New Reality Series: The Imposter
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Prime Time, Reality, ABC,
ABC is jumping into the reality arena again—this time searching for the best imposter. I think I’m done saying that I can’t believe the depths that reality shows have sunk too. Now it’s simply not good enough to be on a televised talent show, you have to show how talented you are at impersonating someone! Just when they seem to have run out of concepts, they dig another one out.
The Imposter comes from the folks behind Last Comic Standing, and will seek out the best celebrity impersonator. ABC has ordered eight episodes of the series, expecting to air in summer 2007. Impersonations aren’t just limited to Madonna, Cher, Elvis or Liza, however—the show will consider entries in the musician, actor and athlete categories. The show is also casting their panel of judges and host. May I suggest Brian Dunkelman? I think his calendar is free.
Read More 
| Comingsoon.net
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Weighing in on Megan Mullally and Rachael Ray
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Daytime, Talk Shows, Syndication,
Well, now that I’ve caught a bit of both Megan Mullally’s and Rachael Ray’s new daytime offerings, it’s time to weigh in. I have always enjoyed Mullally’s character on Will & Grace and find her very entertaining when she’s on other talk shows. So, she definitely has a likability-factor. She’s quirky and fun, nice but not too nice, and has a lot of energy. Overall, I found her to be delightful (at the risk of sounding old-fashioned), but I do think she has to find her groove. There were a couple of moments on today’s show with guest Eva Mendes, where I found she could have interjected more into the conversation. Her interview with Jenny McCarthy yesterday was fun though, and I find her show opening to be interesting enough.
Rachael Ray also has a lot of energy—and perhaps too much! I’m wondering if they will tell her to scale back the intensity because she is over the top with enthusiasm. I do watch her Food Network 30 Minute Meals because I enjoy cooking, but have never been able to stomach her other shows on the Food Network. With her new talk show, it’s almost unwatchable—perhaps because of her mile-a-minute chatter or just the fact that she is so completely overexposed. Food TV shows, cookbooks, magazine, daytime talk, guest appearances… just too much of Ray for my tastes! The Hollywood Reporter is even calling her show “potentially annoying.”
Read More | Yahoo! News
The Week Ahead in TV
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Action, Comedy, Daytime, Drama, Prime Time, Reality, ABC, CBS, NBC, The CW, America’s Next Top Model, Desperate Housewives, ER, Grey’s Anatomy, My Name Is Earl, Oprah Winfrey Show, Saturday Night Live, The Office,
After a few weeks of sporadic debuts, we can all now breathe a sigh of relief. You now have a reason to be sitting on your couch every night because the TV onslaught has officially arrived! Here are the highlights for this week:
MONDAY
Oprah, Rachel Ray and The Megan Mullally Show (various)
Wife Swap (8pm on ABC)
Deal or No Deal (8pm on NBC)
The Class (8pm on CBS)
How I Met Your Mother (8:30pm on CBS)
Two and a Half Men (9pm on CBS)
The New Adventures of Old Christine (9:30pm on CBS)
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (10pm on NBC)
CSI: Miami (10pm on CBS)
TUESDAY
NCIS (8pm on CBS):
The Unit (9pm on CBS)
Law and Order: Criminal Intent (9pm on NBC)
Law and Order: SVU (10pm on NBC)
Smith (10pm on CBS)
Boston Legal (10pm on ABC)
WEDNESDAY
America’s Next Top Model (8pm on CW)
Jericho (8pm on CBS)
Biggest Loser (8pm on NBC)
Criminal Minds (9pm on CBS)
Kidnapped (10pm on NBC)
CSI: NY (10pm on CBS)
THURSDAY
My Name is Earl (8pm on NBC)
The Office (8:30pm on NBC)
Grey’s Anatomy (9pm on ABC)
CSI (9pm on CBS)
ER (10pm on NBC)
Six Degrees (10pm on ABC)
Shark (10pm on CBS)
FRIDAY
Smackdown (8pm on CW)
Ghost Whisperer (8pm on CBS)
Close to Home (9pm on CBS)
Law and Order (10pm on NBC)
Numb3rs (10pm on CBS)
SUNDAY
Extreme Home Makeover (8pm on ABC)
Desperate Housewives (9pm on ABC)
Cold Case (9pm on CBS)
Brothers and Sisters (10pm on ABC)
Without a Trace (10pm on CBS)
Megan Mullally Tries Daytime Talk
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Daytime, Talk Shows, Syndication,
Brace yourself for the next daytime talk entry—The Megan Mullally Show—and let the cards fall where they may. I don’t mean to sound cynical. I really like Mullally and I think her turn as a fill-in for David Letterman (in 2003) proves she can do the job. If you’ve ever seen her being interviewed, she’s very entertaining too—daytime talk shows come and go however, and I hope she won’t be the latest casualty.
