Entries from December 2008 ↓

After the jump! Spoiler level: Pretty safe. There’s one that’s borderline spoilery, so the thumbnail’s been blacked out.

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Generally I don’t bother spoiler-tagging the network’s description of an episode, but this is one of those episodes where the premise is surprising enough to warrant it. [Think Shelter Island - there was no way to say "Ted and Stella's wedding" without it feeling like a major spoiler.] Anyway: Press release after the jump!

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Well, you skip one week and all of a sudden you realize you haven’t done a news roundup in a month. Here goes:

• The previously-announced Lifetime syndication run starts on January 5, according to these five ads.
• Neil Patrick Harris is hosting Saturday Night Live on January 10.
• The cast is on the cover of TV Guide this week and got a six-page photo spread in this week’s Entertainment Weekly (scans later today).
• Minor spoilers: Us Weekly has photos of Jason with some of the guest stars from Benefits.
• The show: Cracked the top 20 in viewers last week, was the ninth most-pirated show last week, and, this season, has seen the second-largest gain in viewers 18-49 on network TV.
• Jason Segel: The trailer for I Love You, Man premiered (and the movie’s world premiere will kick off the SXSW Film Festival in March), he maybe hooked up with Drew Barrymore, and he got a fansite.
• Cobie Smulders: The Slammin’ Salmon will premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival, and hopefully someday we’ll get to see it in theaters. In the meantime, everything we have on it is right here.
• Alyson Hannigan: Adorably went shopping with Tom Lenk, nominated for Wired’s Sexiest Geeks of 2008.
• Neil Patrick Harris: Prop 8: The Musical, Please Don’t Bomb Nobody This Holiday, reacted to his Golden Globes nomination, and presented at the VGAs (and did some interviews). As always, NeilPatrickHarris-Fan is way better than I am at keeping up with this guy.

Viewers: 11.37 million. This is up nearly a million from last week, and it’s the largest audience the show has reached since February 2006, when Season One was airing. [It's about a million short of beating out The Pineapple Incident, the show's most-watched episode so far.]

Adults 18-49: 4.6/11 - this is a series high. [Ten Sessions was previously the show's best 18-49 performance.]

Adults 18-34: 4.2/11 - this is a series high.

Adults 25-54: 5.1/12 - season high, best since Ten Sessions.

Households: 6.7/10 - season high, best since Monday Night Football.

Compared to other networks: HIMYM was first in its timeslot in viewers, households, 18-49, 18-34, and 25-54. It had the best 18-34 numbers of anything on Monday night. [ABC, after beating HIMYM in viewers every week this season, aired I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown, which is apparently horrible.]

Compared to other CBS comedies: First in 18-34, second in 18-49 and 25-54 (behind Two and a Half Men), tied withThe Big Bang Theory for third in households, and third in viewers (ahead of TBBT).

CBS spins it:

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER posted series highs in both adults 18-49 and adults 18-34, best households performance since Feb. 5, 2007, best viewers delivery since Jan. 9, 2006 and best adults 25-54 performance since March 24, 2008. 

Sources: PIFeedback, Zap2It, CBS, TV By the Numbers.

Barney’s Blog: Dear Santa.

HIMYM Style identified some of the clothes from the episode here.

Recaps and reviews:

• Cinema Blend
• Alan Sepinwall
• Zap2It

Clips from the episode - try this if you’re outside the United States:

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Spoilers for Monday’s episode, obviously, but for NPH lovers, it’s worth it.

Congratulations to Neil Patrick Harris - he’s been nominated for a Golden Globe for - take a breath - “Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.”

The competition: Piven for Entourage, Blair Underwood for In Treatment, Denis Leary for Recount, and Tom Wilkinson for John Adams.

The Globes will air on Sunday, January 11.

CBS has announced three reruns to follow Little Minnesota on Monday: Slapsgiving will air on December 22, How I Met Everyone Else will air on December 29, and according to a press release, Spoiler Alert will air on Monday, January 1, throwing the whole thing into confusion since January 1 is a Thursday. Presumably they mean January 5, but a Thursday rerun isn’t out of the question either.

As for the spoilers - thanks to KR for pointing this out! - the casting call for for 414 (Special Skills) includes the following summary, which explains a lot: Continue reading →

Spoilers after the jump. Continue reading →