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Television--- Scrubs Gets Spared, Many other Shows Get Axed
NBC officially kicked off upfront week with its presentation to advertisers earlier today.

The biggest question mark headed into the presentation was Scrubs, which has now been renewed for another season but will not be returning to the line-up until midseason. The same goes for Crossing Jordan... it has been renewed, but is not on the fall schedule.

The news also came down that Fear Factor has been officially cancelled, along with E-Ring, Joey, Four Kings, Three Wishes, Conviction, Teachers, Heist, and Inconceivable.

My Name is Earl and The Office will move to Thursdays at 8:00 and 8:30, respectively. Both series currently air on Thursdays at 9:00 and 9:30, respectively.

The Donald Trump version of The Apprentice has one more season coming, but it could be the last season if ratings don't improve.

None of the other networks have made their upfront presentations yet, but CBS has apparently renewed The New Adventures of Old Christine and Close to Home. Also, King of Queens has been renewed, but will be returning to the line-up in midseason instead of the fall due to Kevin James' movie-filming obligations.

Labels: Television (Non-MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 6:53 PM

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Television--- Several Series Get Renewed, Several Get Cancelled
With upfront week in the television industry now upon us, several network TV series have already learned their respective fates.

ABC
The most upsetting two pieces of news for fans of quality television are that ABC has cancelled both Invasion and Sons & Daughters. The cancellation of Sons & Daughters was almost a foregone conclusion due to its poor ratings (despite its critical acclaim), but Invasion was thought to have had a real shot at life for a second season.

With Commander in Chief just about dead in the water (with its three remaining unaired episodes set to be burned off in June on ABC), the feeling was that ABC wouldn't cancel both of its high-profile freshman dramas, especially since Invasion's ratings were only in the "fairly bad" category (as opposed to "God-awful"), and it didn't have the ratings collapse throughout its season that Commander in Chief experienced.

Making the situation worse for Invasion fans is that ABC has renewed the midseason drama What About Brian for a second season, despite the fact that What About Brian had the same fairly bad ratings and very little critical acclaim as compared to Invasion.

As for the other on-the-bubble ABC shows, Freddie and Hope & Faith did not make the cut, as both series have been cancelled. Crumbs, Rodney, The Evidence, and In Justice have not been oficially cancelled, but are expected to be cancelled in the very near future. According to Jim and George Lopez are still very much up in the air, although the blog posts of the creator of Sons & Daughters would seem to indicate that According to Jim got the nod for another season.

Fox
Over at Fox, The OC has been renewed as expected, despite its slumping ratings. The War at Home, a good comedy with mediocre ratings, has been renewed. Strangely, a second season renewal was also given to The Loop, a horrible comedy that was among the lowest rated shows of the season. Also, though it happened a few months ago, the fact that King of the Hill got renewed for another season is still shocking due to the horrible ratings that the show produces.

NBC
At NBC, Conviction and Teachers have been cancelled, with Joey, Four Kings, E-Ring, and Surface expected to follow very shortly (although Four Kings will at least get the dignity of having its remaining unaired episodes burned off in the summer).

The last major remaining on-the-bubble show for NBC is Scrubs. Honestly, any other TV show with the same ratings as Scrubs would probably have been cancelled two seasons ago, and would definitely have been cancelled last season. NBC is in a different position now because Scrubs is no longer its only critically acclaimed young comedy. With My Name is Earl and The Office as part of the landscape (both with better ratings than Scrubs), NBC no longer "needs" Scrubs in order to have a critically acclaimed young comedy. Scrubs' ratings were just about as bad as ever this past season, and The Office is regarded as far more buzzworthy and with far more of a potential upside in the future. We'll find out about Scrubs later this week.

CW
On the new CW Network (the love-child of the UPN-WB merger), 7th Heaven has been renewed for another season, despite the fact that the so-called "series finale" of 7th Heaven just aired last week. This was a case of both sides (the network and the studio) playing hardball for the past several months, as the network took the position of, "It's no longer worth it for us to pay these huge rights fees for the show," followed by the studio taking the position of, "Well, we're not going to accept a decrease in the rights fees," followed by both sides storming off and saying, "Well, fine then!" (That is obviously not a word-for-word transcript.)

Ratings have a way of changing people's minds, so after the last few episodes of 7th Heaven performed very well in the ratings by WB standards (especially the so-called "series finale"), the two sides worked something out and now the show will be back in the fall.

Previously Confirmed-as-Cancelled Shows
For the purposes of being concise with upfront-related news, the only shows that I have discussed so far have been the shows whose fates were not known until the past few days. Plenty of shows from the 2005-2006 TV season were already confirmed as being cancelled in the previous weeks and months. Here is a list of those shows on all of the broadcast networks, listed alphabetically, followed by a couple of other lists for summary purposes.

Previously Confirmed as Cancelled This Season on ABC: Alias, Emily's Reasons Why Not, Hot Properties, Night Stalker

Previously Confirmed as Cancelled This Season on NBC: Apprentice: Martha Stewart (the Donald Trump version is not cancelled), Celebrity Cooking Showdown, Heist, Inconceivable, The Book of Daniel, West Wing, Will & Grace

Previously Confirmed as Cancelled This Season on Fox: Arrested Development (I miss it already), Head Cases, Killer Instinct, Kitchen Confidential, Malcolm in the Middle, Reunion, That '70s Show

Previously Confirmed as Cancelled This Season on CBS: Threshold, Yes Dear

Previously Confirmed as Cancelled This Season on UPN: Get This Party Started, Sex Love & Secrets

Previously Confirmed as Cancelled This Season on WB: Charmed, Just Legal, What I Like About You

Additional Lists
Shows that have not yet been officially cancelled, but are widely believed to have very little chance of being renewed: Commander in Chief, Courting Alex, Crumbs, Cuts, E-Ring, Eve, Free Ride, In Justice, Jake in Progress, Joey, Less Than Perfect, Living with Fran, Mircale Workers, Out of Practice, Related, Renovate My Family, South Beach, Stacked, Still Standing, Surface, Survival of the Richest, The Evidence, Three Wishes, Twins

Shows that were just revealed as cancelled in the past couple of days: Conviction, Freddie, Hope & Faith, Invasion, Sons & Daughters, Teachers

Shows that were just renewed for an additional season in the past couple of days: 7th Heaven, The Loop, The OC, The War at Home, What About Brian

Labels: Television (Non-MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 10:51 AM

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Television--- Bill O'Reilly and David Letterman Engage in Sissy Slap-Fight for the Ages
As you may or may not have heard by now, Bill O'Reilly's appearance on David Letterman's latenight comedy show on Tuesday night ended up having very little to do with comedy. I saw the show as it aired, and if you want to know what I thought of the interview, keep reading. (If you don't want to know what I thought of the interview, you should probably not keep reading.)

First, let me say that I have been a big David Letterman fan for many, many years... as in years before Bill O'Reilly's TV show even existed. Also, I watch David Letterman's show far more often than I watch Bill O'Reilly's show. I would say it's an average of two-to-three times per week that I watch Letterman's show, and once every week or so for O'Reilly nowadays.

With all of that said...

I think it's great that David Letterman feels he can debate someone about specific topics while simultaneously admitting that he knows absolutely nothing about the topic(s).

I think it's great that when presented with facts that contradicted what Letterman thought about certain things going into the interview, Letterman had no response whatsoever other than to change the subject in one case, or in the other case to simply say that he thinks 60% of what O'Reilly says is crap.  

I think it's great that after initially dismissing anything related to Christmas talk because of "what he has read" about O'Reilly (and you can imagine what that might be), Letterman responded to a series of facts and examples about the topic simply by pretending that it all must be fiction or just one or two isolated incidents.

I think it's great that Letterman can use the phrase "people like you" repeatedly and not get called on it like anyone else (including O'Reilly) would be and should be if they repeatedly used that phrase.

I think it's great that Letterman can say that O'Reilly is "not objective" while at the same time admitting that he has never seen O'Reilly's show.

As off-the-wall as Letterman was, O'Reilly was insincere when he tried to claim that he didn't consider himself a big fan of the Bush administration.  He was biased, but he was still presenting facts within that interview, which is more than I can say for Letterman.  Better to be a biased fool than a completely ignorant fool.

Letterman clearly hates O'Reilly with a passion... so he had him on his show why, exactly?  The answer could theoretically be to have a debate, if it weren't for the fact that Letterman did the exact opposite of having a debate in the interview. Letterman ran from any semblance of a debate, in favor of a personal pissing contest that was neither a comedy segment nor a valid debate segment. (On a side note, if Letterman and O'Reilly ever end up settling their differences in a mixed martial arts bout, it should be put on the same card as Joe Rogan vs. Wesley Snipes...)

Honestly, Letterman's political views going into the interview were not a secret.  Letterman's liberal leanings and Leno's conservative leanings are no secret, but at least Leno tries to maintain a semblance of keeping the jokes fairly even between anti-Republican jokes and anti-Democrat jokes on his comedy show (or at least not 90 percent to 10 percent).

Letterman is "just a comedian" in the end, which is something that people who are "just comedians" are far too eager to fall back on as a safety net when their complete lack of any knowledge whatsoever on one topic or another is exposed.

