Modern Family

CHICAGO – In advance of next week’s official Fall schedule announcement, ABC gave a vote of confidence to seven of their biggest shows, revealing that they will be a part of the 2012-2013 schedule. The lucky seven include three freshman series — “Once Upon a Time,” “Revenge,” and “Suburgatory” — along with “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Castle,” “Modern Family,” and “The Middle.”

CHICAGO – Kevin Hart is easily one of the most popular stand-up comedians on the planet and he’s had a consistent film career for years now. But it feels like he’s right on the verge of a breakthrough as his career-best work premieres this weekend in “Think Like a Man” and he co-stars in next week’s “The Five-Year Engagement.”

CHICAGO – “Don’t Trust the B—— in Apartment 23” may seem at first like a cynical, modern program, but it’s really a throwback to sitcoms of the ’70s and ’80s when you think about it’s structure.

CHICAGO – The Writers Guild of America announced their selections of the top writing for film, television, news, radio, video games, and new media last night, and the top prizes went to some familiar faces from this award season.

CHICAGO – The 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards premiered tonight, celebrating the best acting performances of the year. The awards are voted on by the members of the Screen Actors Guild, (apparently) making the awards more meaningful to the winners as they were chosen by their peers.

CHICAGO – Here’s the best news for TV fans — there’s reason again to be excited about our favorite distraction. After a few years of lackluster freshman classes, the just-ended year was simply an amazing one — eight out of my top twenty shows of 2011, a whopping forty percent, are new offerings.

CHICAGO – Brian Tallerico appears on Bill Moller’s program on three Saturdays in December 2011 to take listener calls on the best television programs of the year, including “Boss,” “American Horror Story,” “Falling Skies, “Sons of Anarchy,” “Parenthood,” “Justified,” “Southland,” “Prime Suspect,” “The Middle,” “New Girl,” “Community,” and much more!

CHICAGO – FOX’s new reality singing competition, “The X Factor,” dropped in its ratings from last week’s premiere to this week’s new auditions. While the drop is no surprise (almost every show drops in ratings from the premiere to the weeks that follow) “The X Factor” was already slightly disappointing in its viewership from week one.

CHICAGO – Two of the recent nominees for the 2011 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series were recently-released in stellar season-set packages from Twentieth Century Fox. The company not only wisely chose to release these programs in HD but have included fan-centric special features for both “Glee: The Complete Second Season” and “Modern Family: The Complete Second Season.” If you even like either show, you should pick ‘em up. If you love these comedies, you probably already have.

CHICAGO – The highly-anticipated series premiere of “The X Factor” on FOX was watched by enough people to not be considered a failure but its numbers were well below insider expectations, falling FAR short of “American Idol” numbers and not even topping the night as the most-watched program. It was a solid opening by most standards when it comes to assessing new programs but far from an instant hit, and if it slides (as most new shows do) it could be one of the year’s surprise losers.