SciFi Stream » Knight Rider

‘Battlestar Galactica’ Symphonic Concert Event

Sci Fi Scoop — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:31:44 +0000

If you live in Los Angeles then this one is for you. On October 24th, the Golden State Pops Orchestra will be hosting a special symphonic concert to pay tribute to original Battlestar Galactica composer Stu Phillips to commemorate his 80th birthday. The event will be performed by a full orchestra and will take place on only one night.

Stu Phillips will be in attendance to ...

‘Knight Rider’ Crashes, ‘Heroes’ Renewed For Fourth

SyFy Portal — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:12:06 +0000

NBC made some quick decisions on what's coming and going for the 2009-10 campaign, and congratulations to Hiro Nakamura and Matt Parkman, but sorry Michael Knight. "Knight Rider," as expected, got the axe following a single shortened season where changes from the higher-rated pilot didn't resonate with fans. It took over the Wednesday 8 p.m. timeslot where another nostalgic remake, "Bionic Woman," was tried and failed. "Knight Rider" debuted with a 4.5 rating/7 share overnight at the end of September, but actually grew its audience over its first four episodes rising as high as a 4.9/8 by mid-October. However, two episodes later, "Knight Rider" would crash into the wall head on, falling to a 3.3/5 by November sweeps -- an audience loss of nearly 33 percent -- and never recovering. ...

Low Note Finish For ‘Knight Rider’

SyFy Portal — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:30:53 +0000

Waving good-bye to KITT might be hard, but it didn't seem a lot of people were around to see it anyway. "Knight Rider" finished its run on NBC with a 3.6 rating/6 share, according to Fast National ratings from Nielsen Media Research. That was about even with its audience from its last airing on Feb 18, but off its premiere by 20 percent. The good news is that the only other show that beat "Knight Rider" Wednesday night was "American Idol" on Fox. The bad news? The other shows on the other networks were mostly reruns, except for the season premiere of "American's Next Top Model" on The CW. Even then, "Knight Rider's" numbers were only minimally better than reruns of sitcoms on CBS, and just 12.5 percent better than a rerun of the previous week's "Lost." Speaking of "Lost," ...

Knight Rider got an overhaul, and its star says why you should watch

Sci Fi Wire — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 05:30:00 +0000

Knight Rider star Justin Bruening with K.I.T.T.

NBC's update of Knight Rider debuted to great fanfare and pretty good ratings last fall, but has since hit a speed bump in the wake of poor reviews and dwindling ratings.

The remaining viewers have noticed that producers have recently retooled the show, killing off or eliminating regular characters Charles Graiman (Bruce Davison), Alex Torres (Yancey Arias) and Carrie Rivai (Sydney Tamiia Poitier); shutting down the top-secret government organization that ran K.I.T.T.; and refocusing on the car and Mike Tracer (Justin Bruening) and his three friends, Sarah Graiman (Deanna Russo), Billy Morgan (Paul Campbell) and Zoe Chae (Smith Cho).

The show is also scrapping the "terrorist of the week" storylines to focus more on local missions, as in the recent episode in which Mike has to deal with bank robbers.

Last November, SCI FI Wire visited the show's set in Southern California's Santa Clarita Studios, and the changes were evident. The usually chaotic K.I.T.T. Cave is void of activity, although an adjacent room that usually serves as the basketball court has been transformed into a jamming bar set.

It's here Mike is enjoying some much deserved down time until a confrontation leads him into being grabbed by two guys and repeatedly punched by another. A head butt, right hook and flip over his back later, and Mike quickly gains the upper hand. As the director yells cut, an enthusiastic Bruening saunters over to speak exclusively with us about Knight Rider's new direction and K.I.T.T.'s evolution. Following is an edited version of our interview. Knight Rider airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

Where are the rest of your fellow actors today?

Bruening: They reinvented the show, so it's going to be more of the original format, where it was usually Michael and K.I.T.T. going out on missions. And being it's Michael's day off, everybody else has to work. They were actually here in the SSC, and they've filmed all their scenes. They communicate throughout the episode via the earwig and video conferencing, but they've already filmed their side of it.

How do you feel about them reinventing the series yet again and going back to the basics with regular missions?

Bruening: People will be able to relate more. When you do a mission on a global scale, there's too much to fit in 42 minutes. With a more localized murder/mystery mission, you can get more in depth. In this, we can have a smaller mission with more twists and turns that can make it interesting. We still have these grand-scale missions, just not this week.

It must be hard to loose a good portion of your cast halfway through the year.

