USA's Magic Formula For Making Hits [Network scores in ratings without trendy sex or violence]

Wall Street Journal ^ | 7/30/10 | ORDAN C. HIRSCH

[afraidfortherepublic]

Episode 2 of the 2nd season of White Collar will be showing Sunday morning at 8 AM Central time. Adjust for your time zone accordingly. Covert Affairs re-uns sometime this weekend too. Check your guide.

As much as I like White Collar, I have managed to fall asleep in the middle 3 times. THat episode aired at 8 pm Tues night and again at 11. THen it ran again 10 PM Tursday night. Do you think that I could stay awake for any of them. And it’s an exciting and complicated plot.

[eddie willers]

It was Fiona, but Weston was able to ride to the rescue after double tapping Strickler when he admitted setting her up.

"Fiona is not my past!"

[Non-Sequitur]

I love that show.

[OldDeckHand]

"The exception is Covert Affairs, which shoots in Toronto because—who’d have guessed?—boom town Washington DC is prohibitively expensive."

I haven't seen that yet. I noticed that there are a lot of shows that shoot either in Toronto (which is usually shot for NYC or DC as was the case in that Kiefer Sutherland movie a few years ago), or they're shot in Vancouver. Almost all of SyFy's stuff in shot in Vancouver, which in my opinion - always looks like Vancouver, no matter what story says it is.

I think the other real difficulty, in addition to expense, with shooting in DC, is the permitting limitations, especially after 9/11. It's difficult to shoot certain places, if it's possible at all, inside the District. It's too bad, the city actually could lend a lot of character to any program.

[Cyropaedia]

The X-Files was never the same after they moved from Vancouver to Los Angeles.

They did that so that serial cheater David Duchovny could be closer to his wife.

[OldDeckHand]

"Fiona is a great reason to watch that show."

I have never seen that show. I might have to start watching if that's a frequent part of the storyline.

[WVKayaker]

I PREFER BLONDES...

Annie Walker, CIA spy! (Piper Perabo)

Great escapist plots, with great legs!!!

[DemforBush]

Burn Notice rules. Especially because The Bruce is a part of it.

Hail to the king, baby!

[skr]

Psych is the least likely to use “Jesus”, so it’s no wonder if you haven’t noticed it. It’s the quirkiest of USA’s lineup; the cast is simply fun to watch.

TNT’s Leverage and The Closer are favorites of mine, along with USA’s lineup (minus RAW).

[rhema]

I’d been meaning to watch Leverage someday. My wife and I enjoyed Timothy Hutton (not to mention Maury Chaykin and the whole cast) in A & E’s excellent Nero Wolfe series.

[Mr. Silverback]

Bump!

[phillyfanatic]

Good points here: Burn, Covert, White Collar are mind benders sometimes, not just emoting hit the thug. And the acting is very good for thrillers.