A Big Night for Jesus and 'The Walking Dead'

Today in showbiz news: Basic cable ratings were huge last night, FX has got a big miniseries in the works, and a look at Teen Wolf season three.

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Last night saw the conclusion of both the third season of AMC's The Walking Dead and History's The Bible. An Easter Sunday full of things coming back to life! Because everyone was in the Easter spirit, both programs did very well in the ratings. The Walking Dead broke its own ratings records with a whopping 12.1 million viewers over all and 8.1 million in the 18-49ers. That's a very, very strong showing. Meanwhile The Bible averaged a solid 11.7 million viewers over its two-hour broadcast. This was the big finale, though, of course, lots of people are still hoping for a sequel. Man, when is that dang book gonna come out? Anyway, both of these big numbers represent something important for cable TV: Uh, it's doing really well. Obvious, but important! These are big broadcast network numbers that these shows are posting — about as many people watched The Walking Dead last night as watched American Idol last week. That's pretty significant. Basically the distinction between the two is narrowing. And soon it will be gone! Or they will be gone. The broadcast networks, that is. Hey, it could happen. (Not while twenty million people a week are watching Big Bang Theory, but someday.) [The Hollywood Reporter; The Hollywood Reporter]

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Speaking of basic cable networks doing big things, FX is developing a miniseries about the Vietnam War to be produced by Traffic writer and Syriana writer/director Stephen Gaghan. So this is basically their Band of Brothers/The Pacific. The project is called They Marched into Sunlight and is based on the book by David Maraniss. An Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker and playwright is writing the script. The plot is described as this: "It centers on two simultaneous events in October 1967 — the violent ambush of the Black Lion army battalion in the jungles of Vietnam, and a student protest against Dow Chemical, the makers of napalm, on the Madison campus of the University of Wisconsin — both of which marked a dramatic turning point for the war and the beginning of an American conversation that is ongoing today." That sounds very interesting! And very high-class for FX. But hey, that's their new strategy. Lots of upcoming cable stuff to be excited about, guys. Lots to look forward to. Meanwhile, NBC debuts Hannibal this Thursday. [Deadline]

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Venturing a little further down the cable ladder, but not that much further, here are some new promo photos and some little plot tidbits about the next season of Teen Wolf. The supersized third season! Are you excited? Did you see Scott's mom in a little throwaway role on a few episodes of The Walking Dead? Might she'll be a bigger character next year? Who knows. Anyway, she's not in this slideshow. The main kids are, plus the new twins that are being brought in to replace Colton Haynes. I guess they needed two hunks to replace one Colton Haynes. And apparently one of them is playing a gay love interest for gay Danny! Which is interesting. It's all very interesting. Teen Wolf, guys. Get into it. Or don't, whatever. It's a free country. [Entertainment Weekly]

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Selena Gomez has been cast in another big grownup movie! And this one isn't about grownups being terrible to Selena Gomez. At least I don't think it is. She's joined the large ensemble cast of Rudderless, a movie about a grieving father starting a band so he can play his dead son's music. The movie marks William H. Macy's directorial debut and also features Felicity Huffman (natch), Laurence Fishburne, Anton Yelchin (my guess is he plays the dead son in flashbacks?), and Billy Crudup. That's quite a cast! But of course I'm sure that at this point William H. Macy probably knows every person in show business. He's been around a lot and people seem to like him. It's a fancy cast, and Selena Gomez is part of it. So, good for Gomez! Good for Gomez indeed. Maybe she plays the dead son's old girlfriend? And she comes to the garage or wherever the dad's band plays and she says they sound good? That's just a guess, but it seems plausible, right? Whatever the role is, it probably won't involve being leered at by some actor with a fake grill. We can probably assume that. [The Hollywood Reporter]

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Hm. Orlando Bloom has been set to star as fair Romeo in an upcoming Broadway production of Romeo & Juliet, alongside Condola Rashad. People are mostly touting this as "the interracial Romeo & Juliet," which is significant, I guess. I mean, Juliet's family will be all black, Romeo's will be all white. Which... if you don't get it, that's why the families hate each other I guess? Because of race? Kind of like how Baz Luhrmann made the Capulets vaguely Latino in Romeo + Juliet. I don't know. It seems like a pretty obvious gimmick, doesn't it? Like it's probably been done before. So it doesn't feel all that newsy, honestly. What does feel newsy is: Wait, Orlando Bloom is going to play Romeo?? Hahaha. Did the director, David Leveaux, not see... any of his movies? Not Elizabethtown? Not The Three Musketeers? *Really* not Elizabethtown?? Gotta do your homework, guys. Really gotta look into people before you go offering them big fancy play roles. Otherwise stuff like this happens. [Playbill]

Here's the first promo for CBS's summertime miniseries Under the Dome, the adaptation of Stephen King's novel Under the Dome, about people living... under a dome. It stars, among others, Mike Vogel (who's in everything these days, isn't he?), Rachelle Lefevre, Dean Norris, and Avalon High star Britt Robertson. Oh there's also some named Steve Baldwin! It's not Stephen Baldwin, though. It's a different Baldwin. Maybe he's a cousin or something. Or that's just his name. Whatever the case, that's the most exciting part of this whole thing. Steve Baldwin. What's he like I wonder??