Survivor Loses GM Sponsorship
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Prime Time, Reality, CBS, Survivor,
General Motors has decided to no longer sponsor Survivor, despite their six year run with the series. The timing of this decision seems to coincide with the series’ new twist to pit races against each other, however, GM says that it had nothing to do with their decision to pull sponsorship. GM spokeswoman Ryndee Carney told the Associated Press, “I think it’s just a coincidence. I know it’s not cause and effect.” Instead, GM insisted that Survivor simply did not fit in with their current marketing strategy—“to focus more on product placement and big-ticket live events, like sporting competitions and award shows.”
While most would agree that the news does seem to be a direct effect of this season’s segregated tribe format, CBS did confirm that GM announced the end of their sponsorship several months before the new season’s twist was announced. CBS spokesman Chris Ender said, “GM had no knowledge of [this season’s] ethnic format.”
Read More 
| Yahoo! News
Gallery: Survivor Loses GM Sponsorship
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Trump to Carolyn: “You’re Fired”
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Prime Time, Reality, NBC, Apprentice, The - Donald,
The man behind the Trump clothing line, Trump fragrance, Visa check card commercials and Days Of Our Lives cameos has just fired his right-hand woman for ‘excessive self-promotion’. If that’s not irony, I don’t know what is. Carolyn Kepcher, who along with George sat beside Donald for five seasons of The Apprentice, has been let go from the Trump organization. Kepcher had been Chief Operating Officer for two of Trump’s golf courses. Its been said that her frequent speaking engagements and her recent book (“Carolyn 101”) contributed to her suffering work performance. But taping episodes of The Apprentice and following dimwits around didn’t?
For those who are still actually watching the show—there are fewer and fewer of you left these days—you will not be missing Kepcher during the 6th season. That’s because she wasn’t in the show to begin with. The new season, premiering in January, will feature the Trump clan once again. I wonder if Donald just likes looking at his own daughter more.
Well - if nothing else, getting rid of Carolyn gives the new apprentice two more golf positions to choose from…
Read More | CNN Money
Gallery: Trump to Carolyn: “You’re Fired”
From the folks behind MTV’s Punk’d (okay, that would be Ashton Kutcher’s production company), comes the upcoming reality show based on the characters from the film Wedding Crashers. Working with NBC, Kutcher’s company, Katalyst Films, and New Line TV have created The Real Wedding Crashers, a hidden-camera series that sends a group of improv actors to crash wedding receptions. Craig Plestis, head of alternative programming at NBC says of the series, “Everyone loved ‘Wedding Crashers,’ and we wanted to see if we could capture that same kind of inspired frivolity in a real-life series. Working with Ashton and knowing his memorable experiences with the jokes he pulled off on ‘Punk’d’ made it that much more enticing. This series has a big upside potential for hidden-camera humor.” So far, no word on when the series will air.
Read More | Zap2it
Gallery: Wedding Crashers Reality Show Coming Soon to NBC
The Week Ahead in TV
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Prime Time, Reality, FOX, Alias, Talent,
Now that we’ve gotten past the premieres of Prison Break and Vanished, we can ease into another week of programming highlights:
TUESDAY
Celebrity Duets (8pm on Fox): The latest Simon Cowell production debuts with Hal Sparks (Queer as Folk), Lucy Lawless (Xena) and Chris Jericho (WWE) among the eight celebrity contestants belting it out for the title.
WEDNESDAY
Bones (8pm on FOX): Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz return for the show’s sophomore season.
Justice (9pm on FOX): Victor Garber (Alias) helms yet another legal offering. I cross my fingers for him.
THURSDAY
MTV Video Music Awards (8pm on MTV): The awards show finally returns to New York after several years away in Miami. Hurricane Ernesto is disappointed that it doesn’t have a glam-filled occasion to ruin.
Gallery: The Week Ahead in TV
K-Fed Gets Acting Gig on CSI
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Drama, Prime Time, Reality, CBS, UPN,
Let’s just hope his acting is better than his rapping… Kevin Federline will be appearing on an upcoming episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, according to People magazine. The announcement comes shortly after his debut rapping at the Teen Choice Awards, which was panned by many critics and people with good taste. This of course isn’t his first time on the small screen, as he and wife Britney Spears experimented with the reality TV genre with their show Chaotic on UPN last year (Did anyone watch that?). The CSI appearance will be his first official acting gig, playing a “menacing, arrogant teen who harasses investigators Nick Stokes (George Eads) and Warrick Brown (Gary Dourdan) on a job.” Be on the lookout for the episode in October and pray there is no rapping involved.
Read More | CBS News
Gallery: K-Fed Gets Acting Gig on CSI
Survivor Plays the Race Card
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Prime Time, Reality, CBS, Survivor, News,
I had read a couple of days ago that the new season of Survivor would pit races against each other, but quickly dismissed it as rumor. Now I see the story has been confirmed by People magazine, reporting that Survivor‘s new twist this season will be to divide the contestants by ethnicity. The cast of Survivor: Cook Islands will have 20 contestants divided into four tribes: black, white, Asian and Latino. Said creator and executive producer, Mark Burnett, “We’re going to take some heat for it, but it’s a great cast.” Take some heat for it? It may generate a lot of discussion and, therefore, more interest (translating to higher ratings), but it also may come back to bite them. Since the show is in its 13th season, perhaps there are fewer innovative twists to introduce, but this seems a drastic approach. Host Jeff Probst said of the new season, “Some people will think this is controversial. Others will think, ‘What’s the big deal?’ Either way, it’s going to be very interesting.”