Bruening: Obviously, I'm sad to see people go. They are great friends, and I've learned a lot from them, but the way it happens, it makes the story stronger, and it makes the remaining four characters much stronger. We all have to step up instead of relying on the other cast members. It gives us more to do. I think it's always fun to reinvent. It's exciting. There are changes, and you see progress that way. It's not stagnant, and it makes sense why we change. Plus, it makes it more like the original series with missions. Sarah is more of the mechanic, and she runs the place. Billy and Zoe are the computer techs, so knowing everyone's expertise allows Michael to call the right guy. ...

At this point, where do things stand between Michael and Sarah?

Bruening: I wish I knew, and I don't even think my character even knows. We are getting to the point where we come together, events have happened, and it makes us shut down in terms of romance. In this episode, there is a new girl from my past, someone I knew from my childhood, and Sarah knows of her. Oddly enough, she is going through things that are almost a carbon copy to what Sarah is going through. This episode is a new step for Michael and has nothing to do with Sarah. And Michael doesn't know what's going on with Sarah, and he's starting to get frustrated. In episode 4, she knew he loved her, and still nothing. It's like "Why beat a dead horse?"

What are your thoughts on the way Michael's relationship with KITT has progressed?

Bruening: I'm loving it. K.I.T.T. is learning from me, and the relationship that is developing is more brotherly. It's basically the same principal as Iron Man, where he was a normal guy without the suit. When K.I.T.T. is around, Michael knows he's not going to get hurt. That also allows us to joke around more. In the midst of gunfire, because he's bulletproof, it's fun to play the opposite of what you normally would. At the same time, we do care about each other like a family. K.I.T.T. continues to learn and in an upcoming episode, he gains even more personality to the point he starts playing practical jokes on me. It's a buddy-cop show with the banter. The one thing I would be excited to see is K.I.T.T. becoming angry and how he would retaliate.

What new cool weapons and technology will K.I.T.T. be equipped with?

Bruening: With K.I.T.T. being a computer, we can program him to do whatever. I want to see what Michael would add like a lot more guns and an Xbox. In episode 13, it's a more localized mission, and we figure out how to beat this person. K.I.T.T. gets some new guns that exhausts his ammunition, which is 8,000 rounds, in seven seconds. It's pretty impressive, but I actually make fun of him for only lasting seven seconds. That's the fun part of the show. K.I.T.T. is becoming such a strong character that we're trying to find a way to make the scenes humorous.

‘Knight Rider’ – Exit Light, Enter Knight

SyFy Portal — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 09:16:19 +0000

There has been talk about the new and improved "Knight Rider," and since I like to at least try to be a fair person when dealing with television shows, I respect when a failing show recognizes its problems (and when I say that, I mean NBC and not showrunner Gary Scott Thompson, who has stated the series was fine before NBC asked for the direction change) and I'm always willing to give it a chance. So I tuned in to "Exit Light, Enter Knight." Well, not really tuned in. I spent a couple bucks and bought it on my Apple TV since my DVR refuses to have anything to do with this. And I'm immediately welcomed to an episode that is all Thompson -- he wrote it and directed it. You can see the effort that's trying to go into this show, but there are really no grades for that in real life. Michael ...

SyFriday: Living In Our Own Knight World

SyFy Portal — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:48:57 +0000

I always wondered how some people could sit back and just make bad movies and bad television series all the time. Do they do it on purpose? Do they just think there is an audience for everything, including things that most people would look for the nearest vomit bag while viewing? Or do they really think that what they're producing is good? Gary Scott Thompson may have answered that long-asked question when he talked a little recently about what was wrong and what was right about "Knight Rider," his show on NBC that no one has really noticed. According to him, NBC's decision to retool the show yet again from his terrorist-of-the-week storyline, and removing three major characters in the process, was the unnecessary interference from the network that hurt great genre shows like "Star Trek" ...

Ready To Give ‘Knight Rider’ A Second Chance?

SyFy Portal — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:14:23 +0000

Its back to basics for NBC's "Knight Rider." In an effort to breathe new life into the show, the network decided that they needed to get back to what made the original Knight Rider series work: the idea that one man could make a difference. Well, one man and his car. That's not new ... but it's still debatable on if NBC is going to even give the show a chance. Though the show was just picked up for a full 22-episode season in October, it only took until November for NBC to see that the show wasnt working out as well as expected. Come December, the show was reduced to 17 episodes. Showrunner Gary Scott Thompson told SFX Red Alert about the changes that have been made to the show. Along with the elimination of characters played by Yancey Arias, Sydney Tamiia Poitier and Bruce Davison, ...

