newsmakers

newsmakers

Farrell, Vaughn set for ‘True Detective’

LOS ANGELES

Colin Farrell and Vince Vaughn will star in the second season of HBO’s “True Detective.”

The eight-episode drama series will begin production in California this fall, the premium cable channel said Tuesday.

Farrell will play a compromised detective, Ray, who is divided between his loyalty to his bosses in a corrupt police department and a mobster with a hold over him.

Vince Vaughn co-stars as Frank, a criminal whose move into legitimate business is disrupted by a business partner’s murder.

HBO had a critically acclaimed hit with the first season of “True Detective,” which starred the Emmy-nominated Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson.

The air date for the second season was not announced.

Strong Sunday season opening for CBS

NEW YORK

It’s still unclear whether television viewers will accept actress Tea Leoni as a fictional secretary of state, but they were at least willing to give the idea a try.

Her new CBS series, “Madam Secretary,” debuted before just under 15 million viewers Sunday night, the most-watched scripted offering of a week where a handful of new fall series began showing up on broadcast network schedules.

Similarly, Sunday on CBS, “60 Minutes” had its most-watched season premiere since 1997, and “The Good Wife” reached more than 11 million viewers, the Nielsen company said.

CBS’ prime-time lineup that night was boosted by the network’s late-afternoon and early-evening telecast of an NFL game between last season’s Super Bowl combatants, Seattle and Denver.

CBS paid big money to telecast NFL games in prime-time Thursday nights, but last week’s game was a dud. The game between Tampa Bay and Atlanta was a blowout from start to finish, with the Falcons winning 56-14, and the game was seen by fewer than 11.9 million viewers. NBC’s Sunday night game between Pittsburgh and Carolina had an audience of 19.7 million people, Nielsen said.

Fox’s Tuesday night comedies, “New Girl” and “The Mindy Project,” were barely noticed on their return. Zooey Deschanel’s “New Girl” was seen by 3 million viewers, while “The Mindy Project” reached only 2.7 million. Fox’s new “Red Band Society” did slightly better, with 4.1 million viewers.

Struggling Fox can take heart in the debut of “Gotham” on Monday night. The “Batman” prequel attracted 8 million viewers, Nielsen said.

CBS easily won the week in prime-time, averaging 8.8 million viewers. NBC had 7.9 million, ABC had 5.5 million, Fox had 3.1 million, Univision had 2.9 million, Telemundo had 1.4 million, ION Television had 1.1 million and the CW had 910,000.

Associated Press