sandwichjohnfilms

Dr. House will be on call for another season. Fox on Tuesday announced an eighth season pickup for the Hugh Laurie medical drama, confirming widespread speculation. “Over the past seven seasons, House has redefined the medical drama and has given us one of television’s most compelling and iconic characters,” said Fox entertainment chief Kevin Reilly. “From the producers to the incredible writers to the unbelievably talented cast and crew, the House team is fearless in its creativity and I can’t wait to see what they have in store next year.” The announcement follows protracted negotiations between the show’s studio Universal Media Studios and network Fox over the show’s license fee, which spilled out into the press. At issue: who will pay what percentage for an eighth season. Fox was looking to shave the license fee for the aging show as much as 20 percent, even as production costs rise, sources tells the Hollywood Reporter. Meantime, UMS had hoped to squeeze more seasons out

A musical episode of House powered Fox to the ratings win on Tuesday night, while two hours of The Bachelor gave ABC a close second. But the two-hour return of NBC’s The Event tumbled double-digits compared to its last original in November. House pulled in a 3.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 11.1 million viewers overall. It was flat week-to-week, but still the top-rated show of the night. The Chicago Code continued to put up middling ratings (2.1, 7.5 million) and was also flat week-to-week. The Bachelor (8-10 p.m.) was down 11% week-to-week but still gave ABC a win in the 9 p.m. hour (3.2, 10.2 million). It was a disastrous return for NBC’s The Event , which was down 26% from its previous original on November 29, averaging a 1.4 rating with 5.2 million viewers from 8-10 p.m. And while NBC points to the show’s better-than-average DVR numbers (38% in live-plus-seven), the live ratings still do not bode well for the show’s future prospects. CBS had a lineup of mostly