Alan Sepinwall liked "Big Baby" (and defends Cuddy's lack of bonding in the comments) and oddly enough uses "House" in two other blog posts since then, both in commenting on an outsider on "Fringe" in comparison to Vogler and Tritter (which also my take when I saw the episode, wondering if the character was a result of the same studio head who'd demanded Vogler) and then in "Lie To Me" to note why he's ready to give up on that show after two episodes, but he's still on board with "House" after five years. Link is to the main blog, rather than all three blog posts. Just scroll down for each entry.

Influential Variety seems to be loving Hugh Laurie and House nowadays. It has two articles today: Hugh Laurie’s Comedic Past - http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117999274.html?categoryid=14&cs=1 and Fox Medical Marvel Stays on Top - http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117999278.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

The post-Super Bowl time slot is most coveted. House was the post-game TV show last year and LA Times rates it as “best” because its 29 million viewers “ was the show's highest-rated episode ever across all demos and the highest-rated on any network in two years among adults 18 to 49 and total viewers.” Can NBC's The Office top this?

Which, if I understand how these work, is just barely a step above paid advertising Isn't that what Variety is on the average day anyway, front to back and everything in between? I think the previous high (much higher than House) was probably Grey's Anatomy's Super Bowl episode. Plus, it always depends on the game itself. I mean, "House" would have gotten all it's regular viewers plus some, I'm sure, but interest in the game is what makes the difference between watching live and time shifting. GA also did really well because it was part one of two. The Office should easily top House in terms of % increase over their average or previous high. The House SB episode was only a couple million more viewers than some of the episodes that followed AI. Has The Office ever topped 10-12M viewers for an episode? I couldn't tell you for sure, but I'm guessing no since NBC on Thursdays hasn't seen those numbers in ages. They'll do really well, I'm sure. Plus, they're going more the "Malcolm in the Middle" route if I'm understanding it correctly. I've tried to remain unspoiled, so I'm only watching "very special guest star!!" announcements with one eye open, but they're stunting it up with the big names. In a good way, of course.

I think House's post Super Bowl audience was hurt a bit by the fact that it was a New York team that won and they stayed with the post game festivities longer in the east than they might have for some other team. Best I can recall anyway.

Yeah, NY's market delayed it for a long time.

Love this quote from David Shore: As for Shore, well, the cynic in him doubts "House" will close house any time soon. "I don't know if you guys know this, but Fox is one of those for-profit corporations," he told critics at the January press tour in Los Angeles. "They're going to want to keep this show on the air as long as they possibly can, even if it's little Jimmy House, Gregory House's nephew, in season 12." :D from 'House' reaches milestone of 100th episode, but Hugh Laurie still insecure in The Canadian Press (mild spoilers for the next episode).

Oof, Gawker is going to town on OW's comments on her lesbian scene being the reason that fans don't like her. I have to admit that I'm pretty pissed off that they lump all of fandom as women who are hateful woman haters that only want to see hot men(and they mention TWOP in particular). That's unfair. Yes, that element exists, but I wouldn't say that's the bulk of things. Some of the posters are doing much better at articulating why 13's character is disliked. I'm so surprised that she really thinks that's why the character is annoying fans.

I'm so surprised that she really thinks that's why the character is annoying fans. Like two of us have already said on this thread, this interview is on video, and she was clearly making a joke.