Hopefully Mullally can overcome expectations that she’ll be like her character Karen Walker from Will & Grace. Her show begins on Monday, including interviews (of course), comedy sketches and studio audience interaction. Mullally hopes to bring a little edge to her show, saying, “I don’t have to start as Little Mary Sunshine. What people really want in this talk show is (for) me to be naughty and edgy. We’re doing it.” Be on the lookout for guests such as Will Ferrell, Felicity Huffman, Carol Burnett, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus—with that roster, she’ll be off to a great start! Her Will & Grace co-stars (Debra Messing, Eric McCormack and Sean Hayes) will also be gracing her show at some point. Best of luck Megan!
Read More | USA Today
Alicia Silverstone Returns to NBC for Mid-Season Comedy
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Comedy, NBC,
This is familiar territory for Alicia Silverstone—a comedy on NBC. Unfortunately, the last time she tried that, with Miss Match in 2003, her series didn’t go the distance. Now NBC is ready to give Silverstone another chance, with The Singles Table, a mid-season comedy where she plays a doctor. She is replacing Pascale Hutton, who played the role in the pilot—she has now moved on to the drama Traveler.
Silverstone’s character has a booming career, but beyond that, has no life. The Singles Table will tell the story of five people who meet at a wedding reception—all seated at a table for the dateless invitees. I love Silverstone, so I’m looking forward to checking this out. In fact, any time Clueless is on TV, I have to watch it. Partly for her performance, and partly for Paul Rudd!
Read More | Zap2it
The View: Barbara’s Talking Dog, Rosie’s Production Number
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Daytime, ABC,
OK, I happened to tune in briefly to The View and heard some discussion that Barbara Walters’ dog tells her “I love you.” Apparently, I missed the complete discussion on a show that aired earlier in the week. Walters said of her loving dog’s trick, “You all know I’m a sensible person. I do not exaggerate. I try not to lie. I was standing at the elevator… I said to Cha Cha, ‘I love you, Cha Cha,’ and Cha Cha said to me, ‘I love you.’” Now, I have seen that in funniest videos or stupid pet tricks or the like, and a Hollywood dog trainer supports the possibility that dogs can learn to “talk” and mimic human speech. That didn’t strike me as all that weird, but then…
A Keebler Elf shows up on the stage and Rosie brings out guys in white tuxes holding big cookie cut-outs for a full-out production number. I don’t even understand it. And Rosie, the tux guys and the puffy Keebler Elf all blocked out the other View ladies to sing some obnoxious song about cookies. What is up with that? That was commonplace on Rosie’s daytime gabfest, but this is a whole new venue and it has me wondering what the other co-hosts think about it. It was all very strange. And does Elisabeth Hasselbeck bother anyone else? I thought she was cute on Survivor, but her interviewing skills leave little to be desired. I’m just not sure about the future of this show.
Read More | Access Hollywood
Extras—Season Two Ends the Series
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Comedy, Prime Time, BBC, Cable, HBO, Extras,
It’s become the Ricky Gervais Syndrome. Following in the footsteps of his original series, The Office, which ended after two seasons, so too shall Extras suffer the same fate. Gervais’ excellent series Extras is now running the second season on British TV and is expected to air on HBO in 2007. According to Gervais, “At the moment, I don’t think there will be another one. [Co-creator Stephen Merchant] and I have always had this thing where we only like to do two series. It’s like The Office—people are always asking why we didn’t do any more, but we just wanted to leave people wanting more.” Huh, must be a British thing. Here in the states, we run TV series until people just can’t take any more.
So, enjoy it while you can. The great thing about Extras are the cameos, with season two featuring appearances by Orlando Bloom, David Bowie and Daniel Radcliffe. At the end of the first season, Gervais’ character, Andy Millman, was selling a sitcom to the BBC; season two picks up with Andy losing control over the show. Let the laughs begin.