Letterman is a damn good comedian who really needs to stick to areas in which he has a shred of knowledge.  If he had done any research beforehand, Letterman would have found that there are a good half-dozen issues that he could have delved into that actually would have made O'Reilly look very bad if he tried to take the opposite position.  But that's not what happened.  

Letterman was just shooting off into the dark and had nothing to back up anything he was saying. If Letterman was going to call O'Reilly on any of the topics that he could have called him on, that would have required Letterman to go into the interview with something in his mind other than, "I hate this person because of what I've heard about him, so I'm going to pick a fight."

Labels: Television (Non-MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 11:41 PM

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Assorted Topics--- Today, we've got word on the continuation of the "Semi-Annual Sopranos Renewal Con-Game," the creator of Alias letting it slip that Jennifer Garner is indeed pregnant, Jimmy Kimmel's portrayal of Jay Leno in the "E Presentation of the Michael Jackson Trial," and Shannen Doherty already getting herself fired from her new sitcom before it even hits the air.

Media Pretends to be Surprised about Another Season of The Sopranos
It is always nice to watch the entertainment media hilariously try to pretend that they're surprised when the con-game of The Sopranos getting renewed indefinitely continues season after season. I could understand someone not noticing a pattern until it happened a few times, but at this point it's just ridiculous. To catch you up if you're new to the "Semi-Annual Sopranos Renewal Con-Game," The Sopranos' sixth and "final" season is currently in production, and will start airing on HBO sometime in 2006. However, to the shock of absolutely no one, Sopranos creator David Chase has now said that "maybe, just maybe," he could be convinced to bring the show back for a seventh season. The media is now acting like this is news, when in fact it was already a foregone conclusion.

You see, back when The Sopranos was producing its third season, that was supposedly going to be the end of it. There was a small chance that there would be a fourth season if the public demanded it, or if HBO increased the amount it pays the show's producers in rights fees, but it was unlikely. Lo and behold, it was soon announced that there would be a fourth and final season. Later, when it came time to produce the fourth and supposedly final season, the same exact scenario played out with the announcement of a fifth season, which aired in early 2004. That was supposed to be the final season, but surprise, surprise! A sixth season was eventually announced, although by the time it hits the airwaves in 2006, a whopping two years will have passed since the premiere of the previous season, thus stretching the process out even further.

So now with the "sixth and final season" in production, why on earth would anyone be surprised to hear that it won't really be the final season, and that a seventh season will also be coming eventually? I love the actual show of The Sopranos as much as anyone, but this insincere "final season" nonsense has been going on since the second freakin' season and can no longer be considered anything more than an embarrassment to anyone associated with the show. At this rate, The Sopranos' actual final season will be its 15th season, which will air in 2026...

Alias Creator Lets it Slip that Jennifer Garner is Indeed Pregnant
In the, "Oops, I didn't know we were still supposed to be lying about that to the media" department, Alias creator J.J. Abrams has let it slip that Alias star Jennifer Garner is pregnant. When discussing the next season of Alias, Abrams said that Garner's "pregnancy will affect" the filming of the next season, and he jokingly added that every spy Garner portrays "will just be a pregnant person," and, "I'm sure kickboxing scenes are probably out." Abrams said that he would find a way to incorporate Garner's pregnancy into the the show.

There's just one problem. Neither Jennifer Garner, nor her fiance Ben Affleck, have officially confirmed to any media outlet anywhere that she is indeed pregnant. The official PR position is supposed to be that it's still "just a rumor." By confirming Garner's pregnancy in interviews, J.J. Abrams has made himself the first person to acknowledge on-the-record that she is indeed pregnant. Oops!

In any case, Jennifer Garner's pregnancy is probably the least of the Alias producers' worries. Even with mega-hit Lost as its lead-in, Alias' ratings tanked in its most recent season, dropping from the strong 10.0 season premiere rating to as low as 6.3 over the course of the season. And in a move that could end up being suicidal, the show is being moved this fall to Thursdays at 8:00 PM, which will easily be the most competitive timeslot on television with Alias having to compete with Survivor, Joey, Will & Grace, Smallville, and the new Chris Rock sitcom.

Jimmy Kimmel Does Jay Leno Doing Michael Jackson
I think the E News headline says it all. Not only did Jay Leno testify yesterday at Michael Jackson's child molestation trial, but he helped lighten the mood of the trial a little bit by injecting some humor into his testimony. When both sides said, "No further questions" and the judge said, "You may step down," Leno actually leaned into the court microphone and said, "We've got Renee Zellweger on the show tonight!" (By the way, I can't be the only one to have noticed that Zellweger is now completely unable to open her eyes without squinting, thanks to her latest over-the-top cheek implant surgery.)

To top it all off, The E Network had to get someone to portray Leno in its daily Michael Jackson Trial Re-Enactments, and who better to portray Leno than fellow latenight talk show host Jimmy Kimmel? You'd expect the production team to make Kimmel look like Leno, which they did, but the surprising thing is that Kimmel actually did an excellent impersonation of Leno. Kimmel had the Leno impersonation down pat, from the lisp to the changing voice pitch to the bobbing head, in a way that was realistic and not over-the-top.

Shannen Doherty Gets Fired Yet Again
On the final day of the 2004-2005 television season, with such high-profile face-offs as the two-hour season finale of American Idol going head-to-head with the two-hour season finale of Lost, the news came out today that one of this fall's highest-profile new comedies has lost its lead star. Just last week at the annual upfront presentations, one of the comedies with the most hype thrown behind it was UPN's Love, Inc., in which Doherty would play a matchmaker. Now, Doherty has been fired for being "difficult to work with" for what seems like the 354th time.

It's not known if any specific incident sparked Doherty's firing, but it must have been bad for UPN to abruptly terminate her just one week after trotting her out at the upfront presentations and making a big deal out of her new fall series. It has been well documented over the years that Doherty has been notoriously moody and difficult to work with on just about everything she has ever done in Hollywood, including her infamous behavior on the set of "Charmed" that ultimately got her fired from that job as well. So, the news that Doherty has been fired from her new show isn't particularly shocking, but that won't make it any easier for UPN as the network scrambles to find a last-minute replacement to be the star of the series.

Labels: Television (Non-MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 6:03 PM

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Television--- With all of the TV network's fall schedules having been officially unveiled, the top questions have now become, "Which of the cancelled series have episodes that never aired, which shows are going to be burned off this summer, which shows are never going to see the light of the day again, and which shows are returning this summer?" This post will answer all of those questions on a network-by-network basis.

ABC
-The Bachelorette is one of the few series whose status has legitimately not been decided yet. ABC said at its upfront presentation earlier this week that it believes the reason for The Bachelor's slipping ratings is that the show is over-exposed with three cycles of the show in any given TV season. In an attempt to revitalize the struggling franchise, ABC will be cutting back to a "one or two cycles per year" format. ABC's decision on The Bachelorette's future will likely depend on how The Bachelor fares in the ratings when it returns to the schedule in January 2006.

If The Bachelor's ratings go back up to where they used to be, ABC could order new seasons of both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. If The Bachelor still draws low ratings even with the "freshness" of only one cycle per year, it's likely that ABC would cancel both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. It hasn't helped the long-term viewership of either show that 90% of the couples who "end up together" at the end of each season actually break up shortly thereafter.

-It was considered so likely that the little-watched sitcom Jake in Progress would be cancelled by ABC that the series' star, John Stamos, was already in negotiations to join the cast of NBC's ER next season as a doctor. Those plans are off now that Jake in Progress has gotten a surprising renewal.

-Blind Justice was cancelled with eleven of its thirteen episodes having aired, and ABC does plan to air the remaining two episodes. Those episodes will air in the Tuesdays at 10:00 PM timeslot on May 31 and June 7, before the show leaves the airwaves for good.

-The non-home edition of Extreme Makeover has one previously unaired episode, which ABC plans to air on Thursday, June 30 at 9:00 PM. ABC would not rule out the possibility of bringing the show back from time to time as a special, but it definitely won't be airing as a regular series anymore.

-Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: How'd They Do That? is scheduled to air the final episode of its fifteen-episode order this coming Monday, May 23. The American public seems to be very interested in seeing home makeovers, as evidenced by the monster ratings for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, but the public did not seem to be interested in seeing the answer to the question, "How'd They Do That?"

-Four episodes of the cancelled ABC comedy Complete Savages have never aired, and ABC plans to air those episodes in the Fridays at 8:30 PM timeslot starting next Friday, May 27.

-The freshman drama Eyes was put on hiatus before May sweeps began, with only five of the show's thirteen episodes ever having aired. ABC may or may not burn off the series' eight remaining episodes over the summer.

-ABC's failed teen drama Life As We Know was put on hiatus way back in January, with two of its episodes having never aired. Those two episodes are unlikely to ever air on ABC, but the complete series will be released in DVD form on August 23 for the approximately four people who were fans of the show...

-ABC only aired five of the six episodes that were produced for Life of Luxury's second season, and there are no plans to broadcast the remaining episode.

NBC
-A second season of The Biggest Loser is listed on the NBC fall schedule that was released this week, but the show is actually scheduled as a summer series that runs into the fall. The season premiere is scheduled for August 9, and the season finale is scheduled for late September or early October. The Biggest Loser will be airing in the Tuesdays at 8:00 PM timeslot, and it's rumored that once the show's season is over in that timeslot, Fear Factor could take its place on the schedule. As of right now, there is no officially scheduled return date for Fear Factor; it is simply listed as a "midseason replacement show" on NBC's schedule.

