Thursday, January 10, 2008

January 10, 2008 - American Gladiators, Idol Premieres Next Week, Amazing Race, and More

The latest victim of the writers strike is now officially The Golden Globes. There was hope among some that the Globes would be able to somehow happen but the big show will instead be a press conference type format announcing winners. NBC is going to do Golden Globes programming on Sunday night but with a different format obviously but they are covering the press conference. Plans were announced several weeks ago that the WGA planned to picket the Globes event. Dick Clark Productions who are in charge of the event said that they were trying to negotiate a separate deal with the WGA to let the Globes go on as planned. The WGA said no to the deal while Dick Clark Productions put out a statement saying that they tried to make the same deal that the WGA made with Worldwide Pants but the WGA said no. Things definitely went completely bad for the Globes when the Screen Actors Guild said that their members would not be crossing the picket line to attend. The Globes were left doing the big usual ceremony but having few or no guests attending so the decision was made to just scrap the normal show and go a different route. Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel agreed to appear on each other's shows tonight. The WGA has worked out an agreement with CBS News. The news crew there has been working without a contract for about two years now. A vote was made in November for a strike but they never did a walkout.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. National Treasure - $20 million. 2. Juno - $15.8 million. 3. I Am Legend - $15.7 million. 4. Alvin & The Chipmunks - $15.5 million. 5. One Missed Call - $12.5 million. 6. Charlie Wilson's War - $8.1 million. 7. P.S. I Love You - $7.8 million. 8. The Water Horse - $6.2 million. 9. Sweeney Todd - $5.5 million. 10. Atonement - $5.0 million.

American Gladiators did a 6.7 rating on its premiere night on Sunday followed by a 6.2 rating on its second night in its normal Monday night time slot. 6.2 was good especially against the LSU/Ohio State football game. I have watched the first two episodes of American Gladiators and like it. I watched the old series back in the day. It's nice to see that they have mostly left it alone as far as the original concept while updating some things. The first night of episodes was very rough with one woman being injured first thing while another got cut open during the Eliminator. That Eliminator is tough!!! They definitely stepped the challenge up for that thing and the competitors are barely able to cross the finish line cause they're so exhausted. I like Hulk Hogan and Leila Ali as the hosts as they mostly just interview the competitors. They have a separate guy that does the play by play commentary. At first, I wasn't very crazy about the commentator cause I just didn't like the style but I'm starting to warm up to it. Overall, if you liked the original show, I think you'll probably like the new version.

The Amazing Race still has four teams left after one flight decision put one team way behind. Luckily for TK and Rachel, it was a non elimination round and they still are in the race. However, they are three hours behind the other teams and now also face an upcoming speed bump. The odds are against them but all it takes is for the teams to all get stuck in one place such as a place not being open yet or another flight issue. Even as they likely were facing elimination, they still just enjoyed their tasks and had fun with it. Glad to see them still in it as I like that team. Finishing first was Ronald & Christina with Nathan & Jennifer right behind them in second place. Nathan & Jennifer have yet to win a leg of a race and were leading most of the way this time but stumbles on the way to the pit stop put them back in second place. Nicolas and Donald continue to impress me and I'm pulling for them to keep doing well. They are a good team and are already going to have a good finish in this race. Previews for the next episode show some tension growing as the race nears its end. I was thinking watching this episode about how there hasn't been much tension between teams through the race but it looks like that may very well change in Sunday's episode.

Only one month until Big Brother 9!! News came out this week that Big Brother After Dark will be returning this season. This began with last season's Big Brother. Big Brother After Dark is three live hours of TV from the Big Brother house that runs overnight on Showtime's SHO2 channel. It's basically like watching the live feeds for three hours. The show runs seven nights a week and will begin on February 12th.

The format war of high definition DVD's between Blu-ray and HD-DVD appears to be nearing a conclusion. HD-DVD continues to take major hits with several studios going exclusively with Blu-ray. News came out last week that Warner Brothers was going to Blu-ray and now comes news that Paramount is doing the same. Is HD-DVD done? After thinking that the format war would be going on for a long time, it really is looking like it may be over.

The new season of American Idol begins this coming Tuesday and Wednesday with two episodes that will be two hours in length. Who will be the next Idol winner? The journey is set to begin.

The People's Choice Awards were held recently and were also effected by the strike. The show's format was different from its usual format. I thought I'd include some of the winners from the awards show: TV Drama: House, TV Comedy: Two and a Half Men, Reality Show: Dancing With The Stars, Animated TV Show: The Simpsons, Female Movie Star: Reese Witherspoon, Male Movie Star: Johnny Depp, Leading Lady: Drew Barrymore, Leading Man: Joaquin Phoenix, Female TV star: Katherine Heigl, Male TV star: Patrick Dempsey, Movie: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Movie Drama: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Movie Comedy: Knocked Up, Action Movie: The Bourne Ultimatum, Family Movie: Shrek The Third, Game Show: Deal Or No Deal, Talk Show Host: Ellen DeGeneres,

Chuck is set to return with new episodes on NBC. However, they'll be on a different night. The last two episodes of Chuck, that have been finished before the strike, will air on Thursday, January 24th.
 
Courteney Cox's show, Dirt, is set to return to FX for season two on Sunday, March 2nd. The show is said to have seven episodes done before the writers strike effected it.

CBS is filling some more TV time due to the strike as Dexter will begin airing on the network with previously aired episodes in an edited format from their original airing. It appears that season one will air in its entirety beginning on Sunday, February 17th.