‘Knight Rider’ Desperately Seeking An Audience

SyFy Portal — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:57:10 +0000

"Knight Rider" is hanging on for dear life, but it's apparently not going to allow a strange New Year's Eve airing to get it down. The NBC show scored a 3.7 rating/7 share in Fast National ratings from Nielsen Media Research Wednesday night, rebounding 37 percent from a 2.7/5 last week, but still losing out to a lot of reruns. In fact, repeats of "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and "Gary Unmarried" both beat the new episode of "Knight Rider," which is facing an overhaul in upcoming episodes. It did, however, beat out a second-day encore of "Scrubs" on ABC as well as the debut of The CW reality show "13 - Fear Is Real," which earned just a 1.4/2, according to Zap2it. Wednesday's "Knight Rider" made it the 10th episode aired of the show's first season, where it has earned ...

Showrunner Won’t Give Up On ‘Knight Rider’

SyFy Portal — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 10:46:19 +0000

The media is reporting that NBC's attempt to revive "Knight Rider" is dead, but showrunner Gary Scott Thompson is making it clear to fans that the network has not canceled the show. Letters of support to NBC certainly wouldn't hurt, however. "We're doing a reboot and, a lot of folks don't know this, but NBC not only cut costs by cutting episodes, which they did on a bunch of shows, they also just laid off 760 people yesterday in their production offices and their other offices," Thompson told fan site Knight Rider Online. "So this is a cost-cutting measure. It is not a cancellation measure." But many analysts would beg to differ. NBC has not cut the production order of any of its other shows, including "Heroes." While "Knight Rider" may be one of its most expensive to produce, ...

NBC Crashes ‘Knight Rider’ Party

SyFy Portal — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:00:03 +0000

Another 1980s series NBC thought would be great to remake is going back to its rightful place in history: Cancellation. The network, which last year brought the grand failure "Bionic Woman" to television screens, has now pretty much declared the new "Knight Rider" to be dead on arrival. NBC released its mid-season schedule, and while there is a place for "Knight Rider," its episode order has been cut to just 17 episodes, and it appears the network is not apt to make many more, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. "Low ratings have promoted NBC to trim 'Knight Rider's' order from 21 episodes to 17," Ausiello said. "As a result, the show's season (and possible series) finale will be broadcast Feb. 25." While a cancellation isn't official, the fact that NBC is ...

Knight Retools, Loses Cast

Sci Fi Wire — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:00:00 +0000

NBC's Knight Rider is undergoing a major retooling, bringing it closer to the original 1980s series and losing three regular cast members, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

‘Knight Rider’ Dumps Cast, Changes Gears

SyFy Portal — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 07:44:52 +0000

Just a week after NBC cleaned house at "Heroes," it's doing the same now with "Knight Rider." Gone are Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Yancey Arias and Bruce Davison, and here is what showrunner Gary Scott Thompson called a "reboot." "We're moving away from the terrorist-of-the-week formula and closer to the original, making it a show about a man and his car going out and helping more regular people." Poitier and Davison were a part of the original "Knight Rider" backdoor pilot that aired last spring, playing Carrie Rivai and Charles Graiman. Arias was added when the actual series started, playing Alex Torres. All three will remain through the first 13 episodes, but will not be a part of "Knight Rider's" planned mid-season retooling, a change that apparently had been in the works since ...

‘Knight Rider’ Falls To Almost CW Numbers

SyFy Portal — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:55:56 +0000

Looks like "Smallville" and "Supernatural" may have some actual competition this week for the bottom of the genre ratings pack. "Knight Rider" pulled in by far its smallest audience ever, earning a 3.3 rating/5 share, according to Fast National ratings from Nielsen Media Research. That rating was 25 percent off its 4.4/7 last week, and its audience was just 3 percent higher than "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" this week. The plunge was so deep for "Knight Rider," the show's season average actually fell from a 4.5 rating to a 4.3 rating in just one week, while its Stability Index Rating -- where SyFy Portal compares the average overnight rating against its highest overnight rating -- slipped below the 90 percentile to an 87.8. Only "Fringe" and "Life On Mars" on ABC ...

World Series Beats Out ‘Knight Rider,’ ‘Pushing Daisies’

SyFy Portal — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:51:04 +0000

KITT or baseball. Baseball or KITT. Looks like fans preferred to see the Philadelphia Phillies defeat the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 1 of the World Series rather than seeing yet another wacky adventure of Michael Knight and his talking car. "Knight Rider," fresh off of receiving a full-season pickup by NBC, earned a 4.4 rating/7 share, according to Fast National ratings from Nielsen Media Research. That's down more than 10 percent from its pre-Presidential debate spike last week, and is floating around the average rating of a 4.5/7 after five episodes. It was easily beat by not only the World Series on Fox, but also the comedy block on CBS. "Knight Rider" did beat "Pushing Daisies," Zap2it reports, which earned an estimated 4.0/6, down 4.8 percent from the previous week. "Pushing Daisies," ...