have to admit that I'm pretty pissed off that they lump all of fandom as women who are hateful woman haters that only want to see hot men(and they mention TWOP in particular). That's unfair. Yes, that element exists, but I wouldn't say that's the bulk of things. Some of the posters are doing much better at articulating why 13's character is disliked. Unfortunately, that really is a large part of what happens on TWOP (at least back when it was still huge), so even though it's unfair to the sane and logical, when crazy is louder than anything else, sometimes it's all you hear. I don't know what it is about that site, but it definitely draws a "type" and while, obviously, it's not something exclusive or even something that was overwhelming on the "House" forums, it's really a pretty big problem site wide, especially among the shows where the attractiveness of the central dude(s) is a big selling point, a la "Supernatural". I thought the entire world hated Katie Cassidy until I wandered into other parts of the internet and saw that, no, she's actually got fans out there who like her, they just don't like having to shout over the Wincest fangirls who don't want anything to do with anyone female unless they're matronly. That aside, I do not, under any circumstances, believe that OW was being completely serious when she said that. She was joking the same way she was joking later in the interview about contract renegotiations. Ausiello doesn't want serious responses, so he leads everyone down the path of snark (or sex, his favorite topic) and that's what she was doing. Of course there *are* people out there who don't like her for that reason. That crowd exists in every fandom, even though I would imagine they're very, very small in this one. I'd be shocked if the FCC didn't get complaints about that scene. But, people who would complain about it are unimportant in the grand scheme of things and I don't think OW was legitimately giving them any credit, she was just kidding around. There is no one reason why OW's character is disliked. It's all over the place. Taking screen time away from others, unevenly written, unbelievably acted, unnecessary and so on and so on. But, there's always going to be that corner, the same way there was with Cameron, where she's hated simply because she's young and she's pretty. Those people are always out there and they're nasty. Gawker's giving them too much credit and it sucks that they're generalizing in this specific case, but they're also right that a lot of the posters over there (at least pre-exodus, since I don't read it anymore) exist in their crazy little women hating world. When you scan a site like Bitter But Brilliant (if that even still exists) and it's predecessor, TWOP Sucks, you see it all compiled together and it's really quite jarring to see that much misogyny cut and pasted together. Obviously they're all entitled to their opinion as much as the next person is, but I think it's just one of those things where the anonymity of the internet draws out the negativity because there's nothing to stop it.

Like two of us have already said on this thread, this interview is on video, and she was clearly making a joke. Well, unfortunately, I can't hear it with my own ears since I can't watch it here at work. However, I dunno - kinda seems like a dumb thing to say. Again, not being able to hear it and reading it out of context doesn't help. I think it's just one of those things where the anonymity of the internet draws out the negativity because there's nothing to stop it. Agreed. That's why we've tried so hard here to reign in the negativity - finding an area for it to be expressed, but also giving a respite from it. Sometimes the anger is absolutely exhausting and yes, as a commenter at Gawker said "it sucks the fun" out of discussing the show.

Barbara Barnett's (sasmom) review for "Big Baby" is up.

I have to admit that I'm pretty pissed off that they lump all of fandom as women who are hateful woman haters that only want to see hot men(and they mention TWOP in particular). I'd like to weigh in on this as someone who's been posting on the TWOP House forum for some 9 months now. I don't think the House forum attracts anywhere near the number of people it used to. The episode threads sometimes run along faster and longer than the ones on this board and have their share of shallow, biased remarks. But the threads for the characters, romance and spoiler discussion tend to be frequented mostly by a small group of regulars most of whom are intelligent and thoughtful posters. The Gawker stuff doesn't make sense. They could be generalizing based on TWOP forums in general. I wouldn't know because I only visit the House boards. In any case, its lazy journalism but then again they're not the New Yorker so its not really worth fretting over for me. Granted that 13 is not at all popular on the forum but you'll find several well thought out, well argued and detailed points about the problems people have with the character. Many of them, including me, actually think that the 13 arc had potential but would have liked to see an equal amount of screen time for all the Numbers because they have interesting stories that need to be given some attention as well. It just so happens that they are men. And though they are cute in their own way I don't think either PJ or KP are good looking in the conventional sense so I am not sure what the Gawker point is when they claim that "if you give a beautiful new actress screen time at the expense of good-looking men who are already on your show..." Yes, there are complaints about 13 eating up House's screentime and he is male and hot, but in all fairness the show is called House MD not 13 MD.

However, I dunno - kinda seems like a dumb thing to say. Again, not being able to hear it and reading it out of context doesn't help. I think Olivia Wilde has just learned the hard way that making joking responses to questions is very dangerous, because as soon as they are removed from context, they can sound very differently than they were delivered and that's how they will be responded to. So, yes, I would say dumb, but in the sense of media dumb. There's a reason most actors refuse to be drawn into a question like that and have a variety of stock responses. It's safer.