-The reality series Average Joe is returning to NBC's line-up, but only as a summer series and only with a six-episode season. The season premiere is scheduled for Tuesday, June 28 at 8:00 PM.

-Thirteen episodes of Law & Order: Trial by Jury were produced, but NBC decided to make the 12th episode the season finale. This decision was apparently made because the 13th episode had a cliffhanger ending that would make viewers want to tune in next season, and since there isn't going to be a next season for this series, NBC decided not to air the episode at all.

-Revelations was planned as a six-part mini-series on NBC, not a regular series. All six episodes of the show aired, and NBC has no plans to turn it into a regular series.

-The failed Heather Locklear drama LAX has been cancelled by NBC, but the show did air all thirteen of its episodes before it was pulled from the schedule.

-NBC pulled the freshman drama Hawaii from the schedule last October with seven of the series' eight episodes having aired. There are no plans to air the last remaining episode.

-NBC aired eleven original episodes of the animated comedy Father of the Pride before pulling the show from the schedule last December due to very poor ratings. The remaining two unaired episodes of the series are very unlikely to ever see the light of day.

Fox
-After ordering a dozen new series in each of the last several summers, Fox is only going to be debuting four new series this summer, as it places more of an emphasis on a traditional fall line-up instead of a "year-round schedule." The Inside is a new drama that will be airing in the Wednesdays at 9:00 PM timeslot starting on June 8, and the other three debuting series for Fox this summer are all reality series. To briefly run down those shows, Hell's Kitchen will air in the Mondays at 9:00 PM timeslot starting on May 30, So You Think You Can Dance will air in the Wednesdays at 8:00 PM timeslot starting on July 20, and the Princes of Malibu (which only has a six-episode order) will be airing in the Sundays at 8:30 PM timeslot starting on July 10. Fox has scheduled all of its new reality series for the summer and has zero new reality series on its fall schedule.

-Renovate My Family will be returning to the Fox line-up as a summer series in the Thursdays at 9:00 PM timeslot starting on June 30.

-Five episodes of the Fox flop Jonny Zero remain unaired, but it was considered shocking that Fox kept airing the series for as long as it did (eight weeks), so the five unaired episodes are unlikely to ever see the light of day.

-Only eight of Point Pleasant's thirteen episodes ever aired, but it's considered unlikely that the other five episodes will ever air.

-Fox pulled Tru Calling from the schedule just one week before its scheduled series finale, leaving that final episode just floating out there in space. That could very well have been done intentionally to drum up DVD sales for the second season of the show. There is no scheduled release date at this point for the second season on DVD, but you better believe it's coming at some point.

-The controversial Fox reality series, "Who's Your Daddy?" was actually a regular series with six episodes produced, not a one-time special. It was just turned into a special and quickly cancelled because of the outrage over how tasteless it was, and also the fact that the one episode that did air wasn't able to draw a decent rating. With Fox pushing at the upfront presentations that all of its reality shows are going to be "advertiser-friendly," this is exactly the kind of trashy reality show that Fox is trying to avoid in the future. As a result, the chances are almost zero that the five remaining episodes of "Who's Your Daddy?" will ever air.

-Kelsey Grammer's The Sketch Show got a six-episode order from Fox, but only four episodes aired before Fox cancelled the show. The remaining two episodes are unlikely to ever be aired.

-Only five of Life on a Stick's thirteen episodes ever aired. The plan as recently as a few weeks ago was for the eight remaining episodes to be burned off in the Wednesdays at 8:30 PM timeslot starting on June 1, but now it appears that Fox has decided to simply air an extra half-hour of That 70's Show repeats in that timeslot over the summer. There are currently no plans to air the eight remaining episodes of Life on a Stick, but that could change between now and the end of the summer.

-Sixteen episodes of the failed reality show My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss were ordered and produced, but only eleven of them aired. The other five episodes will never be aired, but Fox did make those episodes available for download on its web site.

UPN and The WB
-All of UPN's cancelled series had all of their episodes aired before they were pulled from the schedule.

-Five episodes of the cancelled WB series Summerland remain unaired, and The WB plans to air those episodes in the Tuesdays at 9:00 PM timeslot starting on June 7.

-Drew Carey's first foray into network television since the cancellation of ABC's The Drew Carey Show did not go well. The WB ordered thirteen episodes of his new series, Drew Carey's Green Screen, but only five episodes aired before the show was pulled from the schedule. There are currently no plans to air the remaining eight episodes, but The WB could certainly burn them off over the summer if they wanted to fill some space.

CBS
-Seven episodes of the reality show The Will were produced for CBS, each of them one hour long, but the network decided at the last minute to have the first two episodes re-edited into a 90-minute season premiere. That 90-minute season premiere did so horribly in the ratings that CBS amazingly cancelled the series after just one episode. There are no plans to air the other five hours of the show.

-Center of the Universe, the freshman comedy starring John Goodman, was pulled ten episodes into its fifteen-episode run and was later officially cancelled, despite the fact that it was drawing decent ratings. There are currently no plans to air the remaining five episodes.

-One of the biggest flops of the season was the CBS drama Clubhouse. After getting hyped up by CBS at last year's upfront presentation, the show ended up getting pulled from the airwaves after only five episodes, and there are no plans to air the other six episodes that were produced. This fall's version of Clubhouse could very well be Ghost Whisperers starring Jennifer Love Hewitt.

-Another flop for CBS was the Rob Lowe drama Dr. Vegas, which was also pulled after five episodes. There is very little chance that the show's five unaired episodes will ever be broadcast.

-Another Viacom-owned network, Comedy Central, recently placed the "post-South Park timeslot" show Con on hiatus after six of its eight original episodes had aired. There is no word on when or if the remaining two episodes will air, but repeats of the show are continuing to air in latenight timeslots. This past week, Comedy Central plugged a repeat of Drawn Together into the Wednesdays at 10:30 PM timeslot where Con would normally air.

-The 2004-2005 TV season officially ends this coming Wednesday (May 25), so at some point after that I will have a "Season in Review and Look Ahead to Next Season" for each of the six broadcast networks.

Labels: Television (Non-MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 11:19 PM

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Television--- The television industry's annual "Upfront Week" came to a close earlier today with Fox and UPN unveiling their fall schedules. Ivan's Blog has been covering the network's upfront presentations all week, with coverage of the presentations from CBS, ABC, NBC, and The WB on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Fox
-With less than a week to go in the 2004-2005 television season, Fox is on the verge of picking up its first ever #1 finish in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49 year-old demographic. As a result, Fox announced a more traditional line-up at its upfront presentation earlier today, with a lot of comedies and dramas on the line-up and not a single new reality series on the fall schedule.

-Fox will not be waiting until after the baseball season to launch its new fall line-up, as it has done in past years. Instead, many shows will have their premieres in late August or early September. The baseball playoffs will then dominate the Fox schedule as always in October, and then the schedule will pick up right where it left off in November.

-Fox has officially cancelled Quintuplets, The Sketch Show, Life on a Stick, North Shore, Point Pleasant, Tru Calling, The Swan, The World's Craziest Videos, and Totally Outrageous Behavior.

-What's more surprising than the list of cancelled shows is the list of shows that were not cancelled, most notably The Bernie Mac Show. Bernie Mac has been renewed despite horrible ratings and will continue to air Friday nights at 8:00 PM. Part of Fox's decision to renew Bernie Mac may be rooted in the fact that the show was a favorite of former network president Gail Berman, who left the company two months ago. New president Peter Liguori, who was just brought over from FX, may not have wanted to shake things up too much or alienate employees who were close to Berman.

-As recently as a week ago, the rumors about Arrested Development were that even if Fox did renew the show, it would only order 13 episodes or it would bring the show back with a reduced cast. As it turns out, Fox has renewed the show for a full season of 22 episodes and will be keeping the same big cast, but it will be moving the show to the Mondays at 8:00 PM timeslot, where it will serve as the lead-in for the new comedy Kitchen Confidential. Kitchen Confidential is not to be confused with another Fox series, Hell's Kitchen, which is a new reality series that will be airing on Fox over the summer.

-Family Guy and American Dad have both been renewed for an additional season beyond the ones that they just started airing on May 1. So, Family Guy will finish its current season of 22 episodes over the summer and then return in the fall as a regular series, while American Dad will finish its current season of 19 episodes over the summer and then return in the fall as a regular series.

-The critically acclaimed drama 24 has been renewed for two new seasons after a brief dispute over licensing fees between Fox and the show's producers was resolved (but not before NBC tried to take advantage of the situation and sign the show away from Fox). Fox will continue with the strategy that worked so well for 24 this year, as it will hold off the season premiere until January so that the show can air its entire season with no pre-emptions or repeats from January through May.

-The old stand-bys of Fox's schedule will not be changing, as Cops and America's Most Wanted will continue to air on Saturday nights, and American Idol will still air on Tuesday nights at 8:00 PM and Wednesday nights at 9:00 PM starting in January.

-The highly coveted post-American Idol timeslot, which made a star out of House this past season, will be going to the new drama Bones this season. Bones will actually start airing in the fall in the Tuesdays at 8:00 PM timeslot, but once American Idol takes over that timeslot again in January 2006, Bones will be moved back an hour to 9:00 PM on Tuesdays.