ABC is bringing back their reality show, The Mole, for a run in the summer.

VH-1 has listed their top 100 greatest songs list for the 90's. Wow, I have some serious objections to some of these with where they ranked and who was left off. It appears that there was also a rule of one song per artist. How you feel about this list probably depends on what kind of music that you like. Everyone won't be happy with the list obviously cause there is no such thing as making a list that everyone will be satisfied with. I'm happy with it I guess for the most part but some things that are missing that I've seen others comment on and that I agree with is where is November Rain and where is any Boyz II Men song who had countless hits in the 90's? With that one song per artist rule in effect, are you kidding me that "Peaches" got picked over "Lump" from The Presidents Of The United States Of America? I never hear Peaches anymore. I won't go into my thoughts as everyone always dissects these things so go ahead and complain about your favorite songs not being on the list. LOL. I did enjoy looking over the list and thinking about all these great songs. On to the list by VH-1:
1. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
2. U2 - One
3. Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way
4. Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You
5. Madonna - Vogue
6. Sir Mix-A-Lot - Baby Got Back
7. Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time
8. TLC - Waterfalls
9. R.E.M. - Losing My Religion
10. Sinéad O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U
11. Pearl Jam - Jeremy
12. Alanis Morissette - You Oughta Know
13. Dr. Dre (featuring Snoop Doggy Dogg) - Nuthin' but a "G" Thang
14. Mariah Carey - Vision of Love
15. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Under the Bridge
16. MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This
17. Destiny's Child - Say My Name
18. Metallica - Enter Sandman
19. Beastie Boys - Sabotage
20. Hanson - MMMBop
21. Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On
22. Beck - Loser
23. Salt-N-Pepa with En Vogue - Whatta Man
24. House of Pain - Jump Around
25. Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun
26. Eminem - My Name Is
27. Counting Crows - Mr. Jones
28. Ricky Martin - Livin' la Vida Loca
29. Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby
30. *NSYNC - Tearin' Up My Heart
31. Radiohead - Creep
32. BLACKstreet - No Diggity
33. Spice Girls - Wannabe
34. Third Eye Blind - Semi-Charmed Life
35. Oasis - Wonderwall
36. C+C Music Factory - Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)
37. Green Day - Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)
38. Christina Aguilera - Genie In A Bottle
39. Goo Goo Dolls - Iris
40 . Color Me Badd - I Wanna Sex You Up
41. Spin Doctors - Two Princes
42. Collective Soul - Shine
43. En Vogue - My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)
44. The Fugees - Killing Me Softly With His Song
45. Hootie & the Blowfish - Only Wanna Be With You
46. Shania Twain - You're Still the One
47. Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch - Good Vibrations
48. Matchbox Twenty - 3 AM
49. Jewel - Who Will Save Your Soul
50. Alice in Chains - Man in the Box
51. Tupac (featuring Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman) - California Love
52. Sugar Ray - Fly
53. Naughty by Nature - O.P.P.
54. Joan Osborne - One of Us
55. Fiona Apple - Criminal
56. L.L. Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out
57. Jay-Z featuring Amil and Ja Rule - Can I Get A...
58. Sophie B. Hawkins - Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover
59. Weezer - Buddy Holly
60. Bell Biv DeVoe - Poison
61. Sheryl Crow - All I Wanna Do
62. Live - I Alone
63. The Notorious B.I.G. featuring Mase & Puff Daddy - Mo Money Mo Problems
64. The Presidents of the United States of America - Peaches
65. Digital Underground - The Humpty Dance
66. Edwin McCain - I'll Be
67. Deee-Lite - Groove Is In The Heart
68. Will Smith - Gettin' Jiggy Wit It
69. Korn - Freak on a Leash
70. Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity
71. Arrested Development - Tennessee
72. Barenaked Ladies - One Week
73. Marcy Playground - Sex and Candy
74. Cher - Believe
75. Kris Kross - Jump
76. Blues Traveler - Run-Around
77. Ice Cube - It Was a Good Day
78. Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way
79. Meredith Brooks - B****
80. Right Said Fred - I'm Too Sexy
81. Paula Cole - I Don't Want to Wait
82. Geto Boys - Mind Playing Tricks on Me
83. The Breeders - Cannonball
84. Snow - Informer
85. Cypress Hill - Insane In The Brain
86 The Cranberries - Linger
87. Billy Ray Cyrus - Achy Breaky Heart
88. Duncan Sheik - Barely Breathing
89. Liz Phair - Never Said
90. New Radicals - You Get What You Give
91. Sarah McLachlan - Building a Mystery
92. Public Enemy - 911 Is A Joke
93. Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories - Stay
94. Fastball - The Way
95. Montell Jordan - This is How We Do It
96. Nelson - (Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection
97. Prince & The New Power Generation - Gett Off
98. EMF - Unbelievable
99. Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott - The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)
100. Gerardo - Rico Suave
http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/the_greatest/127759/episode_featured_copy.jhtml

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, January 15th. Charlie Brown (Be My Valentine Charlie Brown), Criss Angel: Mindfreak (Season Three), The New Adventures Of Old Christine (Season One), The Rockford Files (Season Five), The Royle Family (Season Two), Sabrina The Teenage Witch (Season Three).

You Tube Video Of The Week:
I got good feedback from the Conan clip last week and I thought these next ones were funnier. So, here you go. Conan continues to entertain himself during the writers strike. Two very funny clips.


That is it for another week. Wishing you a great weekend!! Take care and God bless!!

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