‘Knight Rider’ Earns Full First Season

SyFy Portal — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 21:32:54 +0000

Full season orders are rolling in for genre shows, despite the fact that none have ratings that are turning any heads. The latest is NBC's "Knight Rider," getting even more than "Bionic Woman" did in its timeslot last year, despite lower ratings. Of course, "Bionic Woman" was interrupted by the Writers Guild of America strike, but a pickup this week is great news for KITT fans. The show has averaged a 4.6 rating/7 share in overnights over its first four weeks, down more than 16 percent from the average "Bionic Woman" had in the same timeslot. The show, however, has been leading in the key demographic of adults 18 to 49, and also has consistently beat "Pushing Daisies" on ABC, which some would say has a much higher profile than "Knight Rider." The order follows similar "back nine" ...

NBC Orders Full Knight Season

Sci Fi Wire — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 05:00:00 +0000

NBC has picked up Knight Rider for a full season, sources told The Hollywood Reporter.

More Scripts Ordered For ‘Knight Rider,’ ‘Sarah Connor’

SyFy Portal — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:01:36 +0000

It's not the most encouraging move a network can make, but ordering more scripts is better than the ultimate alternative: cancellation. That seems to be what both "Knight Rider" and "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" are trying to stave off despite lower-than-anticipated ratings and a mostly hushed reaction from the networks. However, NBC has ordered an additional four scripts of "Knight Rider," trade publication Variety says, while reports are out that two more scripts have been ordered by Fox for "Sarah Connor," a show that is considered to be on the brink of cancellation. Fox made the move to order more "Sarah Connor" scripts despite already ordering a full season pickup for freshman drama "Fringe" and canceling the comedy "Do Not Disturb." Script ordering is usually ...

NBC Orders More Knight

Sci Fi Wire — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 05:00:00 +0000

NBC has ordered four more scripts of its new SF series Knight Rider from Universal Media Studios, Variety reported.

‘Pushing Daisies’ Once Again No Match For ‘Knight Rider’

SyFy Portal — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:10:04 +0000

Audiences might not be too much into either show, but in a head-to-head battle between "Knight Rider" on NBC and "Pushing Daisies" on ABC, it looks like KITT is taking the trophy. "Knight Rider" scored an estimated 4.2 rating/6 share, according to Fast National ratings from Nielsen Media Research Wednesday, easily beating a 3.6/6 from "Pushing Daisies," Zap2it says. Both shows were behind "Bones" on Fox as well as comedies on CBS, and finished ahead only of "America's Next Top Model" on The CW. But for "Pushing Daisies," its audience was only 29 percent better. Both shows have slipped a bit in the ratings, "Knight Rider" off 8.7 percent from the previous week while "Pushing Daisies" is down 12.2. Also, the 9 p.m. hour for ABC was able to find an audience pickup of 39 percent ...

Review: ‘Knight Rider’ – Knight Of The Iguana

SyFy Portal — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 05:22:58 +0000

The following contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the "Knight Of The Iguana" episode of NBC's "Knight Rider. It's not that this show is bad, really. It's that it is so ... standard ... pedestrian ... predictable ... uninteresting that makes it hard to watch. Don't get me wrong. I like the actors, the characters, the cars, the explosions, the skin ... lots and lots of skin. It is what they do with all this that bores me. Here's a good example. The episode opens with a dark headquarters, with Michael looking for "the enemy," as KITT calls him. Michael pussyfoots around, looking for someone to shoot. Is it a double agent? Is it a bad guy with a nuclear warhead trying to destroy KITT? Is it an alien from outer space? No, it turns out to be Billy with a Super Soaker. The worst thing that happens ...

‘Knight Rider’ Topples Disappointing ‘Pushing Daisies’

SyFy Portal — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:03:32 +0000

"Pushing Daisies" has joined a long list of returning genre shows clocking in at far more disappointing numbers than expected after its premiere was beaten out by none other than "Knight Rider" on NBC. The ABC series earned a 4.1 rating/7 share Wednesday, being easily bested by "Knight Rider's" 4.6/7, revealed Fast National ratings from Nielsen Media Research. It was ABC's worst-performing show for the night, thanks to a 34 percent audience boost from its lead-out, "Private Practice," and a 4.8/8 from "Dirty Sexy Money." That is the smallest audience that has ever tuned in for an episode of "Pushing Daisies," nearly 13 percent less than its worst rating last season. It's also down 35 percent from its first season average of 6.3/10, which made it the genre's third-highest ranking ...