-House has been renewed for a full season and will air on Tuesdays at 9:00 PM this fall, but then in January 2006 it will move to Mondays at 8:00 PM.

-Malcolm in the Middle was renewed for another season despite bad ratings this past season, thanks largely to all of its critical acclaim. However, the show is getting moved to the not-so-friendly timeslot of Fridays at 8:30 PM. Given that it has been many, many years since Fox has had a hit show on Friday night, this could end up being Malcolm's final season.

-A rotation of various animated show repeats will air in the Sundays at 7:00 PM timeslot. King of the Hill drew horrible ratings in that timeslot this past season, but was renewed anyway and will now be moved to Sundays at 7:30 PM. Due to King of the Hill's struggling ratings, it is considered very likely that this will be the show's last season.

-The post-Simpsons timeslot of Sundays at 8:30 PM, which has not really produced a ratings hit in several years, will be going to the new live-action (as in not animated) comedy, The War at Home.

-The OC will continue to air on Thursday nights at 8:00 PM in what will soon be the most competitive timeslot on all of television. Fox has failed horribly with three different shows in the post-OC timeslot, mainly because CSI airs from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM and crushes everything in the ratings. Fox will try again this fall in the post-OC timeslot with the ambitious new drama Reunion, which chronicles the lives of six friends over a 20-year period, with each episode covering one year of their lives.

-That 70's Show has been renewed despite the fact that it no longer draws good ratings. It will continue to air on Wednesday nights at 8:00 PM this fall in what is officially scheduled to be the show's final season.

-The Pamela Anderson comedy Stacked was renewed despite mediocre ratings and horrible reviews. It will air on Wednesday nights at 8:30 PM, without the benefit of American Idol as a lead-in.

-Reality shows Nanny 911 and Trading Spouses have both been renewed, but are not on the fall schedule. Instead, both shows will be used as midseason replacement shows when some of the new fall series inevitably fail.

-Fox announced that The Simple Life will be returning for a fourth season despite the fact that ratings were down significantly in its third season. However, the show is not on the fall schedule and it's not known exactly when it will return. What is known is that Nicole Richie will not be back for the fourth season due to a personal falling out between Richie and her co-star Paris Hilton (the most specific thing Hilton has said about the reason for the falling out is, "Nicole knows what she did"). Fox has not officially announced a replacement for Richie on the show, but it's rumored to be Rod Stewart's daughter, Kimberly, who meets the description of "physically attractive and mentally dense" that is required for the role.

UPN
-In addition to the previously announced cancellation of Star Trek Enterprise, UPN has also cancelled Kevin Hill, Second Time Around, and The Road to Stardom.

-Veronica Mars and Kevin Hill both had a decent amount of critical acclaim, and both also had very low ratings. As part of its new female-focused strategy, UPN chose to renew Veronica Mars while cancelling Kevin Hill.

-UPN is going after the female audience and is willing to risk alienating male viewers as a result, with the new slogan for this fall, "Where the Girls Are."

-In a move that caught everyone by surprising (including WWE), UPN is demoting WWE Smackdown from Thursdays to Fridays. For many years, Smackdown was the #1 show on UPN, and its high ratings actually kept UPN in business at a time when it was on the verge of being shut down by Viacom. Smackdown is currently the #2 highest-rated show on UPN, second only to America's Next Top Model, which is what makes it so shocking that UPN would move the show to the wasteland of Friday night, which has traditionally been a throwaway movie night for the network. Smackdown is expected to continue airing on Thursday nights until the new season starts this fall, at which point it will move to Fridays.

-UPN spent a large percentage of its upfront presentation hyping up Everybody Hates Chris, a new comedy produced and narrated by Chris Rock, which will air on Thursday nights at 8:00 PM. UPN made a lot of bold statements about the show, saying that it will be a break-out hit for UPN like The Simpsons was for Fox and Survivor was for CBS, and saying that it will be this generation's Cosby Show. The president of UPN even took a verbal shot at NBC's Joey by saying that hopefully Everybody Hates Chris will fill TV's comedy void in the Thursdays at 8:00 PM timeslot.

-Everybody Hates Chris will be the start of a four-show comedy block on UPN's Thursday night line-up. Following the 8:00 PM timeslot of Everybody Hates Chris will be Eve at 8:30 PM (which is moving over from Tuesday nights), Cuts at 9:00 PM (which is moving over from Monday nights), and Love, Inc. at 9:30 PM (which is a new comedy starring Shannen Doherty as a matchmaker, and we all know how well matchmaker comedies do).

-America's Next Top Model will actually be broadcast two nights per week, with new episodes premiering on Wednesday nights at 8:00 PM and then replaying the following Tuesday at 8:00 PM.

-UPN will try to use America's Next Top Model to create two new hits. The Top Model repeats on Tuesday nights will lead into the new drama Sex, Lies, and Secrets starring Denise Richards. The new episodes of Top Model on Wednesday nights will lead into Veronica Mars on its new night and time. The timeslot right after Top Model is considered the best timeslot on UPN, so the ratings expectations will be much higher for Veronica Mars next season. Unfortunately for UPN, putting Veronica Mars in the Wednesdays at 9:00 PM timeslot means that it will be going head-to-head with ABC's smash hit Lost.

-UPN's all-comedy Monday line-up will stay largely intact with One on One at 8:00 PM, Girlfriends an hour later at 9:00 PM, and Half & Half at 9:30 PM. To fill the Mondays at 8:30 PM timeslot, All of Us will be moving over from Tuesday nights. All of Us was expected to be cancelled as recently as yesterday, but it got a last-minute renewal from UPN.

-I'll be back tomorrow evening with a rundown of which shows are scheduled to return this summer, which cancelled shows are scheduled to be burned off this summer, and which cancelled shows have unaired episodes that will probably never see the light of day.

Labels: Television (Non-MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 11:35 PM

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Television--- It was CBS' turn earlier today to make its annual upfront presentation to advertisers, as dozens of TV shows were either renewed or cancelled. NBC, ABC, and The WB have already made their upfront presentations, as detailed in my coverage of the events on Monday and Tuesday.

-CBS had one of its best TV seasons in recent memory, and unlike ABC with its massive schedule changes for this fall, CBS is not going to try to fix something that isn't broken. There were plenty of changes to the schedule announced, but not the kind of drastic changes announced by the resurgent ABC or the struggling NBC. As the TV network with the highest ratings on all of television, CBS has less areas that it needs to change or improve, but it also has a lower tolerance for low ratings and will not hesitate to cancel a show if it's not meeting the network's expectations.

-The biggest news from CBS is that after six and a half years on the air, 60 Minutes Wednesday has been cancelled, not coincidentally in its first renewal cycle after the Dan Rather "Memo-Gate" scandal during last year's election season. CBS president Les Moonves said that it was a ratings decision and not a content decision to cancel the show, but that's ignoring the fact that the show's ratings started to fall off after the Memo-Gate scandal. New episodes of 60 Minutes Wednesday are expected to continue airing through the end of the summer. Dan Rather will get to save face by appearing as a correspondent on 60 Minutes Sunday, although Moonves did say that Rather will not be given "co-editor" status, as other 60 Minutes correspondents are given. Rather's contract with CBS expires in 2006, at which point he will either renew his contract or leave the network entirely.

-As reported yesterday on Ivan's Blog, it was looking more and more likely that Listen Up, Judging Amy, and Joan of Arcadia would all get cancelled, and that's exactly what happened. The most surprising of these cancellations has to be Judging Amy, because nobody in the TV industry would have believed you a few months ago if you told them that Judging Amy would get cancelled. In its sixth season, the show was drawing very good ratings even by CBS' high standards, but its ratings weren't as impressive in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49 year-old demographic, and that is very likely what led to the show's demise.

-Joan of Arcadia's cancellation was expected, and the term "from buzz to bust" has been used to describe the show a lot in recent days. The show did well in its first season, but fell off dramatically in its second season and will not be returning for a third.

-Listen Up, a comedy based on the life of Pardon the Interruption co-host and Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser, was also cancelled in a close call that could have gone either way. The show's ratings started off as a moderate hit by CBS ratings standards before eventually slipping to being a mild disappointment by CBS ratings standards, and CBS doesn't have to tolerate mild disappointments with as many hit shows as it has. It's worth noting that the "mildly disappointing" ratings in the 6.5 range that Listen Up was drawing towards the end of its run would be considered a hit on any other network on television, but not on CBS.

-Wickedly Perfect will not be brought back for a second season, and it was considered merciful and highly unusual for CBS to let the show play out its entire ten-episode first season given its horrible ratings. It was demoted to Saturday nights, but normally if a show draws ratings this bad, it gets yanked immediately. As an example, the reality show The Will produced extremely low ratings for CBS on a Saturday night ONE TIME earlier this season and was never seen or heard from again.

-Center of the Universe, the freshman comedy starring John Goodman, will not be returning for a second season. The show was put on hiatus way back in January and has now been officially cancelled, despite the fact that it was drawing decent ratings. Five episodes of the series remain unaired, and it remains possible that CBS could air those five episodes sometime this summer.

