Good news for Tru Calling supporters: Fox has ordered seven more episodes of the struggling drama, which should bring the series to a total of twenty episodes. Despite averaging only 4.1 millions viewers per week, making it one of the networks lowest ratest shows, Fox has been pleased with its performance in its targeted demographic. Fans of the show can only hope it will be moved to a night with less competition, since currently it faces off against established shows such as "Friends" and "Survivor."

From Thefutoncritic.com :

Tuesday, November 25, 2003 - 12:39 PM FOX Extends ’Tru Calling’ to 20 Episodes By Brian Ford Sullivan

CHICAGO (thefutoncritic.com) — FOX is planning to stick by another one of its struggling series as the network announced today it has ordered seven additional episodes of its freshman drama "Tru Calling." The news, given via press release, brings the show’s season total to 20 episodes.

Through three airings this season the series has averaged just 4.1 million viewers, making it the network’s least-watched drama this season, behind even the short-lived "Skin" (5.17 million). Overall only "Wanda at Large" (4.06 million) and the canceled "Luis" (3.43 million) have performed worse this season for the network.

"Tru Calling," a co-production of 20th Century Fox Television and Original Film, was created by executive producer/writer Jon Harmon Feldman ("Dawson’s Creek," "American Dreams"). Marty Adelstein ("Still Life"), Neal Moritz ("The Fast And The Furious," "I Know What You Did Last Summer"), Dawn Parouse ("Still Life," "Fear") and R. W. (Bob) Goodwin ("The X-Files," "The Fugitive") are also executive producers.

From Scifi.com :

Fox Remains Tru

Fox Broadcasting Co. has picked up seven additional episodes of the supernatural series Tru Calling, starring Buffy the Vampire Slayer alumna Eliza Dushku, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The back order for Tru Calling brings to 20 the number of episodes the network has picked up for the 20th Century Fox TV/Original TV show, the trade paper reported. The batch of episodes, two short of the standard 22-episode order for a drama series, will run through the end of the season, which for Fox is abbreviated because of post-season baseball coverage in the fall, the trade paper reported.

In Tru Calling, Dushku plays a recent college graduate who answers pleas for help from dead people and relives the previous 24 hours. In its Thursday 8 p.m. timeslot, the show averaged 3.8 million viewers in its most recent outing, the trade paper reported. Created by Jon Harmon Feldman, Tru Calling is executive produced by Feldman, Marty Adelstein, Neal Moritz, Dawn Parouse and R.W. Goodwin.

From Journalnow.com :

Controversial Reagan miniseries will run Sunday on Showtime Friday, November 28, 2003

By Tim Clodfelter

JOURNAL REPORTER

Viewers will finally get a chance to see what all the fuss was about when The Reagans runs on Showtime at 8 p.m. Sunday as a three-hour movie.

The movie, which was meant to be a two-night miniseries on CBS, was pulled because of protests that it depicted former president Ronald Reagan in a bad light. CBS’s sister company Showtime then snapped it up, broadcasting it only a few weeks after it would have originally been shown.

"What happened was something I don’t think any one of us would anticipate happening," executive producer Craig Zadan said earlier this week in a conference call with members of the press. "Overnight, with nobody seeing the movie, it became this strong controversy.... We were sort of taken aback."

According to director Robert Allan Ackerman, "the point of view of this movie was always not as politically driven as character driven.... None of us went into this with a political agenda. We went into it because we thought it was a good story ... and it is a good story."

Many of the complaints were based on details from an early draft of the script - so early, in fact, that James Brolin, the actor who plays Ronald Reagan, said he didn’t see some of the protested lines in any version of the script he read.

Actress Judy Davis, who plays Nancy Reagan, said that when she first heard about the project, she wondered how the film would be handled. She didn’t want to be involved if she thought it was intended maliciously.

She said that the fact the original broadcast was forced off the air - and suggestions that conservative interest groups should have been allowed to go over the script before it was filmed - amounted to an attack on free speech.

"The idea of patriotism can be used as a censoring device, and it can produce the antithesis of patriotism," she said. "Love of country means care and nurture and respect for a country’s fundamental principles.... I think Ronald Reagan himself would shudder when words like ’national party committee review of an artistic expression’ begin to appear in public."

Showtime is received in about 13 million homes nationwide compared with CBS’s 100 million-plus, so it is likely that fewer viewers will see the program than would have if the controversy had not arisen. On the other hand, the controversy assures that people will be paying closer attention.

At 9 p.m. Monday, Showtime will carry a one-hour round-table discussion, Controversy: The Reagans.

It’s rare for a network executive to publicly admit a mistake. So credit goes to Sandy Grushow, the chairman of Fox’s television entertainment division, for acknowledging that the network should never have tried a second Joe Millionaire.

"Our instincts told us from the very beginning that Joe Millionaire was a one-time stunt, and I think we got greedy," he told the Associated Press on Monday. "We tried to sneak it by the American public a second time, and we got called on it."

The first Joe Millionaire drew about 23 million viewers a week when it was shown early this year, according to Nielsen Media Research. The second time, only about 6.5 million viewers were tuning in each week.

In an unusual show of faith, Fox renewed two struggling new shows for the full season - the excellent Arrested Development, a dark comedy about a dysfunctional family, and the tepid Tru Calling, a supernatural action series.

Digital cable channel Boomerang (133 on Time Warner Cable’s digital tier in Forsyth County) is celebrating Thanksgiving weekend with a marathon of Looney Tunes cartoons that show how characters evolved over the years. Today’s featured stars include Bugs Bunny, Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird. Saturday, the focus shifts to Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, Foghorn Leghorn and Pepe Le Pew. Sunday’s stars include Tasmanian Devil and Marvin the Martian.

From Canada.com :

TRU KEEPS CALLING

Fox has picked up seven additional episodes of the Vancouver-shot series Tru Calling, less than the nine typically added to a freshman show’s order but still enough to make a full season.

That the series received any sort of extra order is something of a surprise, given its lacklustre ratings.

Tru Calling, which stars former Buffy the Vampire Slayer regular Eliza Dushku, is averaging about 4.1 million viewers a week.

Dushku plays Tru Davies, a recent college graduate who works nights at the New York City morgue. She also hears voices of people in the morgue who died before they were supposed to, and when she does, she’s sent back in time to prevent their deaths.

From Jsonline.com :

Despite poor ratings, Fox has ordered seven more episodes of Eliza Dushku’s "Tru Calling," bringing it up to a nearly full-season total of 20. . . .