Update: V kicks ratings axx! 13.9 million watch premiere; NY Times ‘brutally slams V’; Chicago Tribune today “V Aims at Obamamania”; Executive Producer of V fired: replaced by former Chuck producer..

Above the post update on premiere ratings from SciFiWire:

V became the highest rated sci-fi premiere of the new fall TV season after 13.9 million people watched the pilot episode last night, according to preliminary ratings. That number is still subject to some change, but it looks likely that this will be the biggest show to debut at 8 p.m. since another ABC sci-fi series, Lost….

Second Update below

Update at end of post

Oh man, they are going to screw this show up yet.  Premieres tonight and they are pulling the guy who had creative control out? We haven’t even seen it, why are they assuming it is a disaster? Or is it seriously too Obama like? Really, WTH? Our previous posts on V and the previously announced reshoots and hiatus here.

SciFiWire has the scoop:

There’s been a big shakeup at ABC’s V, which debuts tonight: Scott Peters, who has been the guy running the show for last several months, has been replaced by Scott Rosenbaum, a former executive producer of NBC’s Chuck.

Peters (The 4400) has been the guy shepherding the reboot project, which stars his 4400 alumnus Joel Gretsch and even shoots at the same studio in Vancouver, Canada, where 4400 shot.

Here’s how The Wrap reported it:

Peters will retain an executive producer credit on “V.” But Rosenbaum, an executive producer on “Chuck” (and “The Shield”), will now be at the helm. The showrunner shift had been anticipated in Hollywood circles for weeks, since ABC and Warner Bros. TV made the joint decision to halt production on the series in order to get scripts in shape. According to USA Today, which broke the news of the shuffle, Peters was removed from his post last Thursday.

What’s interesting about some of this is that ABC hosted a big visit by press people last Monday, but Peters was notably absent; instead, executive producer Steve Pearlman spoke with reporters…

Update: Ahh evidence of our opinion on the shakeup at V courtesy of Chicago Tribune (also ran in Miami Herald, same column, lol)

Imagine this. At a time of political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include universal health care.

The news media swoons in admiration — one simpering anchorman even shouts at a reporter who asks a tough question: “Why don’t you show some respect?!” The public is likewise smitten, except for a few nut cases who circulate batty rumors on the Internet about the leader’s origins and intentions. The leader, undismayed, offers assurances that are soothing, if also just a tiny bit condescending: “Embracing change is never easy.”

So, does that sound like anyone you know? Oh, wait — did I mention the leader is secretly a totalitarian space lizard who’s come here to eat us?

Welcome to ABC’s “V,” the most fascinating and bound to be the most controversial new show of the fall television season. Nominally a rousing sci-fi space opera about alien invaders bent on the conquest (and digestion) of all humanity, it’s also a barbed commentary on Obamamania that will infuriate the president’s supporters and delight his detractors.….”We’re all so quick to jump on the bandwagon,” observes one character. “A ride on the bandwagon, it sounds like fun. But before we get on, let us at least make sure it is sturdy.”….

Update 2: A-HA The NY Times ! I KNEW THIS WAS POLITICAL BS!! NY Times ‘brutally slams’ V courtesy of SciFiWire:

In general the first episode of ABC’s V remake has been getting pretty favorable reviews, but you wouldn’t know it from reading the brutal review in The New York Times. Their reviewer Mike Hale dissects the show and finds it lacking from its opening moments.

He called a scene where New Yorkers applaud the arrival of the Visitors implausible and said it only made sense on “Planet Television” where producers need “the aliens to win over the rest of humanity before the third commercial break.”

He went on to say the show’s storytelling is “formulaic” and “slapdash,” noted its “absence of compelling drama” and then made a particularly backhanded comparison of the show to The 4400. “It, too, treated big ideas in a cramped, underwritten style, content to fall back on prime-time formulas to get from one set piece to another.”…