-The newsmagazine 48 Hours Mystery has been renewed by CBS despite fairly low ratings, but it airs on Saturday night and it has much lower ratings standards to meet as a result. Also, with the cancellation of 60 Minutes Wednesday, CBS didn't want to cancel two of its three newsmagazines in one fell swoop. Starting this fall, CBS, ABC, and NBC will all have two hours of newsmagazines on the schedule per week (CBS with 60 Minutes Sunday and 48 Hours Mystery, ABC with Primetime Live and 20/20, and NBC with Dateline Friday and Dateline Sunday).

-CSI New York could have easily been moved to a less competitive, but CBS is not backing down an inch from going after the original Law & Order franchise in the Wednesdays at 10:00 PM timeslot. CSI New York is the only CSI franchise that doesn't automatically crush everything in its path in the ratings, but it's still a huge step for it to challenge Law & Order in the ratings the way it has in just its first season. Repeats of CSI New York will start airing on Spike TV in September.

-CBS is also not backing down from the new threat it has faced in the Sundays at 8:00 PM timeslot from ABC's breakout hit Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, as CBS' own hit show Cold Case will continue to air in that timeslot rather than being moved to a different night or time.

-As previously reported, the huge hit comedy Two and a Half Men will indeed inherit the Mondays at 9:00 PM timeslot left behind by Everybody Loves Raymond.

-King of Queens and Still Standing have both been renewed and will be swapping nights. After two years on Wednesday nights with mixed results in the ratings, King of Queens will be returning to its old Mondays at 8:00 PM timeslot. Still Standing, which has been in the Mondays at 8:00 PM timeslot for the past two seasons, will be moved to Wednesdays at 8:00 PM.

-Yes Dear was relegated to being "just a midseason replacement show" this past season and was considered likely to be cancelled, but its ratings upon returning to the schedule were higher than CBS expected, thus earning the show a renewal for another season. Yes Dear will air this fall on Wednesday nights at 8:30 PM, thus reuniting the show with its old lead-in, Still Standing.

-NCIS and The Amazing Race have both been renewed and will continue to air on Tuesday nights at 8:00 PM and 9:00 PM, respectively. The NCIS renewal is mildly surprising given the fact that while the show draws strong overall ratings, it has never done well in the 18-to-49 year old demographic, which is what got Judging Amy cancelled.

-The highest-profile new series on CBS' fall schedule is Ghost Whisperers, which will air on Friday nights at 8:00 PM. The show is very similar to NBC's Medium in concept, only with Jennifer Love Hewitt as the star. So the show is basically being pitched by CBS as, "Jennifer Love Hewitt's breast implants communicate with the dead..."

-The freshman drama Numbers has been renewed, despite a big drop-off from its initial ratings to where its ratings ended up, and it will stay in the Fridays at 10:00 PM timeslot.

-The ridiculous over-exposure of Survivor will continue this fall in the Thursdays at 8:00 PM timeslot with Survivor: Guatemala, which seems like the 751st season of show.

-The highest-rated two-hour block of programming from any single TV network will remain intact, as CSI and Without a Trace will continue to air on Thursday nights from 9:00 PM to 11:00 PM.

-Big Brother is returning for another season, but only as a summer series at this point. The new season of the show will premiere on July 7, and CBS will then decide whether or not to pick up the series for any additional seasons based on its ratings performance this summer.

-I'll be back with a report tomorrow evening from the final day of upfront presentations, with Fox and UPN set to unveil their fall schedules.

Labels: Television (Non-MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 11:47 PM

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Television--- As detailed in yesterday's live updates from the television industry's annual upfront presentations, this is the week of the year in which all of the TV networks reveal their fall line-ups and drop the axe on numerous cancelled shows.

Yesterday, the NBC line-up was officially revealed, along with some surprising cancellations, and today it's time for ABC and The WB to give their upfront presenations. CBS is scheduled to make its presentation tomorrow, followed by Fox and UPN on Thursday.

First Post at 5:04 PM:
-As previously reported on Ivan's Blog, ABC has indeed cancelled Eight Simple Rules and My Wife & Kids, making it official that the two veteran comedies will not be returning despite still delivering decent ratings...

-Less Than Perfect has been renewed by ABC despite fairly low ratings, but it will serve as a midseason replacement show and is not on the fall schedule...

-The Bachelor has been renewed by ABC despite slipping ratings, and it will air on Monday nights starting in January 2006 after Monday Night Football's season is over...

-The status of The Bachelorette is still very much up the air after the most recent season failed to peak in the ratings as it normally does, and the series may or may not return at some point as a midseason replacement show...

-As previously announced, this upcoming season of Monday Night Football will be the last season for the show on ABC, as starting in the fall of 2006, the series will air on ESPN... despite high ratings, the series was a big money-loser for ABC due to high rights fees and advertising rates that are lower than what you'd expect...

UPDATE at 5:25 PM:
-ABC officially confirms that it is renewing the little-watched comedy Jake in Progress, some of the show's stars had actually starting the casting process for the next season of pilot series, which is normally an indication that a show is a sure goner... the show will air on Mondays at 9:30 PM starting in January 2006 when the Monday Night Football season ends...

-ABC renews its smash hit Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and keeps it in the same Sundays at 8:00 PM timeslot, but cancels the show's two poorly-rated cousins... Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: How'd They Do That? has been given the axe because the American public apparently wasn't all that interested in seeing "how they did that," while the original Extreme Makeover is also cancelled, as for whatever reason the public has been far more receptive to seeing homes get makeovers than seeing people get makeovers...

-The previously rumored cancellations of Eyes, Complete Savages, and Blind Justice have been officially confirmed by ABC...

-The WB will have to find a new co-star for its midseason comedy Modern Men, as Wendie Malick of Just Shoot Me fame had been cast in the lead female role with the expectation that Jake in Progress was dead in the water... with Jake in Progress renewed and Malick still obligated to appear in her role on that show, WB is now scrambling to find a last-minute replacement to play Malick's role in Modern Men...

UPDATE at 5:41 PM:
-Much of the talk of the TV industry has been Fox's announcement that it has renewed Arrested Development for a full third season of 22 episodes, as the new president of Fox TV is getting major kudos for sticking with a critically acclaimed show despite its low ratings, what's not known is whether the series will keep its Sunday night timeslot or get bumped to a different night...

-The hot rumor about Fox's Thursday presentation is that the network will announce that it has reached a renewal agreement for not one, but two new seasons of the crtitically acclaimed series 24, this comes amid talk that NBC had been trying to steal 24 from Fox during a licensing dispute between Fox and 24's producers...

-Word is finally starting to leak out from CBS about what will and won't be renewed, as it appears likely that Still Standing, Yes Dear, and Numbers will be renewed...

-Listen Up and Judging Amy are on the bubble and may or may not be renewed despite the fact that both shows draw fairly high ratings...

-It's looking more and more likely that Joan of Arcadia will get the axe from CBS, as the show's ratings have tanked in the past year and CBS does not normally tolerate sharp ratings decreases...

UPDATE at 5:59 PM:
-The big news from ABC is that almost every show in the line-up is getting a new night or time, including Lost, Alias, Boston Legal, George Lopez, Super Nanny, Wife Swap, The Bachelor, and According to Jim... many of the changes seem nice individually, but the question remains whether viewers will be confused by the fact that the vast majority of shows on the network have a new night or time, with Sunday being the only unchanged night...

-Other than the Sunday night line-up and newsmagazines 20/20 and Primetime Live, there is only one show on the entire ABC line-up that will be back next year on the same exact night and time, and that is Hope & Faith in the Fridays at 9:00 PM timeslot...

-Lost will stay on Wednesdays but will be moved from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM, which ABC hopes will push the show's already huge ratings over the top even more, but it's also a very big risk because the second half of the season will be going head to head with the Wednesday American Idol shows...

-Alias is being moved to Thursdays at 8:00 PM with new episodes starting this fall in a move that appears on the surface to be "taking on the big powerhouses of NBC and CBS on Thursdays," but is in fact a concession of defeat from ABC after Alias' ratings tanked over the course of the past season...

-Boston Legal, which had been airing on Sundays at 10:00 PM after Desperate Housewives until Grey's Anatomy debuted, will not be getting its old timeslot back, as it's being moved to Tuesdays at 10:00 PM...

-The George Lopez Show has been officially renewed, despite the fact that its ratings were no better than its timeslot neighbor My Wife & Kids, which got cancelled... Lopez will be moving from its current Tuesday timeslot to the old Lost timeslot on Wednesdays at 8:00 PM...

-ABC officially renews Wife Swap and will air the show during the football season at 8:00 PM before Monday Night Football on the East Coast, and at 10:00 PM after Monday Night Football on the West Coast, this is the same timeslot in which Mark Cuban's The Benefactor failed so miserably last season...

-Super Nanny gets renewed by ABC and given the new timeslot of Fridays at 8:00 PM, this marks the second time ABC has re-launched and then abandoned its "TGIF" all-comedy line-up on Fridays...

-Even According to Jim is getting a new timeslot, as it moves from Tuesdays at 9:00 PM to Tuesdays at 8:00 PM, while Rodney has been officially renewed and will follow According to Jim on Tuesday nights at 8:30 PM... ABC is throwing Jim and Rodney under the bus with the belief that they will manage to hold up in the ratings despite the fact that they will be going head to head with the American Idol juggernaut starting in early 2006...

