TV News Briefs: American Gladiators, McHale’s Navy, A-Team, Highlander, Big Shots, Sex and the City, and Knight Rider!

American Gladiators – The network remake of the syndicated series has apparently been good news for NBC. Viewership grew from the first to second half hour and the premiere won its timeslot on Sunday night. It’s the best performance of a “non-sports event” in the time period since the 2005 Golden Globe Awards. Coincidentally, Gladiators is taking the place of the Globes show on Sunday night.

McHale’s Navy – Though the Golden Globes won’t have the usual big ceremony, you can still keep your fingers crossed for Ernest Borgnine. At age 90, the former Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale was nominated for his performance in Hallmark’s A Grandpa for Christmas original movie. He’ll turn 91 on January 24th and keeps on working.

The A-Team – In a recent interview with MTV, Ice Cube was asked if he’d be playing B.A. Baracus in the big-screen A-Team movie. The actor said, “I can’t say that I’m gonna be [B.A. yet] because it’s still up to FOX, the people who have the movie, but John Singleton hit me – I believe he’s gonna direct. If he directs it, I have a great chance of doing B.A. And yeah, I’d cut [my hair]. I’d get it into a Mohawk!” He went on to say, “I don’t wanna make a two-hour TV show. I wanna make a hardcore movie with these characters you remember, but I’m not trying to be Mr. T. I’m not going to wear all the gold and all that stuff. I think that’s his thing. I’m gonna bring my flavor to the role. We’re taking it to the big screen so it’s something different.”

Highlander: The Series – The latest chapter in the Highlander saga heads to DVD on February 26th. Highlander: The Source features the return of Duncan MacLeod (Adrian Paul) from the Highlander: The Series and was first aired on Sci Fi on September 15, 2007. The DVD will include a behind-the-scenes documentary, storyboard-to-scene comparisons, a photo gallery, and a tribute to Bill Panzer, the creator and producer of the Highlander series.

Sex and the City – Clifford Streit, former manager of author Candace Bushnell, is shopping a gossipy tell-all book about the early days of the popular HBO series. In a proposal that’s making the rounds to publishers, there’s hints of plenty of behind-the-scenes scoop – a real-life affair between two of the show’s on-screen lovers, tensions caused by Kim Cattrall’s on-screen charisma, the decision to pass on casting Ashton Kutcher, and the author’s throwing up on Chris Noth’s shoes.

Big Shots – The ABC drama returns to primetime tonight after a six week absence. Look for Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Charisma Carpenter in a guest role. After tonight’s, the network will reportedly still have four episodes left on the shelf. Though it looks like this show is a longshot for being renewed, hopefully the network will air the rest of this season.

Knight Rider – NBC has released a short preview of the upcoming movie. The network hopes the movie will do well enough to spawn a new series for Fall 2008. Based on what you see below, what do you think? Stay tuned!

More about: American Gladiators (2008), Big Shots, Highlander: The Series, Knight Rider, Knight Rider (2008), McHale's Navy, Sex and the City, The A-Team

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