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Resurrection, starring Omar Epps, had the right concept at the right time, as the show about dead people returning to life in the small town of Arcadia debuted to a network Sunday best with a 3.6 rating among adults 18-49 and 13.3 million total viewers. Adding DVR, the drama from exec producers Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas is averaging an impressive 4.0 in the demo -- up 48 percent from its same-day delivery. Based on the book by Jason Mott, the series set up a second season during its May 4 season finale, with a major reveal and cliffhanger that changes the game for its second run. The series is one of only two freshman dramas to earn a second season at the network.

Meanwhile, writing duo Butters and Fazekas will likely have two series on the air in 2014-15, with the pair serving as showrunners on Marvel's Captain America spinoff Agent Carter, which, like Resurrection, is expected to have a short order.

Scandal, the fast-paced Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn starrer from Shonda Rhimes, achieved mega-hit status in its third season, regularly topping lead-in Grey's Anatomy and averaging a 3.0 among adults 18-49 and growing to a 4.6 when adding seven days of DVR viewing. Among total viewers, Scandal's 9 million weekly average grows to nearly 13 million when adding seven days of DVR for its third season, which was trimmed to 18 episodes to accommodate Emmy nominee Washington's pregnancy. Likely helping the show's breakout ratings performance was the show's early syndication deal with BET, with episodes airing shortly after they bow on ABC.

This season, the political thriller catapulted to must-see status, earning its first Peabody Award to go alongside its Emmy win for guest star Dan Bucatinsky (whose character was killed off this season). Supporting players Bellamy Young and Guillermo Diaz are also generating Emmy buzz again this season. The show, which thanks to the cast's weekly live tweets has become a must-watch-live, two-screen experience, also proved it was not immune to behind-the-scenes drama when the option on co-star Columbus Short'scontract was not picked up for season four following charges of domestic violence.

PHOTOS: Broadcast TV's Returning Shows for the 2014-15 Season

As for Grey's Anatomy, the veteran Shonda Rhimes drama will be back for its 11th season -- without original star Sandra Oh. The actress announced in August that season 10 would be her last, and the show will wrap up her story line during the May 15 season finale. The renewal comes as no surprise, as the medical drama still remains one of ABC's top franchises, with a massive global audience. While Oh has departed, original stars Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey both inked new two-year deals to remain on the ABC Studios medical drama. They'll be joined by original stars Chandra Wilson, James Pickens Jr. and Justin Chambers -- as well as Sara Ramirez -- who also signed new two-year deals to return.

Out the door this season are regulars Tessa Ferrer and Gaius Charles, whose options were not picked up for season 11. Rhimes will continue on as showrunner, with Stacy McKee and Bill Harper taking over as co-head writers in place of co-showrunners Tony Phelan and Joan Rater, who exited for a development deal at CBS Television Studios. In its 10th season, Grey's ranks as ABC's top DVR performer, adding nearly 2 million viewers among adults 18-49 to average a 4.6 in the demo and 12.5 million total viewers including seven days of delayed viewing, all with practically no lead-ins, as ABC continues to struggle on Thursdays at 8 p.m.

Fantasy drama Once Upon a Time, a prime example of the Disney-owned network's corporate synergy, softened a bit in its third season, averaging a 2.2 among adults 18-49 -- off five-tenths of a point year-over-year. With DVR, the fairy-tale drama jumps 55 percent to a 3.4 and 9.6 million total viewers on Sundays.

The ABC Studios series starring Jennifer Morrison and Ginnifer Goodwin in a dual-universe Snow White story also spawned an Alice in Wonderland-themed spinoff, though after originally being envisioned as a short-order series to air during the flagship's midseason hiatus, it was moved to the historically problematic Thursdays at 8 p.m. slot. While the offshoot won't see a second season, co-star Michael Socha will head to the mothership series as a regular for its fourth season.