UPDATE at 6:23 PM:
-The big announcement from The WB's upfront presentation is that the network is going against the big networks head-on by moving Smallville and Everwood to Thursday nights... while Everwood's ratings will surely be crushed in the Thursdays at 9:00 PM timeslot, Smallville won't necessarily see drastic ratings decreases in the Thursdays at 8:00 PM timeslot because of the overrated and relatively weak competition it will have in that timeslot (Joey, Will & Grace, Alias)...

-The WB has officially cancelled Jack & Bobby, Steve Harvey's Big Time Challenge, Grounded for Life, The Mountain, and Drew Carey's Green Screen... Jack & Bobby and Steve Harvey were both considered borderline shows, and neither of them made the cut...

-One Tree Hill and Charmed have both been renewed despite mediocre ratings... Charmed will stay in the Sundays at 8:00 PM timeslot, while One Tree Hill will be moved to Wednesdays at 8:00 PM...

-7th Heaven is staying on Mondays at 8:00 PM and Gilmore Girls is staying on Tuesdays at 8:00 PM, both shows will used as strong lead-ins to launch new dramas in the 9:00 PM timeslot on Mondays and Tuesdays...

-What I Like About You, whose status was unknown as recently as yesterday, has been officially renewed by The WB and will be in the Fridays at 8:00 PM timeslot...

-As detailed yesterday on Ivan's Blog, WB executives settled a huge dispute with the producers of Reba at the last minute and were able to renew the series, which will continue to air Friday nights at 9:00 PM...

UPDATE at 6:40 PM:
-The WB has officially renewed Blue Collar TV, which has been a hit based on The WB's ratings standards, but the nework is throwing Blue Collar TV under the bus by moving it to the Sundays at 9:00 PM timeslot, where it will be head-to-head with the Desperate Housewives juggernaut...

-One might think that there's not much of a connection between Desperate Housewives viewership and a male-oriented show on The WB, but the now-cancelled Steve Harvey's ratings fell off dramatically as soon as the show starting going head-to-head with Desperate Housewives...

-A cancellation from The WB that was not mentioned before was The Starlet, which has also been officially cancelled...

-The status of Trading Spouses on Fox was still up the air as of yesterday, but now it is believed that Fox will announce on Thursday that it is renewing the series...

UPDATE at 7:06 PM:
-Summerland has also been cancelled by The WB and will burn off its five still-unaired episodes, ironically enough, this summer...

-Regarding Fear Factor, which has been renewed by NBC but is being held off from the fall schedule and is instead going to be used as a midseason replacement show, word is that when the show returns it will be moving from its current Monday night timeslot to Tuesdays at 9:00 PM after The Biggest Loser finishes its season in that timeslot, this would put the show head-to-head with American Idol...

-Life As We Know It has also been officially cancelled by ABC, although that has been long assumed, it's interesting because Life As We Know It was a drama in the Thursdays at 8:00 PM timeslot, and it failed miserably, so what does ABC do? It puts Alias in that timeslot starting this fall...

-Even though ABC has cancelled Extreme Makeover (non-Home Edition) as a regular series, it still reserves the right to air occasional Extreme Makeover specials in which people gets makeovers... the only version of the series that is a big hit is Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which will continue to air on Sundays at 8:00 PM...

-Regarding The Bachelor and its decreasing ratings, ABC said during its upfront presentation that it feels the show has aired too many seasons in too short of a time period (you think?), and that the network hopes to breathe new life into The Bachelor by only airing one or two cycles of the series per season...

UPDATE at 7:35 PM:
-The talk of the TV industry right now is that ABC has tinkered far too much with something that was not broken... the network just had its best season of ratings in many, many years, and it have responded by rolling out a 2005-2006 schedule that will see ONE non-Sunday TV show keep its same day and time... the network has literally changed almost its entire schedule, which could come back to bite it in the ass...

-With My Wife & Kids having been cancelled by ABC, tonight's season finale of the show will also be the series finale...

-More info leaking out of CBS prior to tomorrow's upfront presentation... It is looking more and more likely that Listen Up, Joan of Arcadia, and Judging Amy will all be cancelled at CBS' presentation tomorrow... Joan is considered almost a sure goner, and Listen Up and Judging Amy each probably have about a 40% chance of being renewed at this point...

-There is surprising talk that CBS might cancel 60 Minutes Wednesday due to its low ratings compared to 60 Minutes Sunday, and the credibility problems that last year's election-season report from Dan Rather gave the network...

-On-the-bubble drama NCIS (not to be confused with the CSI franchise, which it has nothing to do with) looks like it will be renewed, the show always draws strong overall ratings, but very poor ratings in the key 18-to-49 year-old demographic

-King of Queens appears to be safe and headed for a renewal, although it might be moved back to Monday nights because it has not performed well on Wednesday nights head-to-head with American Idol...

-The likely heir to the Everybody Loves Raymond throne in the Mondays at 9:00 PM timeslot is Two and a Half Men, which drew excellent ratings this past season that were almost as good as Raymond's ratings...

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

Labels: Television (Non-MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 5:04 PM

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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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Television--- If you tuned into last night's episode of The Apprentice expecting to see the season finale, you were undoubtedly disappointed to find that NBC pulled the ultimate bait and switch. The network advertised all week long that this episode would feature "the final showdown" between the final two contestants, Kendra and Tana. Right up until the end, it seemed as though that would be the case.

The entire final task played out, the final two contestants had their say in the boardroom, the choice of who should be the winner was painfully obvious to the youngest children in the viewing audience, and it appeared that it was just a matter of moments before the "boardroom" would fall back as it did in the first season finale, revealing that the final boardroom was actually in front of a live studio audience and not in Trump Tower, and Trump would utter the words, "You're hired."

Then something strange happened. After the contestants were asked to leave so that Trump could get the "opinions" of the go-along-to-get-along George and Carolyn, the "Executive Producer" credits appeared on the screen, along with dramatic music and a fade to black. It was 9:54 PM, and the show was over. A commercial aired that said, "Stay tuned for scenes from next week's episode!" The Apprentice-related programming on next week's schedule at 9:00 PM is not an Apprentice reunion show of any kind, it's the real "season finale" that was advertised for this week. Talk about a bait and switch.

Besides the obvious factor of hurting the goodwill you've built up with the audience, next week's episode of The Apprentice may very well be the most anti-climactic season finale in the history of reality television. The way Kendra and Tana performed on the final task, the way the show's editors put a spotlight on Tana's numerous screw-ups, and the way everyone involved seemed to take notice of Tana's many screw-ups all combine to make it extremely obvious that Kendra is going to win. Much like the final three of this season where everyone knew Craig was getting fired, the right thing to do in this case was to make the final elimination itself similarly brief and to the point, not stretch it out to an entire hour.

There is going to be an hour-long boardroom next week where everyone knows damn well going into it who the winner is going to be. Trump & Co. are going to go through the motions, pretending that they don't know who they have chosen, just as they did in the first and second season finales, only in the first two seasons it wasn't this obvious. That's not just bait and switch, that's bad television. Mark Burnett himself is no genius, as his record includes two hit shows (Survivor and The Apprentice) and two absolute flops (The Restaurant and The Contender). Whoever decided at NBC or Mark Burnett Productions to format the final few episodes of this season in this manner should be fired.

As for what did air in this week's episode, it was clear that Tana couldn't handle the pressure while Kendra was more than prepared for it. Kendra inherited a bad sponsorship situation, where EA Sports was contractually set to be the only video game company with advertising on the main floor, and yet you also had Sony as a sponsor that had to be pleased. Kendra made sure that the basement was transformed overnight from a grungy wasteland to a spiffy-looking PlayStation destination, making the Sony representative's attitude go from annoyed and snippy to jubilant and pleasantly surprised.

On the other hand, Tana bungled just about everything from beginning to end in her "New York City 2012 Olympics Promotion" event. She was given three teammates of "questionable skill," just as Kendra was, but instead of embracing them and trying to get the most out of them as Kendra did, Tana immediately wanted to distance herself from the task, establishing from the get-go that any screw-ups were certainly not her fault.

It's one thing to think that in your mind, it's another thing to be as openly disrespectful of your employees in the way that Tana was. To actually refer to your employees as "The Three Stooges" to Carolyn shows not only a lack of professionalism, but a complete obliviousness of what professionalism is. It only got worse as Tana repeatedly made statements to sponsors, event coordinators, and executives on the floor of the event as it was taking place like, "Oh, that's a bad idea, I bet that came from Chris" and "Did you see how she's trying to tell the boss what to do? I just want to punch somebody in the face!"

In the case of Chris and clearing the track so the athletes could warm up, Chris actually got it right and Tana got it wrong, as Tana found out moments after openly disparaging Chris. But let's say it was a case where an employee screws something up and the boss has to come in and fix it, in front of key corporate partners or customers. You would ideally want to portray your employees in the best light possible, to give the appearance that you're running a smooth-sailing ship even if you're not, to make others look better in front of key partners so that your operation as a whole looks better.

It was clear from the very beginning that none of those things mattered to Tana. The most important thing to her was that whenever there was a screw-up, she made sure that everyone within a half-mile radius knew that it was not her fault, that she had nothing to do with it, that she was stuck with incompetent employees. She later said in the boardroom, "I didn't get to pick my employees, you know!" as if any new president of a company gets to choose whether they inherit great employees or whether they inherit incompetent employees.