The diversity of this season’s cast was a result of ridicule that the show has been largely comprised of white contestants. Said Probst of the lack of diversity, “Most of the people who apply are white—that’s just a fact.” This season will pit the races against each other and perhaps have each group tackling racial stereotypes. With a pirate theme, tribal councils are set to take place on a shipwreck built on the coast of the island.
Survivor premieres on September 14th.
Read More | People
Gallery: Survivor Plays the Race Card
CBS Will Offer Full-Length Episodes on Innertube
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Drama, Prime Time, Reality, CBS, Desperate Housewives, Lost, Survivor,
CBS will soon be adding full-length episodes of prime-time series this fall. Did I mention they’ll be free? CBS’ broadband channel, Innertube, launched in May on their website. Beginning in September, CSI (all three varieties), Survivor, NCIS, Numb3rs, and Jericho will be available on Inntertube the day after they are aired on the network. Each will be available for four weeks, with the exception of Jericho and Survivor, which will be available all season. Larry Kramer, president of CBS Digital Media, said that it will “further help us extend the reach of the CBS brand [and] provides a new avenue for advertisers to engage with our programming, which in turn creates a new source of revenue for our company.” Commercial-free versions of CBS’ shows are also available at iTunes for $1.99 per episode. You may recall that ABC first started offering free episodes of Lost and Desperate Housewives last season—this was an initial test to see how much interest the downloads would generate.
Read More | Yahoo! News
Gallery: CBS Will Offer Full-Length Episodes on Innertube
Celebrity Duets Announces Crooners
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Music, Prime Time, Reality, FOX, American Idol, Talent,
We previously reported on one of Fall’s talent competitions, called Celebrity Duets, matching celebrities with famous singers to see who amongst them has the greatest singing chops. American Idol’s Simon Cowell brings the latest entry to the talent show genre, proving that celebrities who are not famous for their singing can sing with the best of them.
The lineup includes: Chris Jericho (WWE wrestler), Xena‘s Lucy Lawless, Cheech Marin, gymnast Carly Patterson, Alfonso Ribeiro (of Fresh Prince fame), Queer Eye‘s Jai Rodriguez, Hal Sparks of Queer as Folk and actress Lea Thompson. Each week, they will be paired with a different “recording superstar” (Clint Black, Michael Bolton, Belinda Carlisle, Taylor Dayne, Peter Frampton, Macy Gray, James Ingram, Wynonna Judd, Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, Kenny Loggins, Richard Marx, Brian McKnight, Aaron Neville, Smokey Robinson, Randy Travis, Dionne Warwick, and Lee Ann Womack have so far been announced).
Celebrity Duets premieres Tuesday, Aug. 29th on FOX.
Read More | Access Hollywood
Gallery: Celebrity Duets Announces Crooners
POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT???
Technically the information here may be several weeks old to those who faithfully follow Project Runway news. But given the recent model shake-up in last week’s episode, we may now have a better clue as to who makes it to the final fashion show.
In the past, models stayed with the designers they were assigned to from the very beginning…that is unless their designer wins the weekly challenge and decides to trade them up for someone better. But last week’s episode was a first for the models and the designers. The models actually got to draw who they would work with that week. Interesting!! Assuming there isn’t another twist in the weeks to come, I can use my Encyclopedia Brown skills to make a possible conclusion.
We learned recently that a model for one of the final three contestants was injured in a freak accident back in June. That model, Jia Santos, was bicycling to a taping of the show when she was hit by a bus and then dragged underneath. Santos went home six weeks later after being hospitalized with a fractured skull and eye socket. Her absence will be explained in the series’ finale.
Now if case you weren’t paying close attention—Jia’s designer for last week was VINCENT. And since Vincent didn’t win last week, he won’t have the opportunity to change models. Also, based on previous rules, no one else will be able snatch her up anytime soon unless Vincent loses and someone takes pity on her.
Reminder—if Heidi decides to change things up again, this prediction could be null and void. But it sure was fun to speculate. My vote is for change…and lots of it. Aside from keeping things fresh, there would be a lot of head-shaking in my household if Vincent makes it that far.
Read More | People
Gallery: Project Runway Finalist Revealed?
American Idol Contestants Turn Out in Droves
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Music, Prime Time, Reality, FOX, American Idol, Talent,
The American Idol wannabees in New Jersey were estimated around 16,000, as auditions were held for the latest installment of the talent show, returning to Fox in January. The sixth season of the show is currently holding audtions in seven cities nationwide. The contestants only have 20 seconds to wow the judges, so it’s a pretty rapid-fire decision about whether or not a contestant moves to the next phase. Patrick Lynn, the show’s coordinating producer, said “To me it’s not about the numbers. It’s about finding the right person.” Those who survive the first round audition again in Manhattan; if successful there, yet another round before the Hollywood invitation.
(You can find all the American Idol 6 posts here.)
Read More | Acess Hollywood
Gallery: American Idol Contestants Turn Out in Droves
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