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Television and Video Games--- Other than mixed martial arts, the two industries that I cover closely are the video game industry and the television industry, and it just so happens that this is a very big week for both of them.

The biggest video game trade show of the year, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), is taking place this week in Los Angeles, while the TV industry has its annual upfront presentations spaced out from Monday to Thursday of this week. The upfront presentations are where the TV networks reveal their fall line-ups and also drop the axe on numerous shows.

The schedule for the upfront presentations is that NBC is presenting today, ABC and The WB are presenting tomorrow, CBS is presenting on Wednesday, and Fox and UPN are presenting on Thursday.

Status as of first post at 4:02 PM:
-So far there's nothing new on the E3 front that hasn't already been reported on Ivan's Blog, as the show doesn't actually start until Wednesday. However, Sony is expected to hold a press conference before the end of the day today (Monday), and the scheduled topic of discussion is the PlayStation 3, which isn't expected to be released in the United States until mid-to-late 2006. With the huge splash already made by the Xbox 360 and the fact that Microsoft is launching the system this year, you can expect Sony to come out swinging and do whatever it can to muffle the impact of the Xbox 360. More updates from E3 and the upfront presentations as events unfold...

UPDATE at 4:48 PM:
-Huge news as NBC officially cancels the newest Law & Order spin-off, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, after just a few months on the air, Law & Order creator Dick Wolf is extremely unhappy with NBC's decision...

-NBC officially cancels poorly-rated shows The Contender, Committed, American Dreams, and Medical Investigation...

-NBC renews the critically acclaimed but poorly-rated The Office and has it on the fall schedule in the Tuesdays at 9:30 PM timeslot...

-NBC renews West Wing despite ratings collapse in the past two years, will move the show to Sundays at 8:00 PM...

-Moderately rated Scrubs and Fear Factor are both renewed by NBC, but are not on the fall schedule and will instead be used as midseason replacement shows in early 2006...

UPDATE at 5:20 PM:
-Remember, these are pretty much just the headlines, more details on all of this news will be forthcoming on Ivan's Blog in the coming days...

-Fox officially RENEWS Arrested Development for a full third season of 22 episodes, this comes amid low ratings but tons of critical acclaim, Fox made this announcement today despite the fact that its upfront presentation isn't until Thursday...

-NBC renews Joey and Will & Grace despite only moderately successful ratings and will keep both shows in the same timeslots, Joey was considered a question mark for renewal after one season...

-NBC has The Apprentice on the schedule for this fall instead of holding off until 2006, showing that they learned nothing from the overexposure that was caused by scheduling the second and third seasons too close together...

-Speaking of overexposure, the "Martha Stewart" version of The Apprentice from series creator Mark Burnett will air on Wednesdays at 8:00 PM...

-The Biggest Loser, the reality show about weight loss, will return for a second season this fall in the Tuesdays at 8:00 PM timeslot...

UPDATE at 5:46 PM:
-News leaking out of Fox like a faucet despite the fact that the network's upfront presentation isn't until Thursday...

-Fox set to cancel lots of low-rated shows, including Quintuplets, Life on a Stick, and a trio of failed Thursday night shows (Tru Calling, Point Pleasant, and North Shore)

-Fox rumored to be renewing The Bernie Mac Show despite very low ratings and very little critical acclaim, the show was considered as good as dead a week ago...

-Fox also said to be renewing the very low rated King of the Hill...

-Fox apparently renewing That 70's Show and Stacked despite moderately low ratings, while status of Trading Spouses is still unknown...

UPDATE at 6:17 PM:
-Numerous ABC rumors making the rounds, including the network renewing The George Lopez Show but NOT renewing My Wife & Kids, which was a breakout hit just two years ago...

-ABC mercifully cancels new series Eyes and Blind Justice, but is rumored to be renewing Jake in Progress for some reason that mankind will never truly understand...

-ABC rumored to be cancelling Eight Simple Rules and Complete Savages on the Friday night line-up while surprisingly renewing Less Than Perfect, whose ratings have been less than perfect, the cancellation of Eight Simple Rules is very surprising...

-Reality shows Wife Swap and Super Nanny rumored to be getting season renewals from ABC, as is freshman comedy Rodney...

UPDATE at 6:44 PM:
-The WB and the producers of Reba got in a huge dispute over licensing rights fees, WB was almost forced to cancel one of its highest-rated shows, but the dispute has apparently been resolved at the last minute and a renewal of the series is expected to be announced at tomorrow's WB upfront presentation...

-WB set to give season renewal orders to One Tree Hill and Blue Collar TV...

-Status unknown for WB shows What I Like About You and Steve Harvey's Big Time Challenge...

-WB rumored to be cancelling Jack & Bobby, The Starlet, and Summerland...

-The only networks that are not willing to leak out info at this time are CBS and UPN, which just happen to be the two networks owned by Viacom...

-More updates from the upfront presentations to come tomorrow...

-In the meantime, check out this hilariously over-the-top and intentionally cheesy commercial for the cable channel G4's coverage of E3. Just click here and then click where it says "Watch the Video." Since E3 isn't open to the public, it would be exciting for the average gamer to be able to go to E3 or even "watch E3," but these guys take it way over the top, and that's the joy of the commercial. You may have seen the 30-second commercial if you've been watching G4 in recent days, but the link above takes you to the full-length three-minute version. Be prepared to have the theme song implant itself in your brain and not let go...

Labels: Television (Non-MMA), Video Games

posted by Ivan Trembow at 4:02 PM

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