Tana's three employees weren't the best you could get, but neither were Kendra's, and Kendra got the most out of them and actually bonded with them throughout the course of the task. While Kendra was hugging her teammates after the task was over and telling everyone how proud she was of them as several of them got teary-eyed , Tana actually said to the camera something to the effect of, "I'm going to let them go ahead and leave first because that's what a boss should do. They need to leave first so that they can feel like the little employees and I can feel like the boss." Apparently she wasn't kidding, as she actually crept up like a stalker to the exit door and made sure that she didn't start to approach her limo until her employees had pulled away in their own vehicles.

The nature of the relationship between Tana and her teammates was established very clearly on the morning of the event, when Tana tried to get everyone up early and went about it the wrong way. There's a way to do something like that without making people feel like they're smaller than you or inferior, but Tana said things like, "If you're not out of your room in five minutes and ready to go, the boss is going to be very grumpy all day long!" That's something you say to a five-year-old child who is on pace to be late for school; it's not something you say to employees who you want to work for you and have good morale.

One of the biggest screw-ups of the day for Tana's task was the horrible brochures that were printed up by Kristen and were almost handed out to all of the athletes. If you'll recall, Kristen tried to approach Tana to ask something about the brochures after she was put in charge of them, and Tana interrupted her with the response, "I don't want to hear about that, I'm doing bigger things here!" Kristen left the room feeling insulted and dejected, and after she left Tana actually whispered to the camera, "Get out, get out, I want her out of the room!"

The most hilarious screw-ups in Apprentice history involved Tana's handling of New York Governor George Pataki. As with any event where you've got a big-time VIP coming, especially a politician, you need to have it printed out line-by-line what that VIP is supposed to do during the day. One of Governor Pataki's assistants tried to explain this nicely to Tana, at which point she again deflected blame, saying that the printing department hadn't printed out the Governor's itinerary yet and it would "be done when it's ready."

Later, when Governor Pataki's assistant told Tana that the governor had arrived and needed to know what the event coordinators wanted him to be doing, Tana again said that the print-out with that information wasn't ready yet and it would be ready when it's ready. When the increasingly frustrated assistant said that the governor needs to know what he should be doing in the meantime, jaws across the country dropped when Tana actually said (I kid you not), "Oh, do you want me to have some coffee or doughnuts sent to him?" That's the kind of comment that could get you fired if you are the current president of a real company, much less a reality show contestant trying to become the president of a company.

Even more time passed with Governor Pataki just wandering around, without any word from Tana of what the event coordinators wanted him to be doing or where they wanted him to be going. When the governor's assistant approached Tana again and this said in a panicked voice, "The governor's just wandering around because he hasn't been told what he's supposed to be doing," Tana's response was, "That's okay!" When the exasperated assistant said, "No it's not," Tana again deflected blame and sarcastically snapped at him, "Oh, I'm sorry, what exactly can I do about that right now?"

I couldn't believe what I was seeing, and you better believe that Donald Trump would run off to Las Vegas and elope with Mark Cuban before he would ever hire someone with that kind of behavior to run one of his companies. With Tana turning in the worst performance in the history of Apprentice final tasks, all Kendra had to do in order to emerge as the clear winner was put in a semi-competent performance, and she did much more than that.

It was amazing to see Tana reveal all of her character flaws and crack under pressure because she performed so well for so many weeks during the course of the season... but all of those performances were with Kendra as a teammate. It wasn't clear for most of the season who the driving force was behind the successful duo of Kendra and Tana.

Sometimes it takes a successful duo being separated to reveal that one of them is largely incompetent when left to run the ship by themselves. It was definitely a Vince Russo and Vince McMahon situation, as Russo was the lead writer of WWE Raw during some of the best years in WWE's history with McMahon overseeing and editing his work, and then Russo failed spectacularly in everything he ever tried to do without McMahon in his years as a writer in WCW and TNA. The same scenario played out on this season of The Apprentice, as Kendra stepped up as even more of a star after being separated from Tana, while Tana fell apart in every way imaginable.

Labels: Television (Non-MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 6:09 PM

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Video Games and Television--- There are two big events on television tonight, and it just so happens that they are both airing at the same time. The next-generation Xbox system will be unveiled on MTV in a half-hour special from 9:30 PM to 10:00 PM Eastern Time, while the season finale of The Apprentice airs on NBC from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM Eastern Time. If you have a TIVO, you already know that there is a way around this (and if you don't have a TIVO, shame on you!). The Xbox special re-airs on MTV at 1:30 AM Eastern Time, so if you want to watch both shows you can just watch The Apprentice live and watch (or tape) the replay of the Xbox unveiling.

I have previously written about who I think will be the winner on The Apprentice (in a word: Kendra). After the three-hour death march of a season finale that The Apprentice offered in its second season and the ensuing backlash about it being too long, NBC has over-reacted this year by making the season finale only one hour. I agree that three hours was too long, but I believe just as strongly that one hour is too short.

There is a logical reason for this happening, though. NBC wants to have the heavily-watched season finale of The Apprentice lead into the season finale of ER because ER needs all the help it can get at this point. After being untouchable in the ratings for almost ten years in the 10:00 PM timeslot, the mighty has finally fallen this year as CBS' Without a Trace has consistently beaten ER in the ratings. Last week, for example, Without a Trace drew a 12.3 rating compared to the 10.5 rating drawn by ER, something that was just unthinkable as recently as one year ago. Giving ER a strong lead-in like The Apprentice season finale is simply NBC's response to this problem on this particular week, and I don't think they're all that concerned about whether ot not it will hurt the quality of The Apprentice season finale

As for the next-generation Xbox unveiling, Microsoft should make a mental note that goes something like this: "Do not invite dozens of celebrities to your gaming system's premiere party and expect them to honor the non-disclosure agreements that they sign." Pictures from the unveiling have already leaked out on numerous web sites, along with the fact that the official name for the system is "Xbox 360" and the official launch date is November of this year. The mysterious grass-roots marketing web site, OurColony.net, has been counting down for weeks to 9:30 PM Eastern Time tonight. What will happen when the countdown reaches zero? I don't know, but it will likely involve a continuation of the "Colony" posters being plastered all over major metropolitan areas throughout America.

Labels: Television (Non-MMA), Video Games

posted by Ivan Trembow at 4:09 PM

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Assorted Topics--- Sometimes there are lots of small articles to write on any given day instead of one big article, which leads us to the newest feature on Ivan's Blog--- The "Assorted Topics" posts, which will be recurring whenever it's warranted. These posts aren't about any single topic and are instead a collection of smaller articles about whatever is relevant or newsworthy at the time.

Television: Chappelle Checks Into Mental Hospital
As a follow-up to my previous post about the status of Dave Chappelle, Entertainment Weekly and the Associated Press are now reporting that Chappelle has checked himself into a psychiatric hospital in South Africa. Entertainment Weekly went so far as to say that it was "unlikely" that Chappelle's Show would ever return for a third season on Comedy Central. Following the publication of the Entertainment Weekly and AP stories, other news outlets have picked up the story and added details along the way.

After months of problems on the set, Chappelle reportedly flew from Florida to South Africa on Thursday, April 28 to check himself into a mental hospital in the city of Cape Cod, and he has not been seen or heard from since then. Comedy Central spokesperson Tony Fox told the Associated Press, "We don't know where he is. We've heard about South Africa. We don't know... we haven't talked to Dave." At this point, about four episodes' worth of sketches for the third season have been filmed, but none of the "introducing the sketches to a live audience" segments with Chappelle have been filmed.

Also, one of Chappelle's friends was quoted in Newsweek saying, "Everyone knows Dave likes to have fun. I wouldn't say it's out of control... but at some point that has to affect you if you've got a regular gig." It should be noted that there's a big difference between going to drug rehab and going to a mental hospital. Sad as it is, Hollywood stars go in and out of drug rehab all the time, but it's not every day that you see someone checking themselves into a mental hospital.

Television: Suspicions about American Idol's Carrie and Anthony Semi-Confirmed
First of all, I am fully aware that writing about American Idol has the affect of instantly making one considerably less cool, but I can't help myself in this case. I didn't want to say anything before now because I thought I was just imagining things, but it has appeared to me for several weeks that American Idol's country-singing beauty Carrie Underwood was more "friendly" with fellow contestant Anthony Federov than the normal level of "friendliness" between Idol contestants. There were lots of little things on the show that would indicate anything from a mutual crush to a full-blown fling between the two of them, such as the way Carrie would embrace Anthony with tears of joy running down her face when he would barely escape elimination as part of the bottom two on multiple occasions. I wouldn't think anything of it if their relationwhip were out in the open, but it seemed like I was the only person in America to notice, as I didn't see it written anywhere else.

However, last night's results show (which drew a whopping 14.9 rating) stands as pretty strong evidence of something going on between the two of them. The two held hands briefly while sitting on the couch, they glanced at each other uncomfortably when it was announced that the final three would be returning to their hometown for the next week (meaning they would be separated for the next week), and Carrie was flat-out sobbing when Anthony got eliminated. She has never reacted so strongly to any other contestant being eliminated, and at one point she actually mouthed the words "I love you" to Anthony as he was singing his horribly over-done farewell song. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to come to the conclusion that there is something going on between the two of them. Still, maybe I'm just paranoid and making too much of things... you know, like the Ivan's Blog "How Drunk and/or High is Paula Abdul Meter"...

