Seinfeld curse cracked?

[Jenna xox]

"Seinfeld" Curse Cracked?

by Marcus Errico
Nov 12, 2004, 4:55 PM PT



As curses go, it's been a rough few weeks.

First, the Red Sox buried the Curse of the Bambino. Now, Jason Alexander has apparently thwarted the Curse of Seinfeld.

The erstwhile George Costanza's latest small-screen foray, the sitcom Listen Up, has been picked up for the full season, CBS announced Friday. That makes Alexander the first Seinfeld alum to warrant a complete 22-episode season.

Listen Up finds Alexander cast as sports columnist/ESPN personality Tony Kornheiser's easily excitable alter ego. Sister Act's Wendy Makkena is his suffering spouse and The Cosby Show's Malcolm-Jamal Warner is his onair sparring partner.

Despite being dogged by critics, Listen Up has held its own in the Monday at 8:30 time slot this season, averaging 10.2 million viewers--a smidgen below its NBC rival, Fear Factor, which is averaging 10.9 million viewers from 8-9 p.m. That's not close to the season's breakout rookies--ABC's Desperate Housewives (21.8 million) and Lost (17.5 million) and CBS' CSI: NY (16.7 million)--but it keeps the Eye competitive on Mondays, and that counts for something.

Perhaps more importantly, it's a psychological victory for Alexander. His first post-Seinfeld project, ABC's Bob Patterson, tanked. The sitcom, about a sad-sack motivational speaker, stumbled out of the gate in 2001 and was canceled after just five episodes.

Fellow Seinfeld costars Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Michael Richards previously bombed with Watching Ellie and The Michael Richards Show, respectively.

Those two shows, both airing on NBC, got off to faster starts than Listen Up--the Louis-Dreyfus sitcom bowed before 17 million in 2002; the Richards vehicle took its pratfalls before 13.2 million in 2000.

But big debuts didn't guarantee big runs. Ellie lasted 19 episodes over two seasons; Richards was gone after eight episodes and the Curse seemed unbreakable.

News of the pickup comes just days before the hugely anticipated DVD release of the first three seasons of Seinfeld.

Alexander's wasn't the only newbie series to get a vote of confidence from CBS on Friday. The network also extended the life of Center of the Universe, by two more episodes. The network also ordered six more scripts of the freshman sitcom, which stars John Goodman as head of a dysfunctional family that includes Jean Smart, Ed Asner and Olympia Dukakis. The two episode/six script order isn't exactly a solid endorsement for the show, currently averaging about 10 million viewers on Wednesdays at 9, but it beats the fate of CBS' dr. vegas, which was sent to TV purgatory (i.e., hiatus) for November sweeps.

Listen Up becomes the second new CBS show to get a full season pickup. The network last week green-lighted a full season of CSI: NY. Meanwhile, ABC has picked up Desperate Housewives and Lost; NBC has extended Joey and Medical Investigation for the year; the WB has elected a full slate of Jack & Bobby; UPN is keeping Kevin Hill and Veronica Mars around for the duration; and Fox plans to bring back Quints and North Shore, which premiered in June.

[TJL]

I wouldn't bet the farm on it.

[Jenna xox]

Originally posted by TJL
I wouldn't bet the farm on it.

LOL me either

[slackermonkey]

Me neither.

How soon before Newman comes back with his own new sitcom?

[Dutabi84]

I don't think a full season will make it any better. I'm sure something else will replace it next year.