resolutions, but if you’re struggling to keep yours, here’s some advice from John Oliver.

If you thought Ryan Reynolds had ran out of creative ways to promote his Deadpool movie, you’d be wrong:

Finally, Jimmy Kimmel had an exclusive on a new cut of Star Wars: The Force Awakens made especially for men’s rights groups. We think we’ll stick with the original.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4hMq6rFpk0