Mixed Martial Arts: First Word on Coaches for Ultimate Fighter Season Two
MMAWeekly has broken the news that Matt Hughes is being strongly considered as one of the two coaches on the second season of The Ultimate Figther on Spike TV. According to UFC president Dana White on today's edition of MMAWeekly Radio, the only thing potentially stopping Hughes from being one of the coaches is family commitments, as being on the show would require being away from home for about two months straight. As for the other team's coach, MMAWeekly is reporting that it is likely to be either Frank Trigg, Evan Tanner, or Rich Franklin.

It's possible that Matt Hughes is planning to move up to middleweight to fight the winner of the June 4th Tanner vs. Franklin bout, but that's not necessarily the case. I think a lot of people have had the mindset that you have to be building up to a UFC fight between the two coaches on pay-per-view shortly after the season finale (as with Couture vs. Liddell in season one), but that's simply not true. You don't necessarily have to promote, "Coach A and Coach B are going to be fighting each other in the UFC after this season is over." You could just as easily promote, "Coach A is going to be fighting someone in the UFC after this season, and Coach B is going to be fighting someone in the UFC after this season."

For example, let's say the two coaches are Matt Hughes, and the winner of the upcoming Tanner-Franklin fight. You could run commercials throughout the entire season hyping the Tanner-Franklin winner going against number one contender Matt Lindland, and don't tell me that the words "Olympic Silver Medalist" constantly running in commercials wouldn't give the UFC a big boost in mainstream credibility. In the same commercials, you could hype Hughes' next title defense against whoever his next opponent would be. Logic would dictate that it could be Karo Parisyan if he wins his bout at UFC 53, or Nick Diaz if he wins his bout at UFC 53. This scenario makes just as much sense from a marketing standpoint, without having to artificially make sure that the coaches on every season of The Ultimate Fighter have a fight scheduled between the two of them.

Labels: Television (Non-MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 3:56 PM

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Television--- And the award for the least surprising reality show elimination in the history of television goes to... Craig getting fired on last week's episode of The Apprentice so that the final two could be Kendra and Tana. To use a phrase coined by HBO's Mr. Show, it would have been a "trava-shamockery" if anything else had happened.

As for Kendra vs. Tana, I think Kendra is the clear winner and have thought that for several weeks. There is no "huge strike" against Kendra, whereas Tana will have to overcome the fact that she couldn't even stay up for one full night to complete the Pontiac brochure task, leaving Kendra to do all the work for the team. Kendra did so and single-handedly won that task for her team, on the same episode in which Donald Trump said that if you don't have the mental endurance to work for 24 or 48 hours at a time, you could never run one of his companies.

Plus, ever since the successful duo of Kendra and Tana were separated and put on separate teams, it has been Tana who has fallen apart and shown serious leadership issues while Kendra has remained strong. In any case, if the second season finale taught us anything, it's that no matter what they say on this Thursday's live season finale about "trying to decide right there on the spot who the winner is," the winner was already decided by Trump & Co. sometime between the end of filming and the live season finale date.

Labels: Television (Non-MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 11:08 AM

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Television--- After previously being delayed on two separate occasions, the third season of Chappelle's Show has been delayed indefinitely and had its production halted by Comedy Central. It has now been over a year since a new episode of Chappelle's Show aired on Comedy Central. The drop-off in productivity from Chappelle seems to be directly or indirectly tied to Chappelle getting his gigantic new contract from Comedy Central last year, with a huge raise to continue the series and a huge raise in DVD royalties (the contract's total value was estimated at $50 million).

The date of the show's third season premiere was originally scheduled for late 2004, and the first official reason given for its delay was that Chappelle and the other writers simply got a late start on writing the third season. The season premiere was re-scheduled for February 2005 and then delayed again, this time because Chappelle had supposedly fallen ill with "the flu." Around that same time, a deal for Chappelle to author (or co-author) an autobiography also fell apart, as he became harder and harder to reach.

The latest scheduled season premiere date for one of the funniest shows on television was May 31, and now that has been delayed indefinitely with no reason given by Comedy Central. However, sources have told the TV industry trade publication Variety that the decision was prompted by "the need for Dave Chappelle to seek treatment for unspecified medical issues." Make no mistake about it: That is Hollywood-speak for "the need for Dave Chappelle to go to drug rehab."

While filming for several episodes of the third season has already been completed, E Online reports that Chappelle had a tendency during production of the third season to go missing for days or even weeks at a time, with no explanation for his long absences. Other entertainment news web sites have recounted even more alarming stories of Chappelle's behavior being extremely erratic, with the consistent theme that he is badly in need of drug rehab. I am not going to go into detail, but the stories have been very alarming for anyone who cares about Chappelle's well-being.

Comedy Central's decision to indefinitely pull the plug on the second season would seem to be the network's way of saying to Chappelle, "Go to rehab or there's no more show," and given the huge success of the show, that is not a decision Comedy Central would make unless the network felt it had absolutely no other alternative.

The DVD release of "Chappelle's Show: Season Two" had previously been delayed from February until May 24 in order to help promote the new season of Chappelle's Show that was scheduled to start airing a week later. With no season premiere date in sight, DVD distributor Paramount has decided to stop waiting for the third season premiere and will release the second season DVD as scheduled on May 24.

Success and money change everyone in different ways. We should all hope that whatever Dave Chappelle is going through right now in battling his personal demons, hopefully Chappelle's Show will come out of it alive and well. More importantly, we should all hope that Dave Chappelle himself will come of this alive and well.

Labels: Television (Non-MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 5:35 PM

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Television--- I have been pleasantly surprised by this year's TV season at this early stage of the game. The Mind of the Married Man on HBO has been drastically improved over last year's already good season, to the point that it will be one of the best comedies on TV if it keeps improving at this rate. King of Queens got off to a typically funny start on CBS for a show that never fails to come up with good new ideas, and the same can be said for My Wife & Kids over on ABC. The Drew Carey Show also seems to be getting back on the right track creatively in its new timeslot, but sadly with its ratings lower than ever, it's simply not going to be around for too many more months before ABC pulls the plug, unless ratings go up drastically.

Even the season premiere of In-Laws on NBC, which honestly looked like crap in most of the commercials, was surprisingly funny in my opinion. I was also pleasantly surprised by the humor of another one of NBC's new comedies, Hidden Hills. However, I'm still not getting my hopes up about either series because lots of shows start out funny in their first few episodes, where a lot of the best material normally goes in an effort to grab people's attention early on. The question is whether or not these two shows are going to stay this funny all season long, or whether they will noticeably drop off in quality sometime soon. Also, In-Laws' ratings were good for the premiere, but not great. Given that new shows typically see their ratings go down steadily as the norm rather than the exception, and given the fact that NBC has been far too quick to pull the plug on far too many comedies over the years, In-Laws could be on the cancellation block if the ratings go down

The most disgusting show of the week has to be Fox's "Celebrity Daredevils Live!" which aired on Tuesday night. In fact, only the final stunt was live, while the first two were pre-recorded (although that didn't stop the host from repeatedly saying that any of the stars could easily be killed during the stunts). The most tasteless moment of all was the "Dennis Rodman driving a car off a cliff" segment. If everyone in the world were an idiot like the producers of this special apparently believe, here is what they would see on their televisions. Dennis Rodman is driving a car towards the edge of a cliff. Dennis Rodman's car falls off the cliff and a parachute propels him upward. Dennis Rodman is hanging from the parachute celebrating when, oh no, Dennis Rodman bumps into the side of the cliff at a high speed. Now Dennis Rodman's body is just hanging there lifelessly, and he's probably dead. Is he dead? You'll just have to wait until after the commercial break to find out. Whew! He's okay and not dead after all!

In fact, this is what actually happened, complete with stuntmen and post-production editing. Dennis Rodman drove a car towards the edge of a cliff. Just as he gets near the edge, the Fox logo covers the entire screen for a split second that a lot of people will never think twice about. A stuntman is in the car as it falls off the cliff with no clear shot of his face, and a parachute propels the stuntman upward. They cut to a shot of the real Dennis Rodman hanging from a parachute celebrating. Again, the shot seamlessly switches to a stuntman, who is rammed up against the side of the cliff pretty softly, and with no clear shot of his face. They cut to a shot of a dummy hanging lifelessly from a wire so that it looks as if Dennis Rodman is dead. They cut to commercial to keep people tuned in. They return from commercial, and surprise! He's not dead after all! Man, that was a close one!

It's one thing to set up an entire show around the premise of, "You might see a celebrity die on TV tonight if you watch the whole hour!" That's wrong and it's bad enough as it is. But to actually edit and manipulate the Rodman segment the way they did, to artificially set up a so-called "accident during the stunt," to specifically do their best to make you think Dennis Rodman is dead, and to cut to commercial like it's not all pre-taped, all of that takes it to a new level. That's fraudulent, and it's sick. Everyone associated with the special should be ashamed of themselves, as should the executives who gave it the greenlight to air knowing full well what the producers planned to do during the Rodman segment.

I'm glad that the special only got a pathetic 3.6 in the overall ratings and only a 3.3 rating in the coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic. Hopefully this will serve as a wake-up to call Fox that people don't want to see crap like this anymore, and it should also alert them to the fact that people aren't stupid. They know a fraud when they see one, and a fraud is exactly what "Celebrity Daredevils Live" was.

Labels: Television (Non-MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 2:55 PM

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