Read More | Zap2it
Dancing With The Stars: Springer Moves On Thanks to Tucker’s Lack of Dancing
Posted by Monica Edwards Categories: Prime Time, Reality, ABC, Dancing With The Stars, Editorial,
It was a tense nail-biter; who would leave the dance floor with their tail between their legs on the first installment of Dancing with the Stars? America voted and MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson was the first one booted from the show due to his two left feet and his lack of actual dancing. It was entertaining to watch, at best, if only to feel better about our own ability to at least bop to the beat rather than against it.
Judge Len Goodman said it best, ‘the problems started the moment Carlson stood up.’ I myself was rooting for Tucker because at least he was memorable, as well as under-dog Jerry Springer - lord knows I do not respect the man but he held his own and made me giggle at his endearing show on the dance floor. My bottom three would have been Harry Hamlin, Sara Evans, and Monique Coleman. These stars either had no personality shine through in their performances, or had too much of a “put-on” personality, (i.e. Monique Coleman.) When I decide to spend 2 hours of my precious time to watch amateur dancing, I want to be entertained and these three had the charisma of roadkill. Kind of harsh but it is nothing compared to some of the comments the judges had for a few of the stars.
I am anxious for the Latin segment of the routines, where the heat is turned up and you can really weed out the “have’s” from the “have-nots.” Mario Lopez should blow everyone away in this category as America got an eyeful of his moves this week. At the risk of sounding corny, he is one who’s Hips Don’t Lie. Vivica Fox brought some class to the group, for a 40-something woman, she has still got it. You go girl. Though I thoroughly enjoyed watching Mario Lopez shake his groove thang, I have to pick Emmitt Smith as my favorite. I found myself grinning like a Cheshire cat the whole time he was cha-cha-ing. You could see the joy in his eyes, and most of all…he had fun! That is what the show is all about.
Technically I would choose to crown Mario Lopez the winner by series end, but for showmanship and entertainment factor, definitely Emmitt Smith. Anyone who keeps me smiling for 1 whole minute and 1/2, deserves a sparkling disco ball trophy.
Rockstar: Insert New Name Here—Toby was Robbed!
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Music, Prime Time, Reality, CBS, Rock Star,
Oh man, another disappointing reality show finale for me. I’m sure not everyone feels the same way as me about who was crowned the winner of Rockstar: Supernova since there was much fan support for him. The finale had Magni, Lukas, Toby and Dilana fighting it out for the lead singer job. First cut was Magni (ouch), but my guy Toby was still in the running, so I was happy. Then, the unthinkable—Toby got the axe. What?! I couldn’t even believe that Dilana and Lukas were standing there as the final two contenders. I haven’t been a fan of either of them from the beginning—Dilana is a touch scary with her voice sounding like she’s eaten a bag of glass prior to taking the stage, and Lukas had me questioning “What is he singing? I can’t understand a word.” Toby seemed to me to be a great match with the boys of the band because of his easy-going attitude and his ability to get the crowd hyped up. And he’s cute, so that helps. If nothing else, the exposure will get him his own record deal and we’ll be seeing him again. Besides, who knows how long the Rockstar band will even last.
On to other Rockstar news, you may recall that we reported that there already is a band called Supernova and the fate of the Rockstar band taking on the same name was questionable. Well, a judge ruled that the Rockstar boys will have to choose another name. You may have noticed last night that host Brooke Burke made no mention of the name Supernova when introducing the band with new front-man Lukas Rossi. Let me know what you thought of the outcome. Was it just me, or did the crowd seem a bit bored when Lukas started singing with the band? Don’t hate me Lukas fans—he’s just not my cup o’tea.
Read More | Zap2it
And Baby Makes Four for Britney Spears
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Music, Reality, Gossip, News,
Now moving on to more trash-trastic news…Britney Spears, 24, welcomed another child to K-Fed’s brood this morning.
The baby boy, the couple’s second son, arrived early this morning after a scheduled C-section. This would make the third son, and fourth child, for Federline, 28. (He has a son and a daughter from a previous relationship with Shar Jackson). Interestingly enough, Britney’s new bundle of joy was born just one day before Sean Preston’s first birthday.
PopoZao!
(Okay—I admit I have no idea what PopoZao means, but I’m hoping K-Fed won’t mind the sampling. For some reason, the word felt so appropriately fitting).
Read More | Entertainment Tonight
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