Maybe it's just a coincidence: As President Bush's approval ratings are tanking, Chris Matthews' ratings are surging. Compared to a year ago, the February audiences for his MSNBC show, Hardball, doubled at 5 pm/ET, and the repeat at 7 was up significantly as well. If that's too early for you, Hardball is getting a special repeat airing at 11 pm the week of March 6. Soon the show will be hitting the road to cover the major 2006 races in the Senate and the House of Representatives. The president's misfortunes mean there's a strong chance the House could end up back in the control of the Democrats, making it a compelling year for political junkies. But when it comes to politics, every year is compelling to Matthews, who recently spoke with the Biz.
TVGuide.com: It's been said that President Bush likes the sport of politics — that's what gets his blood pumping. Do you think he cares about low approval ratings or what people think about him now that
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Jean Smart wants to make a cheesy little movie called "All the Scenes I'd Really Like to See on 24."
"Wouldn't it be fun to find President Logan floating in the moat around the western White House?" jokes Smart, who plays Martha Logan, the show's unhinged first lady whose motto ought to be: Just Say Yes... to Prescription Medication. "Or — here's one! — we see Logan coming out of Martha's closet in a little Chanel dress with high heels!"
Smart and her presidential costar, Gregory Itzin, need to "fill in the blanks with our characters," she says, because 24's producers, eager to maintain dramatic tension, "don't want us to know a thing about where our characters came from or where the hell
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The real-life tragedy of Hurricane Katrina is even having reverberations in the cartoon world of Family Guy. Fox has decided to swap the episode originally scheduled to open the series' new season tonight, which featured hurricane references, for one featuring guest voice James Woods (Nixon, Salvador). "Out of sensitivity to what happened, we're moving back [the original premiere episode] a couple weeks," a Fox rep tells Broadcasting & Cable.
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