The ABC Studios procedural Castle, starring Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic, is a sturdy performer for the network on Monday nights opposite increased competition this season from NBC's breakout drama The Blacklist and CBS' non-starters Hostages andIntelligence. The drama, which will return for a seventh season, is averaging nearly 2 million viewers among adults 18-49 and 10 million total viewers, rising to 3.2 million and 14.4 million with DVR, respectively, good enough for fourth among ABC's dramas in the demo.

Source:

www.hollywoodreporter.com

If you haven’t heard of Lupita Nyong’o, then where have you been? She’s the totally beautiful, totally stylish Mexican-born Kenyan whose stellar performance as Patsey in “12 Years A Slave” has skyrocketed her into Hollywood fame. And this Sunday, the world awaits her divine ascendance onto the red carpet at the Oscars. What will she wear? Will she beat Jennifer Lawrence and win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress? WHAT. WILL. SHE. WEAR?!

Notice anything strange about my treatment of Nyong’o? I treated her like an image. No worries about who she really is. Instead let’s focus on her beauty and her clothes. Since Lupita first burst onto the scene, the media has been obsessively consuming her in a way that I find problematic. Media outlets have fixated on her beauty in a way that Dr. Yaba Blay, a professor at Drexel University, says makes her the “exception and not the rule.” The best way to understand this point is by understanding the media’s past treatment of black female actresses.

Halle Berry. Gabrielle Union. Kerry Washington. What do these three black women have in common? The fact that they can never coexist. The media has a tendency of elevating one black actress over any others. There seems to be room for only one black Hollywood “it girl” at a time. Now that we’re hearing more about Lupita Nyong’o, Kerry Washington’s stardom has died down and we hear about her less.

Coming back to the “exception and not the rule” idea, the media has constantly shown one dimension of black female beauty, à la Beyoncé and Halle Berry. But what if you’re a black woman and don’t look like that? Further, what if you’re a dark-skinned black woman? Where can you look in the media to see someone who looks vaguely similar to you? For a long time, nowhere. In an age where the skin-bleaching epidemic is overtaking Africa and here in the United States where colorism and the light skin vs. dark skin debates are ever so present, dark skin is seen as pathological, morally incorrect. Many dark skinned black girls suffer from intensely low self-esteem because it seems like everywhere they turn, hip-hop music videos, fashion magazines, television, and even their families, there is an underlying and everlasting principle: light is right and black is bad. However with the release of the film, “12 Years A Slave,” something wicked this way comes.

Enter Lupita Nyong’o.

Dark skin. Short natural hair. Out of this world beauty. Every time I see a photo or read an interview about Nyong’o, I can’t help but notice the air that surrounds her. In one way or another, she is always exoticized. Not only is her African-ness emphasized but so is the fact that she was born in Mexico. Not only is her education at Yale School of Drama emphasized but so is the fact that “12 Years A Slave” was her first acting job before she even graduated. The media is so interested in deconstructing her into every article of clothing she wears. In interviews her beauty or fashion sense is usually commented on first, or interviewers ask to go shopping with her. Being beautiful is not a bad thing, but when it becomes everyone’s primary fixation and it starts to subsume an entire career and achievements, well then it’s a beast of its own.

Further — Lupita being a dark-skinned black woman whose beauty has been universally acclaimed — her beauty is set up as the exception for black women instead of the rule. For her to be beautiful and black is unheard of, against the norm, something that we don’t see often, so it must be an exception. This idea totally disregards the millions of beautiful black women who are beautiful simply because they are. Also, being a dark-skinned woman myself, I look somewhat similar to Lupita but I am not her. I dislike the media’s idea that somehow, some way, through Lupita’s beauty, I can be redeemed and seen as beautiful too, and that all dark-skinned women will be saved and redeemed by its exceptionally beautiful sisters.

This is not the truth, and it will never be the truth. While we sit back and relax this Sunday watching the Oscars, I hope that we can all question the way the media is causing us to consume Lupita, and that we can genuinely like her not solely because she’s beautiful but because of her talents and who she is, all the while seeing the beauty in ourselves.

Kemi Layeni is a first-year in the College.

News Source: www.cavalierdaily.com