Review: Knight Rider – ‘Journey To The End Of The Knight’

SyFy Portal — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:52:56 +0000

This review contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the "Knight Rider" episode "Journey to the End of the Knight." But go ahead and read it anyway, because you'll probably thank me later. As I watched the masterpiece that was "Knight Rider" Wednesday night when I was doing show prep for SyFy Radio, only one thought came to mind. When is "Bionic Woman" coming back? While that line definitely adds a little bit of humor to a dire situation, I'm actually being serious. If Ben Silverman, the head of NBC, came to us, the genre audience, last spring and said, "Either watch 'Bionic Woman' or here is what we'll give you," I would've started the first fan campaign ever devised to save a crappy show. What stinks about this is that I want to like "Knight Rider." I mean, this was the show that replaced ...

Review: ‘Knight Rider’ – A Knight In Shining Armor

SyFy Portal — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:26:02 +0000

The following contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the premiere episode of "Knight Rider" on NBC. Let me start out by saying that I'm a "vehicle" fan. Even though I can't rebuild an engine or identify what's wrong when my car breaks down, I love the looks of modes of transportation, including cars, starships, planes and trains. So I already like the new KITT and its many Transformer-like shapes. The question is, will the show reviving one I was tepid about when it first aired be something special? Sadly, the answer is, "No." At least, the first episode left me cold. Here's what happened this week. Mike Traceur, son of Michael Knight (the original KITT driver), is now a full-fledged secret agent, complete with tuxedo, and he and flame Sarah Graiman are infiltrating an organization to get secrets ...

Knight Debuts In Third

Sci Fi Wire — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 05:00:00 +0000

NBC's Knight Rider finished in third place in the ratings in its Sept. 24 premiere, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

‘Knight Rider’ Can’t Even Catch ‘Bionic Woman’ In Ratings

SyFy Portal — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:41:27 +0000

In case no one noticed Wednesday night, but the remake of "Knight Rider" premiered. And it might not be on for long. NBC's second attempt at a cult icon remake fizzled out of the gate as "Knight Rider" earned a 4.5 rating/7 share, according to Fast National ratings from Nielsen Media Research. That was good enough for a third place finish behind "Dancing with the Stars" on ABC and "Bones" on Fox. It did, however, beat out the premieres of comedies on CBS as well as "American's Next Top Model" on The CW. What does this mean for "Knight Rider's" future? Not very bright, apparently. Just a year ago, in this very time slot, "Bionic Woman" premiered with an 8.4/13, and finished with a 5.5/9 average, an entire ratings point over "Knight Rider's" premiere. Even worse, it seemed ...

Curious To See Where ‘Knight Rider’ Goes?

SyFy Portal — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:50:34 +0000

Michael Ausiello over at Entertainment Weekly says the life of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" could be reaching an early end if ratings don't pick up soon, so in case we lose one high-action series, I guess we're really only left with "Knight Rider." I really want to hate this show, I really, really do. After the mess that was "Bionic Woman" last season, Ben Silverman thinks it's a wonderful move to put another series resurrected from NBC's Golden Age in the Wednesday 8 p.m. timeslot. And while I might not be the most enthused about the season premiere, "Knight In Shining Armor," I honestly still think there's promise. That is hard for me to say, but if NBC called me up and asked to use a comment from us in their commercials, I would say that "Knight Rider" is television's ...

Battlestar’s Billy Is Knight’s, Too

Sci Fi Wire — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:00:00 +0000

Fans of SCI FI Channel's Battlestar Galactica may be forgiven for doing a double take when viewing the premiere of NBC's Knight Rider on Sept. 24: There's a character named Billy, and he's played by Paul Campbell.

Cast Hasn’t Met Knight’s Kilmer

Sci Fi Wire — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 05:00:00 +0000

Val Kilmer, who voices K.I.T.T. in NBC's upcoming reboot of Knight Rider, has yet to meet the other cast members in the television show.

‘Heroes’ Leads NBC Premiere Week

SciFi Stream — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:32:08 +0000

Premiere week has arrived for NBC, and it all starts tonight with a massive (and long-awaited) Heroes event! The last new episode aired last December, with Season Two cut short by the writer’s strike. In the spring the writers decided to concentrate on the third season (premiering tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern/Pacific), rather than jumping back [...]

Bourne Inspires Knight Stunts

Sci Fi Wire — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 05:00:00 +0000

The cast members of NBC's upcoming Knight Rider reboot series will do as much of the stunt work as allowed, following in the footsteps of Matt Damon in The Bourne Identity, and that's no coincidence: That film's director, Doug Liman, is an executive producer of the new show.