Cable | featured news

On Monday, the Nickelodeon cable channel premieres its new nighttime soap, "Hollywood Heights," a remake of an overly dramatic Mexican telenovela about a songwriter who falls in love with a rock star. Soap veteran James Franco, star of the film "127 Hours," has a featured role.

Having cameras trailing their every move wasn’t a major adjustment for the stars of the new reality show “Push Girls.” They were already accustomed to what they refer to as “PS” — people staring.

The premiere of "Dallas" — TNT's reboot of the classic series — averaged 6.8 million viewers on Wednesday, making it the No. 1 scripted series premiere on all of cable so far this year.

When actors in key roles on a long-running TV series with dwindling ratings (say, Justin Kirk on Showtime’s aged “Weeds”) get cast in starring roles in new TV series (say, NBC’s new comedy “Animal Practice”), it’s usually a good indication that the long-running series is about to, you know, end its long run.

Friendly in every sense of the word, HBO’s documentary “41” bills itself as an intimate look back at the life of George Herbert Walker Bush, who, in case you’ve spaced it, was U.S. president from 1989 to 1993. The film was produced by former United Artists CEO Jerry Weintraub (a Bush family friend) and directed by Jeffrey Roth with Bush’s full cooperation.

Charlie Sheen, he of the career rage, spousal assault charges and hotel-room rampage, stars in a new FX television series, “Anger Management,” that begins on June 28.

In a move that has upset the broadcast industry, the Federal Communications Commission said it will let lapse a rule that required cable operators to carry local television signals in analog.

The Miami Heat's win over the Boston Celtics to reach the NBA finals has drawn the highest preliminary television rating for an NBA playoff game on cable since records started being kept in 2003.

They’ve learned nothing. It’s the 21st century, filmed in rich “Friday Night Lights” hues of dappled sunbeams, and Bobby Ewing still leads with his heart, gullible as ever. Sue Ellen Ewing, the ex-wife triumphant, never stopped looking for the ladder’s next rung, campaigning now to become Texas’ next governor. That snake J.R.

Sunday’s second-season finale of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” clocked 4.2 million viewers at 9 p.m.  – 1.2 million ahead of the first-season finale crowd of 3 mil. At 4.2 million, the “GoT” episode’s 9 p.m. telecast was on par in the hour with ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition” (4.3 million), CBS’s “The Good Wife” rerun (4.6 million), and ahead of Fox’s repeats of “Family Guy” and “American Dad” (3.6 million), while running behind NBC’s “Miss USA Pageant (5.8 million).